Satisfy from Linux: Who switched from Windows to Linux Network?

[Tatja]

Hi all,
i try to satisfy the management of our university department from using linux. First i try to replace some Windows2003/2008 servers with samba and then try to switch as much as workstations from Win7 as possible to linux.
we have 50 win7 workstations for the staff and 100 for the students. here in germany some big cities tried to switch to linux but microsoft did the job i have heard that the government in some african and latin american cities is using linux also the police in caracas.
most of the it administrators here say that if you are using win7 workstations you need active directory for the management and the others say that there is no way to avoid microsoft office.
are there any case studies of successful switching from microsoft to linux and is there anybody who is using only linux servers in an windows network?
thank you in advance for your help!
p.s. in my childrens school they say if the kids aren`t learning to use ms office they will have no chance on the job market...

[jayd512]

Hello there! Welcome to LinuxForums!

There are documented cases where a great many agencies have made a switch to a Linux system... and most of those happened quite smoothly.
Several school systems here in the US, different sections of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Various branches of the government as well.

As far as Linux servers in a Windows work environment... ISP's would be a great example of that.
Windows based workstations all running on Linux servers... Debian, SLED and RHEL all have a major part in that market.
Another example... I just started in a new position that uses a Windows XP thin client running atop a SLED OS.

Others here might chime in with more info.

[MASONTX]

If you go to distrowatch.com and browse through the different distro's, you will see that several of them were designed for different governmental and educational use in Spain. If yous search for country of origin, Germany, a number of distro's were written in Germany. Some selected ones:

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