I have been experimenting with vitualising my whole Windows desktop and using either VMWare or VirtualBox to virtualise and run in Linux.

My main problem is that the 3D CAD requires Direct X and fast 3D using the graphics card. Also multi core hyperthreading is useful if I have FEA to do, or complex engineering tasks.

I have found VMWare to be superior to VirtualBox currently to migrate to Linux and my exisiting engineering software. But I feel that as things stand, it is not quite ready to make the full leap to opensource. Any comments would be helpful?

MS is using Novell to sponsor and develop a second class citizen.
Mono is having troubles keeping pace with .NET and reported to be slightly incompatible with it. There are now two versions of Mono or .net (don’t know which one). An ecma version and a version with all the stuff that make windows apps work, winforms, wpf, etc…
There are good reasons for avoiding .NET:
Native C++ code is much, much better (faster, portable).
(Because .NET is a virtual machine.)
If you need cross-platform distributing one-package.
use Java, or another language that has it’s own package-format and binary format or source (scripting languages e.g. python).
Or what about using some other toolkit for UI and stuff e.g. Qt with Qt designer.
There are other IDE’s than Visual Studio, e.g. Eclipse, Netbeans, Code::Blocks.
And other compilers: GCC, intel linux compiler, Virtual Machine for languages such as Java.

Checking if stuff works on Linux before installing it is a crucial thing for Linux adoption. And is very useful, please keep up the attention for this good way of thinking(testing before deploying).
Also something for administrators in business and for developers.

It’s more efficient and good for FOSS if people spend their time improving Linux instead of wasting time porting so as to add value to monopoly platforms where the apps do not lie on solid open fair ground.

Mono Tools for Visual Studio will help you port your .NET applications to Linux without leaving Visual Studio.

More here: http://go-mono.com/monovs/

:-)

Linux keeps getting better.

I might try migrating again if I found good GUI-based firewall (and antivirus) programs that work like the counterparts in Windows world (asking permissions for programs to connect online when the programs first try to do that).

That makes you look bad and makes Linux look like it cant work.

Pick your windows to linux battles carefully. Aim for a few servers, and maybe some workstations that have minimal needs and compatible hardware. Its important they see it as a simple solution and that it works right away – no fooling around. It’s funny, but people are fine with the flakiness of windows, but balk when something new comes along, even if it’s better. Little nagging windows annoyances, will become show stoppers on Linux. Change is bad…. Unless it’s really really good, right away.

A kiosk at the reception desk is perfect. Load it with eye candy featuring your company’s logo everywhere. Need a presentation computer? Old laptop with Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org – because “OpenOffice is more compatible with Microsoft Office than Microsoft Office is.” Make sure they see it work – Just like windows, except cooler. And let them know it was free. say it plainly, no fan fare no geek details, just say “yeah, it’s open source, it will open all the microsoft formats plus some they forgot.”

Saving money by moving to linux wont make you a hero if you have to reinvent some wheel that the company has been using successfully for years. Spending the savings in workarounds and consultant time will not be looked upon favorably.

Also I would be very careful how you present Linux. Simply saying “we’ll save money” isn’t enough. Talking tech to the decision maker is also the wrong way to go. It will make non techies feel dumb and anything that makes them feel dumb will be killed of quickly.

Instead take the seducer’s approach and drop little hints here and there. “Hmmm, Outlook’s acting strange again? Funny, my linux desktop doesn’t do that. Man it stinks having to pay all that money for buggy software. Let me see if there is a fix or patch from Microsoft.”

Be smart and dumb down the tech and crank up the non-tech benefits. Word choice is critical. Use words like flexible, smoother, elegant – those type words, words that evoke good feelings. Words they wish were used to describe themselves.

Moving to Linux is a years long project. It takes a long time to turn a big ship, and corporations aren’t any different.

Read, learn, practice with virtual machines, and be ready to drive that Linux Wedge into the environment ONLY when it will be practical and ONLY when it will work as expected to fulfill a need.

An example would be, when your client or boss wants to be able to share docs or share email with a partner company, or wants a separate email domain. You say “Well, we could do it with our current server, but we’ll have to add licenses and then it will take some extra config to make sure they cant see this or that…. Or I could throw up a webmail server and a web file server which would be totally separate… of course I’ll use some open source tools to do that so our initial costs are minimal. ” and then do scalix and alfresco.

Once the boss starts to get his head around “open source” and starts to see the enterprise quality software it really is, he’ll be more open to it down the road. In fact you’ll start to hear things like, “Cant we do a linux thing for this project?”

Note that they wont fully understand Linux or OSS, and don’t try to educate them. They need only know it works great and that it saves money and that they were smart for thinking of it.

Unless you are Less Paul Guitars, don’t waste time on the Non-Microsoft shop dream. The reality is it wont happen. Less was an unusual case with a very driven man at the helm. You probably don’t have that, and you probably don’t have Less Paul’s budget.

You can hope for a lot of linux. Use caution and use it, only where it works and makes sense. Otherwise you make Linux look bad, and you make yourself look bad.

Earl