When to NOT recommend Linux desktop solutions!

My mom always told me: "..Andrew, there's a time and a place for everything..". Usually she said this when I was doing something that I definitely was NOT supposed to be doing!...like playing soccer in the kitchen with the dog while she was trying to make dinner...

I think that we can all agree that Linux is great, right? Well, there are always going to be situations where Linux is simply not the answer. For example: My parents had a workstation that had gone belly-up and were in need of a replacement. Great! Linux to the rescue!

...or so I thought...

The problem was, my dad ONLY knows Windows XP. The ONLY thing he knows how to do is double-click on Internet Exploder, select his drf.com (horse racing site) and look at the track entries for that day, then watch the race via streaming video.

Simple enough task no? Well, I went about installing the latest stable version of Ubuntu and everything was going fine. The problem was: It was different. Not really the usage of the O/S or the browser...but the 'little things'. Icons were different. Programs had different names. The windows looked different. It was, as he put it, just "weird" and he didn't "know it".

After 5 minutes he gave up. I was devastated.

Immediately I dove into technical manuals and man pages thinking that I could find the solution in there, as I often do...The problem was, there WAS no technical answer.

The answer was simply: "Linux was not the answer"

This story reminded me of some other things to take into consideration BEFORE recommending a Linux-based desktop solution:

• Can you provide the additional support the client will need?

• Are there business procedures written specifically for the operating system?

• Are they open-minded?

• Is the $$$ savings on licensing enough to justify losses in time when learning new technologies?

• Do they even have time to learn a new O/S? How much time will it take to retrain?

• Is the nature of their business DEPENDENT on their computing platform?

Obviously this is only scratching the surface and there are myriads of things to consider when investing in newer, better technologies such as Linux. Hopefully this will get everyone thinking the next time a client "...needs a new desktop...quick!".