Giving up on Microsoft software for work - 18 months on

By Nick Hortovanyi

Its been 18 months or so, since I started on "Giving up on Microsoft software for work". It has been an interesting adventure, one fraught with skepticism from some, but with joy from myself. The big question I faced then was, "Was it possible to work without using Microsoft software?". The answer has been a profound "Yes", from a pure do things to get work done point of view, but "No"
from getting billable work.

I'm still using a nice 17" Mac Book Pro and have been very impressed with it. During the time I've had it, a new version of Mac OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard, has been released and the system is still performing fine with the hardware. I've had next to no trouble and everything is working great. Apple have even opened retail stores here in Australia.

This photo is from my recent Sydney trip (the store was extremely busy inside):

Our servers run linux of various flavours - SuSE Linux, RedHat and Ubuntu. Some are on-premise and some are off-premise on Amazon EC2. Email, calender, documents use Google Docs and our CRM is Salesforce.com. Its our intent, that unless it is a client end user machine, that as existing hardware reaches end-of-life, new hardware will not be purchased. However, cloud infrastructure will be utilised.

What has surprised me immensely, during this time, is even though we use no Microsoft software, how dominant it is on-premise. Even with the ill fated Microsoft Vista operating system, corporates aren't moving away from Microsoft in the vast majority of environments that I'm engaged with in my local state of South Australia. Sure there are a few linux servers but they appear to be the exception to the rule. Why?

Lets look at servers quickly. Why isn't linux deployed more often? The two main reasons appear to be that existing support contracts with the outsourcer doesn't allow it (well change the contract is my normal response) and secondly that there aren't enough trained administrators (it doesn't take long to train them). But its more then what I have just mentioned, its also somewhat religious. Its like a fraternity, an old school boys club to some degree, with the managers choosing the technology based on relationships and maybe not on technical merit to get the job done in an efficient & cost effective means. A large outsourcer here in Adelaide (anybody living here will know that it is HP Enterprise Services, formerly EDS) seem to promote Microsoft at the exclusion of Linux. Is this to keep others such as IBM out? Who knows!

Choosing Microsoft as the operating system on the server, invariable also means that only Microsoft development languages and tools will be used.

Lets look on the client. The desktops are running Windows 2003/XP etc in these corporates environments. There may be a few Macs, but they will be with marcommspeople, if they have these in house. Whats surprising though, is that mobile devices, will be a mixture of different vendors, including Apple's iPhone. The iPhone is appearing in the hands of many executive managers.

What I have not looked into, in great detail, is besides Microsoft Office, what are the applications that are running on these desktops? Are they installed natively, are they supplied through a Citrix server or are they web based? The later, is how the majority of applications, that I interact with, have been deployed in recent years. They work in most of the popular browsers, independent of anyone type of desktop. Invariably, they will also have a desktop version that works on Mac, Windows or Linux desktops.

So what is going on with the desktop in these corporates? (Oh, I don't use Microsoft Office either and can write documents, do spreadsheets and prepare/present presentations.)

How old are these applications that only work on Microsoft desktops? Do they still satisfy the business requirements? Has the initial investment been written off? Why aren't they being modernised and turned into web based applications? Are the users complaining that they are unproductive because of the outdated interface?

Some interesting questions. To me if they aren't being asked, or when people ask them, they are being squashed. It suggests that the organisation is stuck in support mode, looking to preserve the status quo. Those that can drive the change, to innovate, to progress forward to the next paradigm will get frustrated and leave.

This is what happens with myself, when people say the solution has to be Microsoft based and linux, or other alternatives can't be considered. To me it is yesterday's thinking.

So even though, I myself have been very successful in giving up on Microsoft software for work, from an acquiring work perspective from potential prospects in my current geography, it is not presently a positive.

Tags work linux windows microsoft consulting apple   |  Comments 0

Working virtual, some observations

By Nick Hortovanyi

We're an organisation that does not have a physical fixed office, where we have offices, that we frequent during the normal business week during office hours. Our normal working day, is not defined by entry through a door into a building, after a journey either by car, bicycle or public transport.

How does our working day start? Well for the most part, for myself, it is when I log into the online services that I utilise. This normally means waking my Mac Book Pro up by lifting the lid. For some of the others that work with me, or have in the past, it is when they log into our private Lotus Sametime (instant messaging) server. 

In the past, I have gone months without actually meeting others, in the real world that I'm working with. When I inform, some of the more senior managers, that I engage with about this, they are normally very intrigued. I don't think many as yet, have tried to manage staff that way. I must say, and think some that have worked with me, would agree, that at times it has been interesting .

There have been a few times, where the only way to communicate an idea, has required using either screen sharing or white boards, as it becomes too difficult through Instant Messaging alone. On the odd occassion, to be different, meeting in person has happened, but it is the exception not the rule. There are various reasons for this, but for the most part, it is natural to get used to working from where you want to. To meet, requires travel time, and this disrupts concentration and thought processes.

For some reading this, this is just the normal way of working, everything is online and available, from whichever location that you are at, at that moment. I have a 3G USB Modem, and can access my communication tools, from everywhere that I frequent.

What I like about working virtual:

• Can drink the coffee I want to, when I want to
• Am able to use the online tools that I feel are most appropriate without the threat of them being turned off eg Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, LinkedIn
• Don't spend a lot of time each day traveling to and fro
• Achieve considerable output, but is somewhat bursty in nature
• Meet interesting people online, who are in the same situation
  
• Spend more time, with partners and long term customers, in cafes around Adelaide
• Business wise, I believe as we have less fixed assets, we have better performing financials based on metrics, such as ROA (maybe not so based on pure sales data)
• Less formality, thus affording more time to learn and experiment with ideas
  
• Enables us to work effectively with people in different geographic
  locations then our selves and potentially different timezones (as long
  as there is some overlap)
  
  

What I dislike about working virtual:

• Sometimes, there is an urge just to talk to someone during the work day (twitter and funnies, don't replace some of the human emotions of interaction)
• Need clear frequent goals to be set, hard to monitor progress as you can not look over shoulder
  
• Staff that are working on a part time basis, when not sure how to progress, ignore your voice mails, and respond by email - thus people can sometimes over rely on emoticons to understand mood
• Not having think time, whilst listening to the radio in the car, with travel
• Missing subtleties of facial expression in communication - emoticons and tone (verbal and written), can miss things
• Parking inspectors, who leave fines on your windscreen, when you have been talking for too long at the cafe
  

For the most part, I believe the positives outweight the negatives. I'm hearing now, that businesses are starting to realise that they need to assemble teams, from the best talent pools, that they presently have available. This is now spanning time zones and geographic terriortories, not just allowing people to work remotely in the same city.

What experiences have you had? How have you overcome obstacles?

Tags work environment virtual   |  Comments 5

Giving up on Microsoft software for work - initial status report

By Nick Hortovanyi

My monitor blanked out on my Windows XP based IBM T42p Thinkpad. Worry crossed my mind, as I thought the machine had died. Quickly, I realised that the monitor had turned itself off for no reason. I rebooted (as it was a Windows machine) and the system came back.

I didn't think much more about it, until about two and half weeks ago, when it started happening again. I would press FN+F3 and eventually the display would return. This worked for a couple of days, until I was performing the reset every few minutes. At that point the system was no longer usable.

I moved over to my OpenSuSe 10.3 Linux desktop and decided to retire the Windows XP Thinkpad. We already run all our servers on Linux. So "Yes", I decided to make the move away from Microsoft software for work as well as general desktop computing. This was going to be interesting.

Now, I had a Desktop back and quickly got my Email, Lotus Sametime and Skype working. I hit a little bit of a hurdle with twhirl, an Adobe AIR based application, for twitter. I'd become fond of this product, but I couldn't seem to find an install for Linux. I raised a question on twitter and @aqualung came up with the solution. Adobe had an Alpha version of the product for Linux. Downloaded and setup the Linux version and then proceeded to install twhirl. It worked, I was now happy to hear those little beeps again.

This was completed on 3rd May 2008, I raised it on twitter that I was going Microsoft Free. Of course there was someone, @NickHodge who responded that they would try and be the opposite. Just for information, I questioned him a day later and he was not able to work exclusively with Microsoft software.

I was very surprised with the improvements in Open Office and have been able to perform all activities necessary with it for a full work week, two weeks straight. I love the ability to be able to produce a PDF from within it. One thing that I would have liked was integration with WebSphere Portal - PDM (Portal Document Manager) and Open Office/Nautilus File Manager. IBM is this going to be available in the next version of WebSphere Portal?

Working virtual, I need to be able to pick up my work environment and go on-premise on the odd occasion. Either for consulting work or to give a presentation. So I wanted to get a new notebook. What was I going to do? Buy a standard notebook with Windows Vista installed or look at an Apple Mac Book Pro?

It would be a big commitment going down the Apple path, but I knew if I absolutely needed to I could also run the Windows operating systems through either Parallels or VMWare Fusion for Mac OS X. So I thought, well lets go get some pricing for a Mac Book Pro. (wow uncanny, as I'm writing this, the Apple commercial - PC vs Mac just came on the TV - Prime Time).

I've ordered a 17" Mac Book Pro with the higher resolution screen, 4 GB of memory and the 7200 RPM 200GB hard drive (got a good price). I've also purchased the Apple Time Capsule, which acts as a back up drive and a WiFi router.  Information on your notebook is so valuable, and this in conjunction with the Time Machine capability of Mac OS X, seemed to address the worry that crossed my mind previously.

Through my investigations into who is using Mac OS X based machines, I have found that within certain circles of associates, that I know, I will be the last person to acquire a Mac Book Pro. Now this surprised me, as normally I try and be at the leading edge. I'm not normally known as being a laggard.

Did I fire up the Windows XP Notebook over the last couple of weeks and use it through the external monitor? Yes, a couple of times, to retrieve some data that I had not copied off and also to gather some user ids and passwords for some sites stored in Mozilla Firefox. However, I performed the actual work activity on the Linux machine.

So after two weeks, I have been able to work without Microsoft software to perform my normal business activities. I've had some teething problems, but have always been able to solve the problem myself or gain assistance to find a resolution.

I'm looking forward to using the Mac OS X on the Mac Book Pro, it should be a little more productive then the OpenSuSE Linux Desktop. Next status report will be on my experiences with Apple.

Tags status+report microsoft productivity apple work linux   |  Comments 3