[AccessD] And this just in...

Hi Doug

Same here. If it is not Windows, it is Mac as many of our clients are into advertising and TV/movie production. Some had Novell NetWare servers but the only running server left is our own NetWare 6.5 server and it will be phased out this year. It is back up only now; file services were moved a couple of years ago to Windows 2008 and the fantastic DFS file replication system (highly recommended), and mail have just been moved to Office 365.

My big client (retail with 40000+ employees) is Microsoft/Citrix only with the exception of an old IBM mainframe that is about to be replaced by a huge SAP and SQL Server on-site setup. Mail has just been changed from Notes to Exchange with core users on-premise and all others on Office 365. No Linux here.

/gustav

________________________________________
Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com <accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> på vegne af Doug Steele <dbdoug at gmail.com>
Sendt: 2. marts 2014 04:49
Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Emne: Re: [AccessD] And this just in...

I'm just throwing this out as an observation, but in my 20+ years of
computing, I've never actually encountered a computer running Unix/Linux
(other than during the one day course I took on it about 15 years ago :) ).

The one (world class) research lab I know about uses Macs.

The multinational company I've done Access dbs for is Microsoft all the way.

The mining/engineering company I worked for went from IBM System 3 to
Windows. The requirements they have for Excel processing and Autocad make
Windows compulsory.  If you have Windows requirements like they do, going
to Linux/Wine just makes one more expensive layer; the cost for support
personnel is probably an order of magnitude higher than the savings on
software.

Your mileage obviously varies!

Doug


On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 5:25 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Arthur:
>
> Very good questions? Sorry but I just don't know.
>
> Putting this all in context asks more questions than it gives answers.
> Considering, that most big businesses, all fortune 500 companies and all
> research labs predominantly use Linux as their main OS, there should be
> limited fear of the product. Linux's speed, security and stability is
> unmatched...
>
> IMHO, Microsoft's hundreds of millions being spent on advertising their
> products versus Linux which spends virtual nothing may have something to do
> with it.
>
> Note: LibraOffice can comfortably fill the needs of any MS Office user
> with the exception of maybe MS Access but as you pointed out Wine to the
> rescue.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Saturday, March 1, 2014 10:02:37 AM
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] And this just in...
>
> Jim and John,
>
> Why would any large firm such as an international bank invest in any
> version of Windows? This I simply cannot fathom. There are many versions of
> Linux that are available free; couple that with OfficeLibre and you've
> covered about 90% of the user base. If you want custom apps written
> originally for Office (e.g. Acess or Word etc.), then install Wine.
>
> Frankly, I have lost interest in, and no longer can see a business case
> for, any Windows installation, regardless of which version. AFAICS, there
> is no reason for this OS to live, other than gravitational pull.
>
> Personally, I have moved to Ubuntu and Oracle VirtualBox with an instance
> of Office 2007 installed there, in case something crops up that I can't
> handle otherwise. Those instances grow fewer and fewer as each day passes.
>
> Arthur
>
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