On Wed, Jan 09, 2002 at 03:21:56PM +0000, whisper wrote:
> Also, how have people gotten Linux in the doors at companies like this. We
> have very leary managers who still equate free software with cheap software,
> no matter how much time I tell them otherwise. I'm currently lobbying to
> get some distributions looked at to help preform specific tasks, such as
> simple data entry, and then branch out from there. Getting it into server
> positions is probably not going to happen, unless it will play _extremely_
> well with AD and NDS. Any other suggestions for how to get it brought in?
Not a specific suggestion, but a general one:
Don't approach the situation as if you are a Linux advocate, but
rather that you think you have stumbled on a way to save the company
time/money. Set up a scenario where you can go to someone and say,
"Look, let's try this on the {1|5|50|whatever} workstations, because
if it works it would be a way to save {$x boatloads}. If it doesn't
work, we haven't lost anything."
Just make sure to think it through before setting up a rigged bet.
But when it works, the managers involved get to take at least part of
the credit for the success. *That's* what it takes to get momentum
going. It's not loyalty to M$ that has them where they are, it's fear
of having *no* system that drives much of this, and no one really
knowing where else to turn. That and business people authorizing IS
purchases, when they aren't qualified -- but that goes back to the
50's -- DEC called their machines PDP (Programmed Data Processor)
rather than computer, because people could order something called a
PDP and get a purchase order, but "computer" meant "IBM." :)
It's the same game -- "diplomacy is the art of letting other people
get _your_ way."
--
"Trying to do something with your life is like
sitting down to eat a moose." --Douglas Wood