![Technical Workstations
The technical workstation user is the most likely early-adopter of the Linux desk-
top. They are usually of a high technical aptitude and use their desktops for a vari-
ety of applications that involve application development or computations. They
also may be systems administrators or researchers who use computation software
that has high processing needs. One common example of a technical workstation
user that benefits from Linux is the one who has access to a very powerful set of
tools including those used for programming and application development or those
used for highly processor-intensive applications.
Example: Technical Workstation Users: Movie Animators
In the days of Walt Disney® and Mickey Mouse®, animation was the result of
teams of artists drawing sequence after sequence of movements, giving still pictures
life when they where played in rapid succession. That task today is being greatly
supplemented with computers. Dreamworks®, the immensely successful movie
company, was using IRIX workstations manufactured by Silicon Graphics Incor-
porated (SGI) before making the movie Shrek. They investigated Linux worksta-
tions on HP hardware to complete Shrek. Soon after they made Spirit: Stallion of
the Cimmarron, Linux had become the desktop standard because it could handle
the complex math that was used in “ray tracing,” the method animators use to cre-
ate, or render, animation. The result of this cost-efficient powerhouse use allowed
for an additional element in realism. For example, in the movie Toy Story the
backgrounds were static, but in Shrek the background moved as plants blew in the
breeze. Linux on commodity hardware offered a better value than a commercial
solution on commercial hardware. In this case, the commercial OS wasn’t Win-
dows but the logic remains the same: open systems on commodity hardware can
and will reduce costs [Turner04].
Other examples of technical workstation users include systems administrators
and programmers. For many users the sticking point isn’t the functionality of the
underlying Linux operating system but application availability. In the technical
workstation market this is not usually the case. The tools that this class of user
needs are usually available for Linux workstations, especially when it comes to com-
pilers like the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), which currently contains front
ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada. The collection is a very com-
prehensive tool set free of royalties so they aren’t costing development labs on a per
seat licensing basis. If that isn’t enough, there are plenty of programming IDEs (In-
tegrated Development Environments) that are available for Linux, including emacs,
Eclipse, and Netbeans for Java. Besides the programming tools there are a number
Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 29](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/539539-250701112343-e44efa3b/85/Windows-To-Linux-Business-Desktop-Migration-1st-Edition-Mark-Hinkle-52-320.jpg)
![of network and administrative tools that are available for free. For network admin-
istrators you can find a virtually unlimited supply of tools to troubleshoot and
manage networks, including the following:
SSH: Secure Shell is a secure connectivity protocol that allows the user to
connect to servers with an encrypted connection, which replaces less secure
protocols like telnet.
Ethereal: A network protocol analyzer to troubleshoot and analyze network
traffic.
AMANDA: The Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Archiver is a backup
server that system administrators can use to back up multiple hosts. It can be used
to back up all the PCs on a LAN, but also serves well for most any PC or server.
OpenNMS: OpenNMS is a network management system that fills three func-
tional areas: service polling, which monitors service levels of services on a net-
work; performance, where data is collected via SNMP and from remote
systems; and event management, which includes a notification system for net-
work events.
Many of these tools offer equivalent or better alternatives or meet minimum needs
at much lower prices then their expensive commercial equivalents. Overall, today’s
technical workstation user may be just as well or better served by the Linux desk-
top than by Windows.
Single-Application Kiosks or Fixed-Use PCs
Kiosks, or single-task PCs, are used throughout a variety of businesses. The kiosk is
probably one of the most attractive uses for a Linux PC. Take the example of the
Point of Sale (POS) terminal, where users have a very limited application set or
even a single application. The terminal is used by multiple users, such as in a cash
register type of setup; downtime has a direct effect on sales and customer service. A
Linux terminal makes perfect sense for this application because its high availability
means it is likely that updates can be processed without interrupting operations.
Also, since the Linux has a multiuser heritage, it lends itself to multiple cashiers log-
ging into the same PC as happens in retail outlets. Point of Sale applications can
then reside on a network and personnel can connect to them over the network.
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation recognized the value of using
Linux desktops for their retail business in 1998 when they made the decision to in-
vestigate Linux as the operating system to host their Point of Sale applications. By
2002 they had migrated an average of 15 cash registers in 350 stores to PCs running
Linux [Silwa03].
30 Linux Business Desktop Migration](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/539539-250701112343-e44efa3b/85/Windows-To-Linux-Business-Desktop-Migration-1st-Edition-Mark-Hinkle-53-320.jpg)
![Knowledge Workers
Knowledge workers are those users who use their desktop computer as a primary
part of their job. They likely use a group of core applications including a full office
suite that at least includes a word processor and spreadsheet. They access the World
Wide Web through a Web browser and they send email. In addition to this group
of core applications, these knowledge workers most likely use applications that are
specific to their enterprise or industry. These knowledge workers are the hardest to
pigeonhole because of their diversity. They are also the most complex and risky
candidates for Windows-to-Linux migration. Despite the fact that knowledge
workers can be the most complex implementations, knowledge workers can and do
successfully implement Linux desktops.
Task-Based Workers
Narrow task-oriented workers, sometimes referred to as transactional workers, use
their PCs to do very repetitive tasks. Because the vast majority of their work relies
on doing the same thing over and over again, it also stands to reason that they use
one or two applications very heavily and others less frequently. Any computer users
that do the same thing on few applications, such as telemarketers and medical
records transcription staff, would be good cases for Linux migration. Also, since
these limited task-oriented users have modest needs, consider whether their hard-
ware will need to change significantly over the upcoming years. Given that their
tasks change very little, if at all, evaluate whether improvements in hardware may
have little affect on their productivity. Operating system upgrades may not be a
function of the users’ needs, but of the vendor’s need to attract new buyers by
adding new features that may not add any value to those already using their prod-
ucts. In this case, consumers may be coerced into an operating system upgrades
cycle as support for past operating systems is dropped. Linux, on the other hand,
could offer the freedom of numerous software vendors who compete to support
your needs.
The German import company Heinz Tröber chose to run its ERP software on
Linux rather than Microsoft Windows, citing frequent crashes and wasted time by
employees waiting for recovery as reasons for exploring alternatives. Its solution
was to move to a thin client computing solution of Linux hosted on IBM servers
and redisplayed via X Windows to “dumb terminals” running Linux. Feedback
was very positive regarding the reduction in crashes in comparison to the previous
Windows solution[Marson05].
Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 31](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/539539-250701112343-e44efa3b/85/Windows-To-Linux-Business-Desktop-Migration-1st-Edition-Mark-Hinkle-54-320.jpg)
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- 6. WINDOWS TO LINUX BUSINESS DESKTOP MIGRATION
- 7. LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY THE CD-ROM THAT ACCOMPANIES THE BOOK MAY BE USED ON A SINGLE PC ONLY. THE LICENSE DOES NOT PERMIT THE USE ON A NETWORK (OF ANY KIND). YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT THIS LICENSE GRANTS PERMISSION TO USE THE PRODUCTS CONTAINED HEREIN, BUT DOES NOT GIVE YOU RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP TO ANY OF THE CONTENT OR PRODUCT CONTAINED ON THIS CD-ROM. USE OF THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE CONTAINED ON THIS CD-ROM IS LIMITED TO AND SUBJECT TO LICENSING TERMS FOR THE RESPECTIVE PRODUCTS. CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. (“CRM”) AND/OR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE WRITING, CREATION, OR PRODUCTION OF THE ACCOMPA- NYING CODE (“THE SOFTWARE”) OR THE THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS CON- TAINED ON THE CD-ROM OR TEXTUAL MATERIAL IN THE BOOK, CANNOT AND DO NOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED BY USING THE SOFTWARE OR CONTENTS OF THE BOOK. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF THE TEXTUAL MATERIAL AND PROGRAMS CONTAINED HEREIN. WE HOWEVER, MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE PROGRAMS OR CON- TENTS. THE SOFTWARE IS SOLD “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY (EXCEPT FOR DEFECTIVE MATERIALS USED IN MANUFACTURING THE DISK OR DUE TO FAULTY WORKMANSHIP). THE AUTHOR, THE PUBLISHER, DEVELOPERS OF THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE, AND ANYONE INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING OF THIS WORK SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF (OR THE INABILITY TO USE) THE PROGRAMS, SOURCE CODE, OR TEXTUAL MATERIAL CONTAINED IN THIS PUBLICATION. THIS INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF REVENUE OR PROFIT, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE PRODUCT. THE SOLE REMEDY IN THE EVENT OF A CLAIM OF ANY KIND IS EXPRESSLY LIMITED TO REPLACEMENT OF THE BOOK AND/OR CD-ROM, AND ONLY AT THE DISCRETION OF CRM. THE USE OF “IMPLIED WARRANTY” AND CERTAIN “EXCLUSIONS” VARIES FROM STATE TO STATE, AND MAY NOT APPLY TO THE PURCHASER OF THIS PRODUCT.
- 8. WINDOWS TO LINUX BUSINESS DESKTOP MIGRATION MARK HINKLE CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. Hingham, Massachusetts
- 9. Copyright 2006 by THOMSON DELMAR LEARNING. Published by CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way, stored in a retrieval system of any type, or transmitted by any means or media, electronic or mechanical, including, but not limited to, photocopy, recording, or scanning, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Cover Design: Tyler Creative CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. 10 Downer Avenue Hingham, Massachusetts 02043 781-740-0400 781-740-8816 (FAX) crminfo@thomson.com www.charlesriver.com This book is printed on acid-free paper. Mark Hinkle. Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration. ISBN: 1-58450-422-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hinkle, Mark R. Windows to Linux business desktop migration / Mark R. Hinkle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58450-422-6 (alk. paper) 1. Linux. 2. Microsoft Windows (Computer file) 3. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title. QA76.76.O63H5725 2006 005.4'32--dc22 2005031782 All brand names and product names mentioned in this book are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. Any omission or misuse (of any kind) of service marks or trademarks should not be regarded as intent to infringe on the property of others. The publisher recognizes and respects all marks used by companies, manufacturers, and developers as a means to distin- guish their products. Printed in the United States of America 05 7 6 5 4 3 2 First Edition CHARLES RIVER MEDIA titles are available for site license or bulk purchase by institutions, user groups, corporations, etc. For additional information, please contact the Special Sales Depart- ment at 781-740-0400. Requests for replacement of a defective CD-ROM must be accompanied by the original disc, your mailing address, telephone number, date of purchase and purchase price. Please state the nature of the problem, and send the information to CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC., 10 Downer Avenue, Hingham, Massachusetts 02043. CRM’s sole obligation to the purchaser is to replace the disc, based on defective materials or faulty workmanship, but not on the operation or function- ality of the product. eISBN: 1-58450-650-4
- 10. Preface xvii Part I Developing a Linux Desktop Strategy 1 1 Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 3 Understanding the Costs of the Desktop 4 Computing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 4 Licensing and Royalties 5 Open Source 6 Free Open Source Software Applications (FOSS) 7 The Free Software Movement 7 The Open Source Definition 10 Common Licenses Used for Desktop Linux Software 10 Single Vendor Dependence 12 Length of Product Usable Life 13 Windows 95 released August 1995—Minimum Hardware Requirements 14 Windows 98 released June 1998—Minimum Hardware Requirements 14 Windows 2000 released February 2000—Minimum Hardware Requirements 14 Windows XP released October 2001—Minimum Hardware Requirements 15 Up Time/Productivity 15 Stability 16 Viruses 17 Security 17 Contents v
- 11. Open Source Development Model 18 Linux Design 19 Server Evolution versus Desktop Evolution 21 Momentum 21 Summary 22 Other Resources 23 References 23 2 Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 25 Needs Analysis 26 Profiles of the Desktop Users 27 Hardware Interoperability 33 Linux Application Planning 38 Taking an Application Inventory and Determining Usage Patterns 38 Linux Migration via Web-Based Applications 40 Rewriting Applications 40 Acquiring Expertise 41 Look for Local Expertise: Linux Users Groups (LUGs) 41 Training and Certification 42 End User Training 44 Support Infrastructure 44 Do-IT-Yourself (DIY) with In-House IT Staff 45 Outsourced Support 45 Summary 45 Other Resources 46 References 47 3 Preparing for Your Linux Migration 49 Inflection Points Provide Logical Opportunities for Migration 50 Utility in Desktop Computing 51 vi Contents
- 12. Staging Open Source Applications on Windows 52 Office Suites 52 Web Browsers 54 The OpenCD Project 56 File- and Print-Sharing Conversions or Accommodations 57 Hardware Redeploy or Buy Decisions 57 Redeployment 58 End User Acceptance 60 Environment Familiarity 61 Technology Acceptance Model 61 Summary 62 Other Resources 62 References 62 Part II Linux Desktop Deployment Tactics 65 4 Live Linux CD-ROMs 67 Live Linux Filesystem CD-ROM Distributions 68 How Live Linux CD-ROMs Work 71 Linux Test Drive 72 Evaluating Applications and Document Compatibility 73 Testing Office Document Compatibility with Linux 74 Training Labs 75 IT Tool Kit with Linux 76 Diagnostic Tools 76 Identifying PCI Cards 76 Disk Tools 82 Rescuing Data from a Workstation 85 Security Tools 89 Repurposing Windows PCs 90 Repurposing or Dual Purposing Windows PCs 91 Contents vii
- 13. Building a Thin Client Network with NoMachine and Knoppix 95 Building your own Linux Live Filesystem CD-ROM Distribution 95 Summary 95 Other Resources 96 References 96 5 Linux Desktop Deployment 97 Thick or Thin Desktop Deployments 98 Traditional Computing—Thick Client 99 Thin Client Computing 102 Installing a Thick Client Linux Desktop 104 File System 105 Disk Partitioning 109 Give Your Hard Drive a Kickstart 122 Bootloaders 122 GRUB—Grand Unified Bootloader 123 LILO 125 Fixing Boot Errors 126 Removing the Master Boor Record 126 Logging In 127 Text Login 127 Graphical Login 127 Summary 132 Other Resources 132 6 Using the Linux Desktop 135 Overview of the Linux Environment 137 Permissions—Users and Groups 137 The Command Line Interface 148 Getting Help 153 Installing Programs 155 viii Contents
- 14. Graphical User Interfaces 160 The X Windows System 161 Window Managers 161 GNOME 163 Configuring the GNOME Desktop 164 Nautilus—The GNOME File Manager 168 The GNOME Office Suite 170 KDE 173 Configuring the KDE Desktop 175 Konqueror—The KDE File Manager 176 KOffice 176 KDE Resources 181 Summary 181 Other Resources 182 References 182 7 Linux Business Desktop Applications 183 Core Applications 184 Web Browsers 185 Plug-ins 202 Email 203 Office Suites for the Linux Desktop 208 Miscellaneous Business Applications 213 Dia—An Alternative to Microsoft Visio® 213 Desktop Publishing and Web Authoring 213 Financial 218 Media Players 221 Where to Find Additional Applications 223 SourceForge,net 224 Freshmeat.net 224 Tucows 224 Contents ix
- 15. Summary 224 Other Resources 225 References 226 Part III Supporting the Windows to Linux Migration 227 8 Back-Office Infrastructure 229 Leveraging Your Existing Infrastructure 231 The Seat Licensing Model 231 Heterogenous Network 233 Linux Replacement of Windows Servers 235 Linux Server Distributions 235 Open Source Services for Back Office Infrastructure 238 Samba File and Print Services 238 Directory Services and OpenLDAP 239 Email and Groupware 240 Apache—An Alternative to Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 247 Other Notable Open Source Solutions 249 Browser-Based Server Administration with Webmin 249 YaST—Yet another System Tool 250 Firewalls 250 Virtual Private Networks 254 Squid Proxy Server 254 Alternatives to Microsoft Terminal Services 255 Asterisk Server an Open Source PBX 255 Summary 256 Other Resources 257 References 258 9 Data Migration and Backups 261 Format Conversion 263 x Contents
- 16. Office Documents 265 Migrating Data Off the Windows Desktop 266 Centralizing Data for Dual Boot Users 266 Migrating Email, Calendar, and Contacts 270 Converting Favorites to Bookmarks 274 Other Applications 275 Software that Helps You Migrate Settings and Data 275 Backups 278 Data Location 279 Operating System Backups 279 Backup Software 280 KDar—the KDE Disk Archiver 283 Summary 284 Other Resources 284 10 Migrating Windows Applications to Linux 287 Running Windows Applications on Linux 289 Windows on Linux Desktop Candidates 290 How to Run Windows Applications Natively on Linux 292 Wine—Replacing the Windows API 292 Virtual Machines to Run Windows PCs 298 Connecting to Windows Terminal Services on Linux 306 Windows Terminal Services via RDP 308 Accessing Windows Applications via Citrix 309 Porting Windows Applications to Linux 310 QT 310 GTK+ 310 REALbasic 310 wxWidgets 311 Web Services 311 Summary 312 Contents xi
- 17. Other Resources 313 References 313 11 Thin Client Computing 315 Thin Client Overview 316 Components of a Thin Client Network 317 Advantages of Thin Client Networks 319 Standardization and Implementation of Standards 321 Disadvantages of Thin Client Networks 322 Thin Client and Desktop Implementation Migration Strategy 323 Trial and Pilot Programs 323 Phased in Approach to Migration 324 Recycle Thick Client Workstations 324 Sweet Spots for Thin Client Technology 325 Linux Terminal Services 326 Redisplay Software 327 Free and Open Source Redisplay Mechanisms 328 Commercial Applications 330 Linux Terminal Servers Powered by Windows on Linux Solutions 333 Summary 337 Other Resources 337 12 Additional Resources 339 Web Sites 340 LinuxQuestions.org—www.linuxquestions.org 341 DesktopLinux.com—www.desktoplinux.com 341 Linux Documentation Project—www.tldp.org 342 Linux.com—www.linux.com 342 NewsForge—www.newsforge.com 343 Slashdot—www.slashdot.org 343 Freshmeat—www.freshmeat.net 344 SourceForge—www.sourceforge.net 344 xii Contents
- 18. SearchEnterpriseLinux—www.searchenterpriselinux.com 345 DesktopOS—www.desktopos.org 345 Mailing Lists and Forums 346 Usenet News 346 Linux Users Groups (LUGs) 348 Consultants 348 Summary 348 Other Resources 349 References 350 Appendix A Software Licenses 351 GNU Public License 351 GNU Lesser Public License (GLPL) 357 Mozilla Public License 366 Berkley Software Development License 379 Appendix B Linux Distribution Competitive Analysis 381 Large Enterprise Linux Distributions 382 Small and Medium Business (SMB) Linux Distributions 395 Xandros 397 Linspire 401 Notables 405 Summary 410 Appendix C Case Studies 411 Case Study I—Software Company Saves $400—$500 Per Desktop 411 Case Study II—Patience Pays Off in a Conservative IT Environment 413 Case Study III—Manufacturing Company Converts to Linux Desktops in 120 Days 415 Case Study IV—Local Government Saves $27,000 With Squid/SquidGuard 418 Case Study V—Volunteer Effort Saves a Charter School $145,000 421 Contents xiii
- 19. Case Study VI—State Government Leads the Way with LAMP 423 Case Study VII—OpenNMS for Managed Hosting Company 425 Case Study VIII—City Government Saves with Thin Clients 428 Case Study IX—Linux Thin Clients Best Choice for 1200 Remote Users 430 Case Study X—Gruppo Ventaglio Italian Tour Operator Uses Thin Client 433 Case Study XI—Linux Applications for Homeless Services Agency 435 Case Study XII—Sun Ray Thin-Clients for Netherlands’ Schools 437 References 438 Appendix D Knoppix Quick Start Guide 439 Index 447 xiv Contents
- 20. C hances are that if you are a desktop computer user you are familiar with and probably use one of the Microsoft® Windows® operating systems, as the op- erating systems by Microsoft are the most popular. Windows became the most widely utilized desktop operating system by getting to the PC market early and becoming dominant on the x86 processing platform made popular by Intel® . Over time, Intel was challenged by AMD with competing products, which, along with other market factors, increased competition and led to a consequent reduction in prices for desktop hardware. The emergence of open source applications is dri- ving competition in much the same way in the software market. Open source soft- ware and the popular Linux operating system are emerging as a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Windows and the Apple® Mac OS® on the desktop. The worldwide trend in open source adoption is showing up not only in business, but also in education and government. open source software offers flexibility and value, enabling organizations to provide top notch information technology systems that maximize the value they obtain from their IT budgets. This book will provide you with information about the benefits of Open Source operating systems for desktop computing and supporting infrastructure. Linux has been successful in server deployments. HP reached the milestone of shipping one million Linux servers in the spring of 2005, though the same level of success on the desktop is yet to be seen. Capitalizing on the yet unrealized values of Open Source could potentially yield huge returns to IT consumers, but being prepared starts with doing due diligence on this promising technology. This book does not advocate Linux on the desktop; rather, it provides the tools and background for IT decision makers to evaluate Linux as desktop platform and make decisions on how it could be implemented in their own enterprises. Experimenting with a Linux desktop can give you leverage with vendors by giving you alternatives and flexibility and reduc- ing your dependence on solutions that continually sap your resources with expen- sive upgrades and support costs. Preface xv
- 21. Linux is in a transitional stage, moving from the data center to the desktop. As hardware vendors start to support Linux and more applications become available, PC users will have more choices for their business productivity desktop. However, this transition may follow a slow and steady adoption curve, in contrast to the ex- tremely fast acceptance of the Web by companies in the mid-1990s as an important medium for sales and communication. This trend deserves close scrutiny and re- search such as that presented in the chapters of this book. Microsoft also contends that alternative operating systems may pose a threat to its market share. It noted in its 2003 Annual Report that it was seeing significant competitive pressures from the likes of HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, especially with regard to open source software, and especially with regard Linux. The city of Largo, Florida, announces on its Web site that it runs its desktop in- frastructure on Linux and boasts about the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dol- lars that it has saved over traditional alternatives (City of Largo). The choice is a legitimate one as many organizations have realized. The issue at hand is how to make the leap with as little disruption as possible and in the end realize tangible benefits. The aim of this book is to accomplish three goals: Provide an understanding what justifies a Windows to Linux desktop migration Demonstrate how to form a basic Linux strategy with consideration given to both the benefits and drawbacks of a Linux desktop migration Provide tactics for successfully moving to the Linux desktop from Windows Note that title of the book includes the word “migration,” which implies a journey from one place to another. This book will demonstrate how to safely ac- complish that journey. WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM THIS BOOK? The computer users who will most benefit from this book will be IT professionals who are Windows end-users, and strategists (IT Directors, CIOs, and other decision makers) who want to maximize their desktop computing productivity and reduce their overall IT costs. These readers will have a good understanding of their Windows operating systems but want to make comparisons between the Linux and Windows. This book should be an invaluable resource for readers who want to understand how xvi Preface
- 22. to migrate data and applications to Linux and remain aware of the potential advan- tages and pitfalls when migrating from one platform to another. This book is a guide for users who are looking for a pragmatic way to take advantage of Linux with mini- mal sacrifice. Minimizing disruption factors weighs heavily in a successful Windows- to-Linux strategy. The loss of initial productivity could be a deciding short-term factor for your cost justification analysis. The references and information contained in this book are directed at technology users, but not necessarily at highly skilled or Linux-savvy users who, on their own, have the skills to successfully implement a Linux desktop. STRATEGY AND TACTICS This book offers both strategies to increase your success when implementing a Linux desktop and the tactical advice to enact that strategy, including the best ways to provide equivalent or better desktop environments to your current Windows users. This book will focus on the situations that offer the biggest advantages from the viewpoints of the end-user and the administrator who is responsible for over- all IT costs. The key for a successful implementation of Linux is a sound overall strategy that minimizes disruption and yields an equivalent or improved level of usefulness for desktop computing. There will be cases where Linux may not be the best solution. For example, organizations that have end users who are less techni- cally adept, highly mobile, and who use notebook computers or a large number of peripherals (specifically Windows CE-based peripherals), will probably have a lower rate of success than those with task-based workers who utilize highly repeti- tive, limited scope applications. This book is not a sales pitch on the virtue of Linux desktop operating systems, but rather it is a guide to finding the most advantageous situations for alternative desktop migration to Linux. POINT OF VIEW Subjects are discussed in this book from the point of view of the Windows user or Windows desktop administrator. Regardless of the desktop operating platform, the tasks that PC users want to complete are fairly common. The focus of this book is to help those users continue to maintain their ability to accomplish those tasks on Preface xvii
- 23. the Linux platform using both Open Source and commercial software. Many of the examples provided here will be considered from the perspective of how the task is accomplished in Windows versus how the task can be completed in a Linux envi- ronment or by drawing comparisons between the two systems. A LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM TO BOOT Because many PC users are looking to evaluate their chances of success with Linux this book includes a copy of the popular bootable Linux CD-ROM, Knoppix. The Knoppix CD-ROM is designed to run on most any PC with a bootable CD drive. The Knoppix CD-ROM will allow you to evaluate the merits of Linux by enabling you to boot from the CD drive and then run Linux without interfering with your Windows installation. Because it runs directly from the CD-ROM file system and doesn’t overwrite the Windows hard drive, you can evaluate the Linux environ- ment without disruption. This is advantageous because you can utilize many of the features of Linux, work along with the examples in the book, and take a test run with little risk to your current desktop. Additionally, if you decide to take your eval- uation to the next level, the Knoppix CD-ROM can be used to install Linux side by side with the existing Windows installation. The CD falls under the GNU Public Li- cense (GPL) license and can be copied and redistributed without licensing costs so that many users in the enterprise can benefit from one Linux for just the cost of du- plication of the media . xviii Preface
- 24. D esktop computing plays such a large role in the daily operations of so many businesses that developing a successful strategy for adoption of Linux in the enterprise requires serious thought and research. The first part of this book will discuss the strategies and elements that may influence the decision for Linux desktop adoption. We will be specifically looking at the cost benefit of particular sit- uations throughout the enterprise where Linux can make the biggest positive impact. Strategies for desktop Linux adoption will vary by enterprise. While anecdotal stories and TCO studies are usually good sources of information, you should acknowledge that rarely do the conditions in one organization exactly mimic those in another. As you are reading about desktop strategy, take note where in your enterprise certain advantageous situations arise, and conversely look for potential pitfalls for adoption as noted in the examples. Keeping a few themes in mind as you move for- ward will give you the best perspective on desktop Linux. Desktop Linux is an evolving operating system. As each day passes, more ap- plications become available and significant improvements occur in application quality and operating system enhancements. This is due in large part to a global community comprised of individuals and companies that are contributing im- provements and fixing flaws. At the same time, new users are adopting the operat- ing system and providing demand for these products. This evolution is happening faster in some areas than others, and your research today may indicate that an immediate change in operating system is not warranted, though it will become obvious that it has potential as a future solution. Linux is a moving target and un- derstanding how it may become the ideal solution and watching for that point on the horizon will allow you to capitalize on these events. Part I Developing a Linux Desktop Strategy 1
- 25. Second, future desktop deployments may look different then they do today. Advancement of pervasive network access vis-à-vis wireless connectivity is unfet- tering desktop computing from a hard-wired connection. Thin client computing and other hosted application solutions will allow the enterprise to combine the flexibility of mobile computing with powerful Intel- and AMD-based servers that can provide a great deal of horsepower at minimal cost. By watching trends and re- thinking the way you compute, you may find that a PC with local storage and pro- cessing running a proprietary operating system no longer makes sense. You may come to the realization that to continue to be competitive in business, IT costs must be brought in check and value solutions become the norm rather than leading-edge technologies that offer little return on investment. The following chapters offer a state of the union for Linux combined with for- ward-looking statements on how desktop Linux adoption is progressing. Using Microsoft Windows as a reference, the following strategic look at desktop Linux should offer an understanding of forces affecting Linux on the desktop and provide foreshadowing of the tactics to be discussed later on. 2 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 26. 3 Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 1 L inux migration should be undertaken for one simple reason: to provide greater value to your current enterprise. A “holy war” fired by anti-Microsoft sentiment can cloud judgment on what truly constitutes a good reason for Linux migration. Understanding the foundations of a good business decision is crucial when you begin to investigate an alternative operating system like Linux. This list summarizes good reasons for considering Linux desktop migration. Software licensing costs: Software costs may be lower with Linux due to lack of royalties and more competitive options for product support. In the open source community this is sometimes called free software and often accompa- nied by the saying, “free as in beer,” meaning it doesn’t cost anything, and not to be confused with “free as in freedom,” which refers to the freedom to use the software as you like. In This Chapter Understanding the Costs of the Desktop Open Source Single Vendor Dependence Length of Product Usable Life Up Time/Productivity Stability Security Open Source Development Model Linux Design Momentum Summary Other Resources References
- 27. Breaking single vendor dependency: Current Windows software may have locked you into single vendor dependencies (e.g., Microsoft Office); lack of competition for software products forces prices higher, and results in feature sets that address the widest constituency rather than being tailored to your en- terprise needs. Length of usable product life: Some software products may push end-users into an unnecessary upgrade schedule. Existing hardware may not be adequate to run new operating systems that exceed the needs of the PC user. Reliability: Downtime and system failures erode user productivity. Security: All enterprises are concerned about data security, the propagation of viruses and spyware, as well as other vulnerabilities that affect the perfor- mance of popular desktop computing environments. An important element in determining the merits of a Linux migration is un- derstanding the impact of various operating systems in addressing these factors. When making comparisons strive to look for tangible, quantifiable factors that can be used in for later cost justifications. UNDERSTANDING THE COSTS OF THE DESKTOP Obtaining a clear picture of the costs of your desktop computing environment is of critical importance, especially in the context of how it affects your bottom line. Computing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) The costs of your desktop solution are compromised of a number of factors in ad- dition to the acquisition costs (royalties and media for example). You must also consider the cost of maintaining the environment, the cost of downtime, and the cost of vendor lock-in (product schedules that entail consistent upgrades to main- tain compatibility). It’s easy to understand the differences between products when evaluating software acquisition costs because, at the end of the transaction, you know how much money you paid for a product. However, this is far from the ac- tual cost of desktop computing which also includes those expenses that result from the performance and use of your software. For example, when you install the sys- tem there is the cost of the IT professional who installs the software at your office and configures the computer. You will need to consider whether that time is more or less for one operating system over another. Other costs may be less tangible but are often more expensive. For example, if a PC is out of service for a worker who makes sales inquiries, is the time that the worker is not utilizing his PC costing you 4 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 28. or your company money? Are you paying him a salary while his primary tool is not in working order? Consider this example of how downtime affected productivity in an inbound call center. Scenario: Opportunity Cost of the Unavailable PC Sales agents accept calls into an inbound 800 number at the rate of about 12 per hour. Those calls are closed at a rate of about 30 percent. The average sale is for a monthly service subscription that costs $20 a month with the average customer life being 9 months. Each sale generates an average of $180 of revenue. So the agent, in the course of an hour, averages 4 sales for a total of about $720 of revenue. At times people waiting on hold hang up and the opportunity is lost, and hold times are in- creased when some sales agents are unavailable to take calls. These missed oppor- tunities costs even more lost revenue. All of the sales agents in this call center rely on their Windows PCs for data entry and account creation. Without their PCs they are unable to do their jobs and they miss their opportunity to sell, which is their one and only job function. These agents are often victims of viruses or other PC prob- lems that have a typical time to resolution for the help desk personnel of about 4 hours. In addition, the time for the help desk personnel, at $40 an hour, costs the company an additional $160 per incident. When you start factoring in the loss of sales, the costs of lost opportunities, and the price of repair personnel, the purchase price of a $700 PC, even adding in $1000 worth of software, is less and less relevant. This example demonstrates that the consequences of PC downtime directly impact your bottom line. This fictitious example may relate to your enterprise. You may want to fill in your own numbers to get an idea of how similar outages would affect you. The cost of downtime is seldom quantified and could be a silent cost sapping your profits more than you realize. You should determine whether you suffer these types of outages and, if so, do they result from weaknesses in your current desktop technology. Licensing and Royalties Sometimes the words licensing and royalties are incorrectly used as synonyms. There is an important distinction. Licensing refers to the terms of use of a software package, while royalties are compensation paid for the use of a software package. Royalties may be a condition of the product licensing. One of the most innovative ideas for many people considering Linux and the supporting cast of open source software is the idea that software is “free.” That is true, but it is important to un- derstand that there is free as in “no purchase price,” (also expressed in the lingo of open source advocates as “free as in beer”) and then there is free as in “freedom,” Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 5
- 29. which implies the ability to modify, change, and improve as well as redistribute your changes. In the Linux world there are a number of licenses that commercial software vendors consider to be novel. The best known and probably the most popular is the GNU Public License (GPL) (see a sample GNU Public License in Ap- pendix A), which in its essence says that you are receiving the software with express permission to change, modify, and redistribute the software as long as you maintain the GPL in your derivative works. For example, Red Hat, a leading Linux distribu- tor, sells its software, but it does so by preserving the GPL. Red Hat simply charges a fee for the distribution service and media, which is perfectly legal. So with Linux, you may still need to purchase your software, but the price may remain more in line with actual costs of production, in contrast to a price set by a single vendor/supplier. There are a number of licenses that grant freedoms to the end user that are not con- sistent with traditional commercial software licenses. OPEN SOURCE With many commercial applications, the idea of sharing the programming code with the end user is foreign. The companies that manufacture these programs (for instance, Microsoft Windows and the Microsoft Office Suite) protect their work by taking the programming code and compiling it into binaries. All end users see is the end result of this work. This is a valid practice that helps companies protect their in- vestment in their software. In open source applications, there are no secrets about how the software works. The code is available for end user and peer review. The ar- gument for this type of model is that users can customize software to their needs and contribute to a project if they desire to help improve it. This is advantageous because you can easily collaborate to improve upon or tailor these packages to your needs. Some companies distribute their source code but require that you to pur- chase a license to use it. It is important to understand going forward that each piece of software, whether it is Open Source and free or Open Source but restricted in its use, should be evaluated carefully before you deploy it. You may ask, “Would average users really edit code in their applications?” Probably not. In a big enterprise, though, would it be nice to have the option to fix bugs that effect hundreds or thousands of users without having to wait until the next product release? Absolutely. An industry may also benefit from specialization. For example, perhaps the medical industry could benefit from the inclusion of medical billing codes in the styles list of an office product used for typing medical reports. Being able to repackage a “medical industry version” of a commonly avail- able open source product could make sense. 6 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 30. Free Open Source Software Applications (FOSS) Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is attractive to the enterprise for reasons that reach beyond the initial acquisition costs. Because there are few restrictions on re- distribution, tracking and procuring software licenses for the software is not neces- sary. For example, IT staff needn’t worry about per seat licensing restrictions and procurement of licensed copies once they have established that an application is qualified as FOSS. The obvious advantage is that this eliminates one of the most time-consuming and counterproductive parts of the support person’s job. There are thousands of useful FOSS applications available today, and the breadth of these applications is so wide that they could replace many, if not all, of the commercial applications you are using. Community groups often work on products that have similar functionality, and there is often more than one choice for task-based pack- ages like word processors, Web browsers, and email clients. Imagine a world where you didn’t have to track software for compliance to licensing terms. In a large enterprise you may find that you have someone dedicated to making sure that you are always in compliance. If you make a mistake and are subject to audit, you may be accessed fines relating to incorrectly licensed software. If you are using FOSS applications you could alleviate the need to track, at least for licensing purposes, their use. Needless to say, if you are familiar with proprietary software, understanding free software is a big change in direction. Understanding the spirit of free software may help clarify the objectives of the licensing model. The Free Software Movement The hype about Linux and open source software merits a small history lesson on the subject of the Free Software Movement. This is probably the most eye-catching and misunderstood benefit of Linux, especially for organizations that are used to a com- pletely proprietary and closed source software model. The free software movement can be traced to Richard M. Stallman, known simply as RMS, who founded two of the community groups whose goals were to further the idea and implementation of sharing of software and help the community provide better products. Free software, for the purpose of this discussion, applies to software with source code that pro- grammers can read, modify, and redistribute. Through this process the software can evolve to a better quality than might a piece of software tightly controlled by a single group or vendor. This methodology lends itself to contributions at many lev- els, from developers to end users, who can adapt it or to fix bugs without the over- sight and approval of one entity. RMS champions this philosophy as the founder of the Free Software Foundation. The other project, which is more focused on an actual product or collection of software that adheres to the free software philosophy, is the GNU project. The GNU Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 7
- 31. project was the real beginning of the GNU/Linux operating system, and started with an announcement by Richard Stallman in the later half of 1983. The GNU project is an ambitious attempt to create a free operating system unencumbered by the re- strictions that were being placed on copyrighted and “closed source” operating sys- tems, but this project was started before Linux actually came into being. The name Linux really refers to the kernel of the operating system, which provides access to the machine’s hardware and processes. This was the missing component of the GNU operating system that Linux eventually provided. The combination of the GNU pro- ject and the Linux kernel collectively became what we call Linux. The Linux kernel was a product of the efforts of Linus Torvalds, a Finnish college student at the time, who started to share his Linux kernel in September 1991 while studying at the Uni- versity of Helsinki. To this day Torvalds owns the Linux registered trademark which, unlike many other trademarks, can be used under a very liberal license. Many times you will see the operating system referred to as GNU/Linux which is the most cor- rect reference. Most times, though, when people use the term Linux, they are indi- cating the operating system and supporting programs as a whole. One thing to consider is that there is free software and there is open source software. As was ad- dressed earlier, there are two types of free when it comes to open source software. There is “free as in freedom” and “free as in beer.” Free as in Freedom Many people interpret “free software” as referring to price. In the Linux world this causes much confusion because the reference to free means that you have “free- dom.” These freedoms are outlined in the following list: The freedom to use the program for any reason. The freedom to adapt the program to suit your needs, which implies that you have access to the source code so that you can make these changes. The freedom to redistribute copies, either without a charge or for a fee. Freedom to distribute modified versions of the program, so that the commu- nity can benefit from your improvements. This freedom is what allows companies like Red Hat and Novell to charge fees and build businesses around their products. Often times you will hear the phrases “free as in freedom” and “free as in beer.” The previous list defines what is meant by “free as in freedom.” However, “free as in beer” refers to the price. Many pro- grams are available for free through download without paying any fees to any per- son or organization. You may run into these terms as you investigate the costs of migrating to a Linux desktop. Understanding the difference may help your deci- sion-making process, because one does not necessarily indicate the other. 8 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 32. The Copyleft Method The copyleft method for making software and other works free is contrary to the general practice of copyright. Copyright exists to protect the creator of a work so that they have the exclusive right to publish a given work. Copyleft is a method for making a work free from encumbrances other than the requirement that all modi- fications and extensions of the program remain free. The way copyleft works is by first stating that a work, for our purposes this would be a program, is copyrighted. Once the copyright is stated, the terms for distribution are added. This is a legal in- strument that grants everyone the right to modify and redistribute the program’s code or any derivative works but requires that, upon redistribution, the distribu- tion terms originally granted to the person who received that work must be main- tained. In essence, this allows code to be shared but prevents it from being taken behind closed doors then redistributed with modifications. This prevents hijacking of community efforts, and mandates that improvements are returned to the public domain. Figure 1.1 shows the relationship between free and open source software. Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 9 Free Software Most liberal definition allows for copying, redistribution, with or without modifications either gratis or for a fee. Open Source Software Source code is available but with licensing restrictions. Public Domain Software Unprotected from privatization, no copyright no license. Freely available. Copyleft Software Software that falls under a "free as in freedom" license that allows for changes, redistribution and distribution of changes. GPL'd Software A subset of copyleft software including Linux. FIGURE 1.1 Open source and free software are not always mutually inclusive.
- 33. The Open Source Definition The open source definition was drafted by Bruce Perens in 1997 as it applied to an early and still popular Linux distribution called Debian. The open source definition embodies the spirit and intent of most developers of open source software and as more commercial entities enter this space they may technically be Open Source by sharing their source code but they may not provide the same level of openness de- sired by the “community” of open source developers. Why is this important to you as a business user? The issue is that companies that can exist in a symbiotic rela- tionship with open source developers may have a greater chance of success as they can leverage community works and develop products with reduced R&D expense. Companies that only dabble in Open Source may alienate these developers and lose this competitive edge. The generally recognized authority on Open Source is the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The Open Source Initiative is a nonprofit corpora- tion that tracks and certifies licenses dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition. Common Licenses Used for Desktop Linux Software Software licensing is much too important and complex a topic to cover fully in this book. Understanding the terms of each piece of software as it applies to your en- terprise is a grave responsibility that you need to take ownership of. The following list is a reference to the types of licenses that cover commonly used Linux software that may be part of the Linux desktop. BSD License The Berkley Software Distribution (BSD) license is a result of software released from the University of California at Berkley. Initially it included three general conditions: Maintenance of the copyright with redistribution of source code and a dis- claimer limiting liability. Redistribution of binary forms of the software where required to maintain a copyright. Neither the name of the organization nor the contributors to the project can be used to endorse derivative products from the code without their prior consent. This license allowed software authors to take software that was in the public do- main and redistribute only binaries, which did not insure that derivative works would be Open Source. The BSD license has since been changed since its inception, but in general, the spirit of the license has stayed the same. An example of software that falls 10 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 34. under a BSD license includes the Mac OS X operating system which is based on the BSD Unix code. The BSD license does not follow the copyleft mentality. GNU Public License (GPL) Linux falls under the GPL which is a true copyleft-type license. The GPL is designed to guarantee fundamental rights of free software. The GPL is a fairly straightfor- ward license though it draws a lot of criticisms. The most prominent three rights are as follows: The right to copyright your software. The right to copy, modify, use, and distribute that software. (The ability to modify indicates that source code for the software must be available.) These same rights are transferable to anyone who receives the software. An example of use of the GPL is in the licensing of the Linux kernel. Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) The LGPL is very similar to the GPL but with one fundamental difference. It be- came apparent that certain nonfree software libraries may help facilitate the use of free software. Also, in Section 3 of the LGPL, there is a provision for converting any piece of LGPL software into a GPL piece of software. The reason for doing this would be to create a version of the software that can’t be used in nonfree software products. An example of a desktop software package that falls under the LGPL is the OpenOffice.org suite. The LGPL does place a copyleft restriction on individual source code but not on certain shared libraries. Shared libraries may be closed source but called by the open source program to accomplish certain tasks. Mozilla Public Licenses (MPL) The MPL is relatively new in comparison to the GPL. It was created by Netscape to enable them to release the Netscape source code to the community. The MPL has a few distinctions, including the ability for MPL software to be combined with pro- prietary code to create a “larger work.” The differentiation is made at the source file level so there are some boundaries. MPL code and GPL code cannot be combined, but MPL and LGPL code can be combined into a larger work. The rudimentary dif- ference between MPL code and others is that it can be combined with proprietary software if the source files are different. The MPL is not completely simpatico with copyleft methods but it shares much of the same spirit. An example of software that falls under the MPL is the Firefox browser. Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 11
- 35. X11 License The X11 license, which is sometimes referred to as the MIT license, is a very simple license that is almost without restriction other than a requirement that the text of the license be included in all copies. Typically, a valid use of the X11 license is when you want to show authorship or ownership of your software without placing any restrictions on it This license applied to older versions of XFree86 which provides the graphical interface for Linux PCs. Newer versions of XFree86 are licensed under the XFree86 1.1 license which is not compatible with the GPL. SUN Industry Standards Source License The Sun Industry Standards Source was authored by Sun and applied to the OpenOffice.org XML document format before OpenOffice.org 2.0. As the name of the license implies, it is in place to make sure that the XML document formats are never encumbered by royalties or other restrictions. Sun also uses this license for the Sun Grid Engine, an open source software solution used in distributed com- puting applications. Licensing is an important thing to understand when using or redistributing open source software. It is worth your time to investigate the terms of licenses that you use in your enterprise, but with open source licenses you will likely find that you benefit from a great degree of freedom. Sun has since retired this license. SINGLE VENDOR DEPENDENCE Wouldn’t it be nice to be the only lemonade vendor in the middle of the desert? With lack of competition and heavy need you could charge prices well above the cost of the goods. Some Microsoft users might feel like they are shopping for lemonade in the desert, because they are at the mercy of the vendor that most every business would expect you to interact with. Most desktop PC users are using Win- dows as their operating system, and changing operating systems results in an ex- pensive and disruptive migration path. Interoperability between systems is an often overlooked and critical part of your IT strategy. Single vendor dependence could be not only a factor of licensing, but the formats used to store data and communicate between systems. Using protocols that are publicly documented, such as those that adhere to a standard, makes it easier to interoperate between systems supplied by multiple vendors. For example, OpenOffice.org using the XML open file formats. Understanding the dependence on file formats and interoperability issues be- tween spreadsheet packages for example, could affect the way you invoice or take orders. However, the ability to read legacy documents is not an unmovable barrier, it just requires research, planning, and understanding what steps to take in migra- tion. Moving from a package that’s supplied only by one vendor to a software pack- 12 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 36. age serviced by a multitude of vendors is a liberating move. You will be able to take advantage of a multivendor platform, and, in the event you become displeased with one vendor’s pricing or product decisions, you can easily migrate to a new Linux distribution vendor. In the corporate Linux arena, both Novell and Red Hat offer competing products, and there are many other vendors that all build products upon the same core technology. All of these companies leverage common work and add their own innovation so there is no need to “reinvent the wheel.” Companies that share common programs can spend their development resources in areas that truly add value, tweaking performance and adding innovative features and appli- cations, rather than competing on parts of the operating system and applications that offer little returned value no matter what the improvement. For example, basic text editors and device drivers in most cases wouldn’t create a competitive edge or provide incrementally more value across Linux vendors. The value may be realized in service offerings or tools that are used to update these packages. For instance, Red Hat offers an update service that provides security patches, newer program ver- sions, and systems enhancements to a core batch of free and open source software. The Windows operating system is the antithesis of this thinking. Windows is the world’s most widely deployed operating system and it does work well. Hard- ware vendors realize this and supply drivers for Windows and insure their products run well with this operating system. However, when you have such a widely de- ployed operating system you provide products that appeal to the lowest common denominator. So the same system that is used in a doctor’s office is being used on oil rigs and steel mills. Is there really a lot of similarity in how these companies use their computers? Does it make sense for them to have the exact same system to ac- complish the tasks to make them successful? With Microsoft, developer resources are spread thin to address all of these users’ needs. The amount of innovation that benefits each constituency is limited. While it’s hard to quantify the exact cost of single vendor dependence, it may be the factor which most affects your bottom-line IT costs. Also, the cost of what you aren’t getting out your desktop investment may be even greater than you can honestly quantify. The bottom line is single vendor dependence is bad economics because it limits competition and locks you into an upgrade cycle that is beyond your control. LENGTH OF PRODUCT USABLE LIFE The jobs of many task-based workers change very slowly, and their needs for com- puting are pretty static. Microsoft Windows operating systems in many cases change faster than end user needs do. Also, in an effort to provide the widest scope of features to the widest demographic of PC end users, Microsoft operating systems Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 13
- 37. have increased their feature sets and, consequently, the minimum hardware re- quirements for the operating system have increased as well. The result has been op- erating systems for the lowest common denominator. Now this is not in itself a bad thing because by developing a wide user base there is a great deal of ease in inter- operability for Windows PC users. The downfall is that to join this club you pay a premium in software licensing and other costs involved with keeping your hard- ware current. Take a look at a sampling of hardware requirements for Microsoft desktop operating systems over the last ten years’ products. Take note of the fre- quency of releases for operating systems (not counting NT Workstation and ME) and the increasing hardware requirements. Maybe the changes aren’t drastic, but the requirements continue to increase. In fact, many users may have been perfectly capable of using Windows 95 from release until today, but reliance on “support” from Microsoft has pushed the upgrade of the operating system as well as the hard- ware on which it runs. Windows 95 released August 1995—Minimum Hardware Requirements Personal computer with a 386DX or higher processor (486 recommended). 4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended). Typical hard disk space required to upgrade to Windows 95: 35–40 MB The actual requirement varies depending on the features you choose to install. Windows 98 released June 1998—Minimum Hardware Requirements A personal computer with a 486DX 66 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor (Pentium central processing unit recommended) 16 MB of memory (24 MB recommended) 120 MB minimum of free hard disk space CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive VGA or higher resolution monitor (16-bit or 24-bit color SVGA recommended) Windows 2000 released February 2000—Minimum Hardware Requirements A personal computer with a 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU At least 64 MB of memory 2 GB hard drive with a minimum of 650 MB free space Single- and dual-CPU systems are supported by Windows 2000 Professional CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive VGA or higher resolution monitor 14 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 38. Windows XP released October 2001—Minimum Hardware Requirements A personal computer with a 300 MHz or higher processor clock speed recom- mended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system); Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor 128 MB of memory or more recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor Now consider that today’s Linux distributions can be run on hardware that predates the Pentium but also on today’s fastest hardware, and that it is not limited to the x86 processor. As a result of the modularity of the system you just take what best suits your needs. Even companies that are using proprietary hardware such as Sun SPARC or Macintosh can standardize their operating systems to a great degree using Linux. Also, because the Windows operating system is utilized among cor- porate and home users alike, there are many features, like rich multimedia capabil- ities, that might be desirable to the home user who uses the PC for entertainment but that would detract from the productivity of a business user. The bottom line is that Linux software doesn’t necessarily have to drive any type of upgrade cycle, whether it is by way of the core operating system or hardware. UP TIME/PRODUCTIVITY In many cases the true cost of desktop computing lies in the productivity of the end user of the system. The cost of an individual PC outage is not just a factor of the sys- tem administrator’s time but also includes that of the worker who utilizes that computer. In a large enterprise, not only does administrative overhead add up, so does the unproductive time users spend while they are unable to do their pre- scribed work. Scenario: PC Fails for Filing Clerk Take the example of a filing clerk in a large company who processes insurance claims. That clerk files an average of 20 claims per hour and makes an hourly wage of $12. During the course of the day, the clerk’s PC becomes infected by a computer virus and the overhead on the PC slows its productivity, allowing the clerk to file Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 15
- 39. only 15 claims an hour. Then the PC locks up and becomes unresponsive, requir- ing a reboot. During that reboot, which takes about two minutes, the employee goes to the proverbial water cooler and complains to a coworker about how his PC isn’t working. This walk and conversation take about 10 minutes. During hour two the clerk only processes 10 claims. Finally, after the process repeats itself twice more, the employee calls the help desk and a technician arrives on the scene to diagnose and repair the problem. The cost to the company for that employee’s time is about $30 per hour. During the hour and a half it takes the technician to fix the problem (di- agnose, remove the virus, and update virus definitions as a preventative measure) the claims clerk is totally unproductive. When all is said and done, the clerk processes 55 fewer claims that day, which costs the company $33. You must also calculate the added expense of the $45 for the technician’s time spent fixing the problem. This comes to an individual incident cost of $78. Now consider that this company has one thousand clerks, each of whom has this problem once a quarter. That cost is now $78,000 per quarter or $312,000 annually. When you start look- ing at how the small things add up, the cost of using systems that suffer from these types of problems quickly adds up. The questions here are, “Are those problems avoidable?” and “Does this hap- pen in your enterprise?” Linux has characteristics that can reduce these problems, like tremendous uptime capabilities and the ability to “harden” PCs to prevent changes from causing system instability. The acquisition costs of a PC start to pale in comparison to problems related to viruses, operating system crashes, or the over- head involved with maintaining them. In later chapters we will talk about how Linux is very well suited as a high-availability operating system and can be secured to be less susceptible to adverse changes. STABILITY If you can’t use your PC then you are probably costing the organization money by not providing the service that you are being paid to provide. Linux and its phe- nomenal uptime can help maximize productivity of knowledge workers especially because they rely heavily on their computers. Take, for example, the number of times a worker reboots in a given day. If a system requires frequent updates that re- quire reboots, this can be time consuming. Windows has many systems that are tied to the core operating system and kernel, and updates often result in a reboot. That monolithic architecture in earlier Windows operating systems required frequent re- boots. Over time there has been significantly less need to reboot Windows due to various architectural improvements, but because Microsoft’s roots are firmly grounded in a single-user operating system, it was not a critical design requirement 16 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 40. to avoid a reboot because it only affected one user. However, Linux, with its multi- user influences vis-à-vis UNIX, was designed knowing full well that reboots might affect multiple users, and so the methods for updating and restarting services were clearly independent in almost every case from the need to reboot. Linux lineage is derived from a multiuser high-availability operating system which results in uptime advantages in both the server and the desktop. Viruses Computer viruses and worms that affected Windows increased by a factor of four or greater in the first half of 2004 as compared to the same period in 2003, accord- ing to Windows virus software manufacturer Symantec® (Symantec, 2004). In its biannual Internet security report Symantec offered a number of key findings: During the first half of 2004, the time between disclosure of a vulnerability and the release of an exploit for that vulnerability was 5.8 days. From the period spanning January 1 through June 30, 2004, the Symantec Vul- nerability Database listed 1,237 new vulnerabilities. Of those vulnerabilities 96 percent were described as being moderately or highly severe, while 70 percent were noted to be easy to exploit. 4,496 new Windows-specific viruses and worms were recorded during a six- month period, more than 4.5 times the number in the same period in 2003. Symantec also noted that there could be a trend developing in Linux and mo- bile computing viruses. This is mainly because there are a growing number of mo- bile and Linux users attaching their devices to the Internet daily. This news may seem like it bodes badly for Linux, but does it? Of course, it’s very hard to make “perfectly” secure software, and most any security expert will tell you that when you attach your PC to a network, you open it up to some vulnerability. The thing you need to consider is who will be there to provide you support in fixing these vulner- abilities. One company or a community of companies and developers can apply a greater number of resources to these problems. What is your recourse if a single vendor refuses or can’t react quickly? Do you sacrifice the use of a product that you invested in until the problem is fixed, or do you have the freedom to get help from other suppliers? SECURITY When discussing Linux security, it bears pointing out that as a desktop platform, Linux has a considerably lower market share than Windows on the PC desktop, and Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 17
- 41. as such, it is a much smaller target for those hackers that may want to cause mis- chief. That being said, it also offers a great advantage in security circles. The idea that there are no secrets to how something works has inherent advantages because it allows more people to scrutinize the code behind the software. A community of developers can ferret out problems and bugs, and patches can be submitted by any number of developers. In proprietary software packages, the vendor that makes the software institutes those fixes. In an open source model, many users can band together to supply fixes collaboratively. Also, the very strict adherence to user and group policies in Linux make it very difficult for a nonprivileged user to do any damage beyond the access that is granted to that user. Many system administrators can very effectively “lock down” a Linux system to prevent end users from making changes that will bring the PC down. This is counter to the policies of some closed source companies whose preference is to receive security flaw reports directly and then take the actions which they think are appropriate. This sounds reasonable doesn’t it? What if that flaw only affects one out of a hundred users of their prod- uct? What if the company deems it unprofitable to fix the problem and it moves it to a low priority? What if an unscrupulous hacker discovers the flaw and compro- mises your network and steals your company’s secrets or your customer’s credit card numbers? It’s analogous to a member of your cleaning staff leaving your back door open when he leaves, remembering it when he gets home, and then not telling you, hoping to lock it before you realize the door is open. If nothing happens, no problem. But what happens if you get robbed blind? OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPMENT MODEL Have you ever bought a software package that conflicts with another or tried to get cooperation between independent software vendors (ISVs) and been flustered by their unwillingness or inability to cooperate due to worries about trade secrets and proprietary code bases? The open source development model offers a huge advan- tage because it inspires a feeling of esprit de corps—the spirit of a group that makes the members want the group to succeed. This is a very interesting paradigm to the software vendors most of us buy software from today. The main advantage here is that because there are no secrets, there is accountability; programmers submitting code to their products are mostly doing so on a world stage and collaboration is much easier. Also, because there are a number of vendors who redistribute open source software such as the Linux kernel, there are many eyes watching the prod- 18 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 42. uct and testing and improving upon the core product and rarely do improvements spearheaded by one company not make it into the products of other companies. Sharing the load of the core operating system among a number of companies, non- profits, and community developers brings a broader, more democratic element to the software development process. The focus of software vendors can be on adding value rather than maintaining those parts of the software that offer little distin- guishable value. LINUX DESIGN There are fundamental differences between the Windows and Linux operating sys- tems that make them both desirable in different circumstances. Often Windows is touted as being completely integrated because the desktop operating system is de- veloped by the same company that delivers back office solutions. They have the ability to dovetail features between the two groups of products. Linux, on the other hand, offers a wide degree of customization through adherence to open standards and the possiblity for innovations to reflect the efforts of many companies, groups, and individuals. To understand the advantages of Linux, observe the history of the two operat- ing systems. Microsoft initially started building operating systems for single-user applications on the up-and-coming IBM PC. Their initial product was a desktop operating system, which at the time was thought to have limitations including 640KB of memory; a limitation caused by needing the video memory in the avail- able address space. Eventually Microsoft overcame all these limitations as hardware architecture progressed. As the popularity of Microsoft Windows operating systems grew, Microsoft had considerations of previous designs and backwards compati- bility during a pivotal point in the emergence of the PC. Linux, by coming late to the PC market, had some advantages, including the opportunity to study other op- erating systems and learn from their successes and failures. Additionally, Linux benefits from its similarity to UNIX and includes many of the features that made UNIX an obvious enterprise choice for reliable computing. UNIX, a multiuser sys- tem, had different considerations in its design than did Microsoft Windows and its predecessor MS-DOS. Windows started out as a desktop OS and expanded to encompass the needs of the server OS market. Linux, on the other hand, followed the example of UNIX by becoming a multiuser, multiprocessing operating system from very early on. These very robust features make Linux a powerful and efficient operating system designed to offer maximum uptime, which was critical in server-based computing and ex- ceptionally useful in desktop computing. Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 19
- 43. Windows was initially aimed at the desktop user whose needs included a graph- ical interface; the Windows OS tightly integrates the graphical interface and the ker- nel, which is the engine that drives the operating system. Since graphics are very resource intensive and in Windows the graphics system is tied to the kernel, video and operating system performance intersect; failures or problems with one can af- fect the other. The Linux operating system can use sophisticated graphical inter- faces that can be turned on and off by the user. Granted, today’s desktop user probably will prefer a graphical display system, but Linux is not married to one sys- tem or another. This modular design also prevents failures of the graphics system from causing the whole system to fail. In other words, subsystems within Linux that fail do not nec- essarily compromise the whole machine. Also, because of the Linux kernel design and robust scheduler, priority can be given to critical tasks ahead of secondary tasks. Whether it’s graphical displays or sound systems or other parts of the operating sys- tem is irrelevant. The fact that there are multiple groups providing critical parts en- ables technology to be modular and provides the benefit of more design ideas. Working in an open source model also allows for collaboration and sharing of infor- mation rather than making each party redesign everything from the ground up. Another example of Linux design that benefits the end user is the differences be- tween the Windows registry and Linux configuration settings. In Windows 98 the registry is comprised of two files, User.dat and System.dat, which contain the major- ity of the settings utilized by Windows and the programs installed under Windows. As time passes, the addition of new programs and hardware, along with operating system updates, causes the registry to grow—in some cases to monstrous size. Of- tentimes the registry contains data that becomes extraneous and is peppered with settings used by necessary programs right beside those of malicious programs like spyware. In fact, a cottage industry has developed to provide utilities for “cleaning” and maintaining this huge file. Because it’s a critical file for Windows operation, a corrupt registry can prevent Windows from booting properly if at all. Because the registry has such impact on the operating system, an error in one seemingly in- significant application can cause the whole operating system to fail if it incorrectly writes to the registry. Now the registry does have one advantage. Because it was in- tended to be a standard place to hold settings and system information, adding and removing software through a control panel is facilitated by this master database, though not managed completely. Linux, on the other hand, is more modular, and program settings and configuration files are specific to the application and not the operating system. The only similarity to the registry would be in the package man- ager. Under Linux the two most common are RPM (RPM Package Manager) and APT (Advanced Package Tool, used for Debian-based distributions). These data- bases include lists of all packages installed throughout a system. They also give soft- ware developers a standard to distribute software under. However, a corrupt RPM 20 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 44. database doesn’t prevent the system from booting. This system works well but has its own set of warts. In comparison though, the Windows system for package installa- tion and configurations is far more comprehensive and centralized, which from a design standpoint can be considered a potentially larger point of failure. Server Evolution versus Desktop Evolution Operating systems evolve most directly from the needs of the users but are shep- herded by the software vendor. In the case of Windows, the need for a desktop op- erating system was the first step; over time the need for file and print services evolved. As soon as networks and the Internet evolved, the need for servers that could be used to serve data and provide communication and messaging, particu- larly email and Web servers, became a critical component of the enterprise net- work. At the same time as the need for stable, reliable, cost-effective servers evolved not only in the enterprise but also in the small and medium business, Linux was coming of age. Linux’s early success as a server operating system was fueled by its reputation for stability and security. These factors were of the utmost importance because the services provided by these servers affected many users. Linux was a nat- ural choice for many applications because of its low acquisition cost and its ability to utilize the x86 platform, which was much cheaper than the proprietary hardware that was specific to the many flavors of UNIX. While Windows gained market share first on the desktop and then the server, Linux’s rise to prominence is taking the op- posite path to becoming one of the most widely deployed operating systems. Linux on the desktop is still very much in its infancy, but it is a very viable al- ternative for a large number of desktop PC users. It also benefits from its server legacy. The fact that most changes can be made to live systems without reboots is as advantageous to a desktop user as it is to a server administrator. Also, because the Linux OS was designed as a multiuser system, its ability to service multiple desktop users from the same PC has distinct advantages. Most all Linux distributions adhere to a very strict users and groups schema that is intended to isolate users of the same PC and keep their settings and data separate from one another. Programs can be made available to but unalterable by all nonprivileged users. This practice allows the Linux desktop to be as rigid as the administrator deems necessary for prevent- ing unauthorized changes to a system either by the end user or by a malicious piece of software like a worm or a virus. MOMENTUM It’s hard to explain the intangibles behind the potential of Linux as a desktop oper- ating system other than to say it’s got momentum. Linux is the great Cinderella Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 21
- 45. story: initially the product of a Finnish college student, it soon developed a legion of loyal fans dedicated to improving and sharing their improvements. Before IT gi- ants IBM and Novell threw their support behind the operating system, it was pow- ering servers all over the Internet. Consider that Apple has been working on operating systems since the late 1970s and Linus Torvalds started working on Linux in 1991, not as a commercial venture but as an individual project, and that in the next 10 years Linux shipped on computers manufactured by the likes of Dell, Sun, and IBM. Even more interesting is that there is no clear profit motive for the peo- ple contributing to the efforts. Nonprofit foundations like Mozilla.org offer a browser alternative to Internet Explorer which is growing in popularity and which could eventually become the most widely used browser despite the fact that it is not distributed with the dominant desktop operating system. Linux is being promoted by industry consortiums and private citizens alike, who share improvements and add functionality that can be integrated into “distributions” of Linux, often with- out the burden of royalties. The sheer number of developers for open source oper- ating systems are many times that of any one company. Due to private and corporate collaborative efforts, it’s likely that Linux will be a serious and compara- ble desktop operating system for all classes of user in the very near future. SUMMARY Overall, you shouldn’t be taking your decision to move to the Linux desktop lightly. It’s not an easy decision to make. There may be some disruption to your day-to-day operations, but it’s a long-term strategic choice to migrate. It’s important to un- derstand the consequences both positive and negative in undertaking any new OS, whether it is Linux, UNIX, or even Mac OS. The decision should simply rest on how such a move will affect your bottom line. The contention of this book is that with a well-thought-out plan the adoption of the Linux OS as a desktop operating system will enhance your enterprise and provide you choices. These choices in ven- dor and applications will offer you more flexibility to negotiate software and main- tenance terms. Improved uptime and fewer security breaches will improve knowledge worker productivity. Also, by creating a competitive marketplace for desktop computing, economics dictate that increased competition will reduce the price of the products offered. Ironically, this intense pressure in operating systems will most likely benefit not only Linux users but Windows users as well, who will profit from Microsoft’s reactions perhaps in more competitive pricing in reaction to this new threat. 22 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 46. OTHER RESOURCES XFree86 – www.xfree86.org Mozilla Project – www.mozilla.org Debian Linux – www.debian.org Open Source Initiative – www.opensource.org GNU Operating System – www.gnu.org Free Software Foundation – www.fsf.org Richard Stallman’s Home Page – www.stallman.org REFERENCES Dvorak, John C. “Magic Number: 30 Billion,” PC Magazine, (August 4th, 2003). Available online at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1210067,00.asp. Microsoft Corporation, “Windows 95 Installation Requirements,” Article ID 138349. Available online at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349. Microsoft Corporation, “Minimum Hardware Requirements for a Windows 98 In- stallation,” Article ID 182571. Available online at http://support.microsoft .com/kb/182751. Microsoft Corporation, “Windows 2000 System Requirements.” Available online at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/sysreqs/ default.asp. Microsoft Corporation, “Windows XP Professional System Requirements.” Avail- able online at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs .mspx. Symantec, “Symantec Internet Security Report.” Available online at http:// www.symantec.com/press/2004/n040315b.html. Why Migrate to the Linux Desktop from Windows 23
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- 48. 25 Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 2 H ave you ever visited the grocery store without a list? Do you know what happens when you do? The tendency is to buy things you don’t need and to forget those things that you do need. The same idea applies when you look at an IT solution; if you don’t evaluate in detail what you need and plan ahead for what you might need, you may be left without the things you and your enter- prise need to successfully run your business. That’s why it’s important to do a needs analysis. A good Linux desktop needs analysis will encompass the following factors. Analyze Usage Patterns: You can’t successfully do this completely from your desk. Successful needs analysis will be conducted through your discussions and observations with end users. This will also set the stage for getting their buy-in for the actual migration later. At the very least it will likely uncover deficiencies in your legacy-computing environment. In This Chapter Needs Analysis Hardware Interoperability Taking an Application Inventory and Determining Usage Patterns Rewriting Applications Acquiring Expertise Summary Other Resources References
- 49. Application Needs Analysis: Application inventory may be the number one inhibitor to migrating to desktop Linux. Companies that have a legacy appli- cation that is specific to their enterprise which will only run on Windows. Tak- ing an inventory of what applications are being used today and, ideally, what applications are needed or unutilized will help you put together a migration plan that doesn’t leave a functional gap in desktop environments. Hardware Analysis: Current IT vendors, especially the largest ones (HP, Dell, Gateway), do not offer Linux support on all of their PCs. If you have a hardware standard and relationship with a vendor you need to discern whether its hardware going forward will cooperate with your objectives. You may find that community support for hardware is adequate or even that Linux vendor support will fulfill your needs. Data Migration: You may have large amounts of data in email, or office doc- uments that may be stored in proprietary formats like Microsoft Word and Excel. Linux native office suites can handle these formats but with some caveats. Some other proprietary formats may not have a Linux application equivalent. When given an option, choosing open standards for file storage formats will make future migrations easier and prevent vendor lock-in. Network Interoperability: File and print sharing will be your biggest concern in the area of network interoperability. Providing the same services without re- placing your existing infrastructure would be the ideal situation. Deciding if your existing infrastructure can accommodate new operating systems will weigh heavily in your investigation. Acquiring Expertise: While your IT staff and end users today may be very skilled with Windows environments, Linux will be somewhat foreign to them. Both systems administrators and end users alike will need to be retrained to handle their new desktop operating systems. You may find that you are over or under supplying end users in your current OS configuration. The best exercise you can undertake is to interview workers on the applications they currently use, and find out what applications they would like but don’t have access to. You should realize the reasons why they don’t have access to these applications commonly include software licensing costs and security. Linux alternatives may overcome both barriers. NEEDS ANALYSIS Creating a needs analysis should be as valuable to an accountant as it is to an IT di- rector. Understanding the impact of a Linux desktop migration can help justify the move from one platform to another to non-IT personnel. 26 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 50. Financial Considerations: Financial considerations are the bottom line as they apply to your company. Acquisition costs are one of the more easily quan- tifiable parts of the equation because money changes hands during this part of the process, though increased productivity and decreased overhead in systems management may be the real savings. User Productivity: User productivity could be the most important deciding factor in a Linux desktop migration. It’s also the hardest to compute. Deriving a set of metrics before moving forward into a new installation may not influ- ence your decision as much as it will help you measure success. Systems Management: Because of Linux’s rise in the data center, manage- ment tools have been developed for large multisystem installations: to change configurations, monitor status, and update and install software. These tools can be translated to the desktop because the architectures are the same. As you do your needs analysis, these three areas will be important plot lines in your Linux desktop migration story. Profiles of the Desktop Users Not every PC user is identical, but in the large enterprise you will find pockets of users with common needs. By grouping these workers you can create a profile of the type of computing needed for each class of worker. Also, you can decide if there are candidates within the organization that may be better served by a Linux desk- top or thin-client computing model as opposed to users with complex needs who may be the most demanding because they require high mobility or processing power. The key concept to understand is that the more complex the end user’s needs, the higher the likelihood of computing failures independent of the operat- ing system. In the case of the Linux desktop, the most likely candidates for near- term success with Linux are those with the least amount of risk and less complex needs, or those that do have complex needs but also have a high aptitude for trou- bleshooting and maintaining their own PCs. Figure 2.1 shows a model where the outer rings demonstrate a favorable risk/return for Linux use by desktop user pro- files, while the inner rings show the most complex and, accordingly, the most risky desktop Linux cases. In fact, on the server side of the risk/return model in Figure 2.1, the risk/return is more a historical statement than it is a state of being; increased development ef- forts and commercial support have made every case noted on the right side of Linux server computing mode viable, and the desktop computing side of Linux is follow- ing closely behind. The evolution of Linux on the server was very rapid and you can find many examples of successful implementations at every level, from the small business to the large enterprise, though its humble beginnings were on the edge of Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 27
- 51. the network. From there it slowly crept toward the more mission-critical applica- tions. It is a common belief among Linux experts that desktop Linux is evolving in much the same way. Low-risk trials lead the way for the more complex users to im- plement a Linux desktop. Also, the management capabilities developed for the server deployment and management are translating to the desktop; proven system man- agement tools used in the data center can just as easily be applied to desktop com- puting. As increased application availability and hardware support improve, the same software that is managing Linux server installations will be available for desk- top management. There is little difference in the mechanisms for configuration and software management between the Linux desktop and the server. So rather than waiting for the support infrastructure to evolve for desktop users, once that market arrives there should be a very robust set of tools to manage these installations. 28 Linux Business Desktop Migration Technical Workstations Engineering Workstations Information Technology Development Information Technology Development Systems Administrators Knowledge Workers RISKCOMPLEXITY Linux Desktop Linux Server Point of Sale inventory Management Manufacturing Floor CRM Edge of Network Light Application Servers Computational Clusters File Servers Print Servers DNS/DHCP Proxy Web Email Workgroup Databases Competitive Clusters Mission Critical Services Data Warehouses ERP Linux Computing Risk Reward Analysis Business Applications Billing Systems Task-Based Workers Mobile Workers Clerical FIGURE 2.1 The Linux risk/return computing analysis indicates that, as the complexity of the desktop requirements increase, so does the likelihood of failure.
- 52. Technical Workstations The technical workstation user is the most likely early-adopter of the Linux desk- top. They are usually of a high technical aptitude and use their desktops for a vari- ety of applications that involve application development or computations. They also may be systems administrators or researchers who use computation software that has high processing needs. One common example of a technical workstation user that benefits from Linux is the one who has access to a very powerful set of tools including those used for programming and application development or those used for highly processor-intensive applications. Example: Technical Workstation Users: Movie Animators In the days of Walt Disney® and Mickey Mouse®, animation was the result of teams of artists drawing sequence after sequence of movements, giving still pictures life when they where played in rapid succession. That task today is being greatly supplemented with computers. Dreamworks®, the immensely successful movie company, was using IRIX workstations manufactured by Silicon Graphics Incor- porated (SGI) before making the movie Shrek. They investigated Linux worksta- tions on HP hardware to complete Shrek. Soon after they made Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmarron, Linux had become the desktop standard because it could handle the complex math that was used in “ray tracing,” the method animators use to cre- ate, or render, animation. The result of this cost-efficient powerhouse use allowed for an additional element in realism. For example, in the movie Toy Story the backgrounds were static, but in Shrek the background moved as plants blew in the breeze. Linux on commodity hardware offered a better value than a commercial solution on commercial hardware. In this case, the commercial OS wasn’t Win- dows but the logic remains the same: open systems on commodity hardware can and will reduce costs [Turner04]. Other examples of technical workstation users include systems administrators and programmers. For many users the sticking point isn’t the functionality of the underlying Linux operating system but application availability. In the technical workstation market this is not usually the case. The tools that this class of user needs are usually available for Linux workstations, especially when it comes to com- pilers like the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), which currently contains front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada. The collection is a very com- prehensive tool set free of royalties so they aren’t costing development labs on a per seat licensing basis. If that isn’t enough, there are plenty of programming IDEs (In- tegrated Development Environments) that are available for Linux, including emacs, Eclipse, and Netbeans for Java. Besides the programming tools there are a number Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 29
- 53. of network and administrative tools that are available for free. For network admin- istrators you can find a virtually unlimited supply of tools to troubleshoot and manage networks, including the following: SSH: Secure Shell is a secure connectivity protocol that allows the user to connect to servers with an encrypted connection, which replaces less secure protocols like telnet. Ethereal: A network protocol analyzer to troubleshoot and analyze network traffic. AMANDA: The Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Archiver is a backup server that system administrators can use to back up multiple hosts. It can be used to back up all the PCs on a LAN, but also serves well for most any PC or server. OpenNMS: OpenNMS is a network management system that fills three func- tional areas: service polling, which monitors service levels of services on a net- work; performance, where data is collected via SNMP and from remote systems; and event management, which includes a notification system for net- work events. Many of these tools offer equivalent or better alternatives or meet minimum needs at much lower prices then their expensive commercial equivalents. Overall, today’s technical workstation user may be just as well or better served by the Linux desk- top than by Windows. Single-Application Kiosks or Fixed-Use PCs Kiosks, or single-task PCs, are used throughout a variety of businesses. The kiosk is probably one of the most attractive uses for a Linux PC. Take the example of the Point of Sale (POS) terminal, where users have a very limited application set or even a single application. The terminal is used by multiple users, such as in a cash register type of setup; downtime has a direct effect on sales and customer service. A Linux terminal makes perfect sense for this application because its high availability means it is likely that updates can be processed without interrupting operations. Also, since the Linux has a multiuser heritage, it lends itself to multiple cashiers log- ging into the same PC as happens in retail outlets. Point of Sale applications can then reside on a network and personnel can connect to them over the network. Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation recognized the value of using Linux desktops for their retail business in 1998 when they made the decision to in- vestigate Linux as the operating system to host their Point of Sale applications. By 2002 they had migrated an average of 15 cash registers in 350 stores to PCs running Linux [Silwa03]. 30 Linux Business Desktop Migration
- 54. Knowledge Workers Knowledge workers are those users who use their desktop computer as a primary part of their job. They likely use a group of core applications including a full office suite that at least includes a word processor and spreadsheet. They access the World Wide Web through a Web browser and they send email. In addition to this group of core applications, these knowledge workers most likely use applications that are specific to their enterprise or industry. These knowledge workers are the hardest to pigeonhole because of their diversity. They are also the most complex and risky candidates for Windows-to-Linux migration. Despite the fact that knowledge workers can be the most complex implementations, knowledge workers can and do successfully implement Linux desktops. Task-Based Workers Narrow task-oriented workers, sometimes referred to as transactional workers, use their PCs to do very repetitive tasks. Because the vast majority of their work relies on doing the same thing over and over again, it also stands to reason that they use one or two applications very heavily and others less frequently. Any computer users that do the same thing on few applications, such as telemarketers and medical records transcription staff, would be good cases for Linux migration. Also, since these limited task-oriented users have modest needs, consider whether their hard- ware will need to change significantly over the upcoming years. Given that their tasks change very little, if at all, evaluate whether improvements in hardware may have little affect on their productivity. Operating system upgrades may not be a function of the users’ needs, but of the vendor’s need to attract new buyers by adding new features that may not add any value to those already using their prod- ucts. In this case, consumers may be coerced into an operating system upgrades cycle as support for past operating systems is dropped. Linux, on the other hand, could offer the freedom of numerous software vendors who compete to support your needs. The German import company Heinz Tröber chose to run its ERP software on Linux rather than Microsoft Windows, citing frequent crashes and wasted time by employees waiting for recovery as reasons for exploring alternatives. Its solution was to move to a thin client computing solution of Linux hosted on IBM servers and redisplayed via X Windows to “dumb terminals” running Linux. Feedback was very positive regarding the reduction in crashes in comparison to the previous Windows solution[Marson05]. Desktop Computing Needs Analysis 31
- 55. Other documents randomly have different content
- 59. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Storm
- 60. This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Storm Author: Daniel Defoe Release date: March 1, 2013 [eBook #42234] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language: English Credits: Produced by Steven Gibbs, Eleni Christofaki and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORM ***
- 61. Transcriber's note This book contains variable punctuation, hyphenation, archaic and incosistent spelling as well as apparent printer errors which have been retained as they appear in the original.
- 62. THE STORM: OR, A COLLECTION Of the most Remarkable CASUALTIES AND DISASTERS Which happen'd in the Late Dreadful TEMPEST, BOTH BY SEA and LAND. The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind, and in the Storm, and the Clouds are the dust of his Feet. Nah. I. 3.
- 63. LONDON: Printed for G. Sawbridge in Little Britain, and Sold by J. Nutt near Stationers-Hall. M DCC IV.
- 65. THE PREFACE Preaching of Sermons is Speaking to a few of Mankind: Printing of Books is Talking to the whole World. The Parson Prescribes himself, and addresses to the particular Auditory with the Appellation of My Brethren; but he that Prints a Book, ought to Preface it with a Noverint Universi, Know all Men by these Presents. The proper Inference drawn from this remarkable Observation, is, That tho' he that Preaches from the Pulpit ought to be careful of his Words, that nothing pass from him but with an especial Sanction of Truth; yet he that Prints and Publishes to all the World, has a tenfold Obligation. The Sermon is a Sound of Words spoken to the Ear, and prepar'd only for present Meditation, and extends no farther than the strength of Memory can convey it; a Book Printed is a Record; remaining in every Man's Possession, always ready to renew its Acquaintance with his Memory, and always ready to be produc'd as an Authority or Voucher to any Reports he makes out of it, and conveys its Contents for Ages to come, to the Eternity of mortal Time, when the Author is forgotten in his Grave. If a Sermon be ill grounded, if the Preacher imposes upon us, he trespasses on a few; but if a Book Printed obtrudes a Falshood, if a Man tells a Lye in Print, he abuses Mankind, and imposes upon the whole World, he causes our Children to tell Lyes after us, and their Children after them, to the End of the World.
- 66. This Observation I thought good to make by way of Preface, to let the World know, that when I go about a Work in which I must tell a great many Stories, which may in their own nature seem incredible, and in which I must expect a great part of Mankind will question the Sincerity of the Relator; I did not do it without a particular sence upon me of the proper Duty of an Historian, and the abundant Duty laid on him to be very wary what he conveys to Posterity. I cannot be so ignorant of my own Intentions, as not to know, that in many Cases I shall act the Divine, and draw necessary practical Inferences from the extraordinary Remarkables of this Book, and some Digressions which I hope may not be altogether useless in this Case. And while I pretend to a thing so solemn, I cannot but premise I should stand convicted of a double Imposture, to forge a Story, and then preach Repentance to the Reader from a Crime greater than that I would have him repent of: endeavouring by a Lye to correct the Reader's Vices, and sin against Truth to bring the Reader off from sinning against Sence. Upon this score, tho' the Undertaking be very difficult among such an infinite variety of Circumstances, to keep, exactly within the bounds of Truth; yet I have this positive Assurance with me, that in all the subsequent Relation, if the least Mistake happen, it shall not be mine. If I judge right, 'Tis the Duty of an Historian to set every thing in its own Light, and to convey matter of fact upon its legitimate Authority, and no other: I mean thus, (for I wou'd be as explicit as I can) That where a Story is vouch'd to him with sufficient Authority, he ought to give the World the Special Testimonial of its proper Voucher, or else he is not just to the Story: and where it comes without such sufficient Authority, he ought to say so; otherwise he is not just to himself. In the first Case he injures the History, by leaving it doubtful where it might be confirm'd past all manner of question; in the last he injures his own Reputation, by taking upon himself the
- 67. Risque, in case it proves a Mistake, of having the World charge him with a Forgery. And indeed, I cannot but own 'tis just, that if I tell a Story in Print for a Truth which proves otherwise, unless I, at the same time, give proper Caution to the Reader, by owning the Uncertainty of my Knowledge in the matter of fact, 'tis I impose upon the World: my Relater is innocent, and the Lye is my own. I make all these preliminary Observations, partly to inform the Reader, that I have not undertaken this Work without the serious Consideration of what I owe to Truth, and to Posterity; nor without a Sence of the extraordinary Variety and Novelty of the Relation. I am sensible, that the want of this Caution is the Foundation of that great Misfortune we have in matters of ancient History; in which the Impudence, the Ribaldry, the empty Flourishes, the little Regard to Truth, and the Fondness of telling a strange Story, has dwindled a great many valuable Pieces of ancient History into meer Romance. How are the Lives of some of our most famous Men, nay the Actions of whole Ages, drowned in Fable? Not that there wanted Pen-men to write, but that their Writings were continually mixt with such Rhodomontades of the Authors that Posterity rejected them as fabulous. From hence it comes to pass that Matters of Fact are handed down to Posterity with so little Certainty, that nothing is to be depended upon; from hence the uncertain Account of Things and Actions in the remoter Ages of the World, the confounding the Genealogies as well as Atchievements of Belus, Nimrod, and Nimrus, and their Successors, the Histories and Originals of Saturn, Jupiter, and the rest of the Celestial Rabble, who Mankind would have been asham'd to have call'd Gods, had they had the true Account of their dissolute, exorbitant, and inhumane Lives. From Men we may descend to Action: and this prodigious Looseness of the Pen has confounded History and Fable from the beginning of both. Thus the great Flood in Deucalion's Time is made
- 68. to pass for the Universal Deluge: the Ingenuity of Dedalus, who by a Clue of Thread got out of the Egyptian Maze, which was thought impossible, is grown into a Fable of making himself a pair of Wings, and flying through the Air:—the great Drought and violent Heat of Summer, thought to be the Time when the Great Famine was in Samaria, fabl'd by the Poets and Historians into the Story of Phaeton borrowing the Chariot of the Sun, and giving the Horses their Heads, they run so near the Earth as burnt up all the nearest Parts, and scorch'd the Inhabitants, so that they have been black in those Parts ever since. These, and such like ridiculous Stuff, have been the Effects of the Pageantry of Historians in former Ages: and I might descend nearer home, to the Legends of Fabulous History which have swallow'd up the Actions of our ancient Predecessors, King Arthur, the Gyant Gogmagog, and the Britain, the Stories of St. George and the Dragon, Guy Earl of Warwick, Bevis of Southampton, and the like. I'll account for better Conduct in the ensuing History: and tho' some Things here related shall have equal Wonder due to them, Posterity shall not have equal Occasion to distrust the Verity of the Relation. I confess here is room for abundance of Romance, because the Subject may be safer extended than in any other case, no Story being capable to be crowded with such Circumstances, but Infinite Power, which is all along concern'd with us in every Relation, is suppos'd capable of making true. Yet we shall no where so Trespass upon Fact, as to oblige Infinite Power to the shewing more Miracles than it intended. It must be allow'd, That when Nature was put into so much Confusion, and the Surface of the Earth and Sea felt such extraordinary a Disorder, innumerable Accidents would fall out that till the like Occasion happen may never more be seen, and unless a like Occasion had happen'd could never before be heard of: wherefore the particular Circumstances being so wonderful, serve
- 69. but to remember Posterity of the more wonderful Extreme, which was the immediate Cause. The Uses and Application made from this Terrible Doctrine, I leave to the Men of the Pulpit; only take the freedom to observe, that when Heaven it self lays down the Doctrine, all Men are summon'd to make Applications by themselves. The main Inference I shall pretend to make or at least venture the exposing to publick View, in this case, is, the strong Evidence God has been pleas'd to give in this terrible manner to his own Being, which Mankind began more than ever to affront and despise: And I cannot but have so much Charity for the worst of my Fellow- Creatures, that I believe no Man was so hard'ned against the Sence of his Maker, but he felt some Shocks of his wicked Confidence from the Convulsions of Nature at this time. I cannot believe any Man so rooted in Atheistical Opinions, as not to find some Cause to doubt whether he was not in the Wrong, and a little to apprehend the Possibility of a Supreme Being, when he felt the terrible Blasts of this Tempest. I cannot doubt but the Atheist's hard'ned Soul trembl'd a little as well as his House, and he felt some Nature asking him some little Questions; as these—Am not I mistaken? Certainly there is some such thing as a God—What can all this be? What is the Matter in the World? Certainly Atheism is one of the most Irrational Principles in the World; there is something incongruous in it with the Test of Humane Policy, because there is a Risque in the Mistake one way, and none another. If the Christian is mistaken, and it should at last appear that there is no Future State, God or Devil, Reward or Punishment, where is the Harm of it? All he has lost is, that he has practis'd a few needless Mortifications, and took the pains to live a little more like a Man than he wou'd have done. But if the Atheist is mistaken, he has brought all the Powers, whose Being he deny'd, upon his Back, has provok'd the Infinite in the highest manner, and must at last sink under the Anger of him whose Nature he has always disown'd.
- 70. I would recommend this Thought to any Man to consider of, one Way he can lose nothing, the other he may be undone. Certainly a wise Man would never run such an unequal Risque: a Man cannot answer it to Common Arguments, the Law of Numbers, and the Rules of Proportion are against him. No Gamester will set at such a Main; no Man will lay such a Wager, where he may lose, but cannot win. There is another unhappy Misfortune in the Mistake too, that it can never be discover'd till 'tis too late to remedy. He that resolves to die an Atheist, shuts the Door against being convinc'd in time. If it shou'd so fall out, as who can tell, But that there is a God, a Heaven, and Hell, Mankind had best consider well for Fear, 't should be too late when his Mistakes appear. I should not pretend to set up for an Instructor in this Case, were not the Inference so exceeding just; who can but preach where there is such a Text? when God himself speaks his own Power, he expects we should draw just Inferences from it, both for our Selves and our Friends. If one Man, in an Hundred Years, shall arrive at a Conviction of the Being of his Maker, 'tis very well worth my While to write it, and to bear the Character of an impertinent Fellow from all the rest. I thought to make some Apology for the Meanness of Stile, and the Method, which may be a little unusual, of Printing Letters from the Country in their own Stile. For the last I only leave this short Reason with the Reader, the Desire I had to keep close to the Truth, and hand my Relation with the true Authorities from whence I receiv'd it; together with some Justice to the Gentlemen concern'd, who, especially in Cases of Deliverances, are willing to record the Testimonial of the Mercies they received, and to set their Hands to the humble
- 71. Acknowledgement. The Plainness and Honesty of the Story will plead for the Meanness of the Stile in many of the Letters, and the Reader cannot want Eyes to see what sort of People some of them come from. Others speak for themselves, and being writ by Men of Letters, as well as Men of Principles, I have not Arrogance enough to attempt a Correction either of the Sense or Stile; and if I had gone about it, should have injur'd both Author and Reader. These come dressed in their own Words because I ought not, and those because I could not mend 'em. I am perswaded, they are all dress'd in the desirable, though unfashionable Garb of Truth, and I doubt not but Posterity will read them with Pleasure. The Gentlemen, who have taken the Pains to collect and transmit the Particular Relations here made publick, I hope will have their End answered in this Essay, conveying hereby to the Ages to come the Memory of the dreadfulest and most universal Judgment that ever Almighty Power thought fit to bring upon this Part of the World. And as this was the true Native and Original Design of the first Undertaking, abstracted from any Part of the Printer's Advantage, the Editor and Undertakers of this Work, having their Ends entirely answer'd, hereby give their humble Thanks to all those Gentlemen who have so far approv'd the Sincerity of their Design as to contribute their Trouble, and help forward by their just Observations, the otherwise very difficult Undertaking. If Posterity will but make the desired Improvement both of the Collector's Pains, as well as the several Gentlemens Care in furnishing the Particulars, I dare say they will all acknowledge their End fully answer'd, and none more readily than The Ages Humble Servant.
- 72. THE STORM
- 73. CHAPTER I Of the Natural Causes and Original of Winds Though a System of Exhalation, Dilation, and Extension, things which the Ancients founded the Doctrine of Winds upon, be not my direct Business; yet it cannot but be needful to the present Design to Note, that the Difference in the Opinions of the Ancients, about the Nature and Original of Winds, is a Leading Step to one Assertion which I have advanc'd in all that I have said with Relation to Winds, viz. That there seems to be more of God in the whole Appearance, than in any other Part of Operating Nature. Nor do I think I need explain my self very far in this Notion: I allow the high Original of Nature to be the Great Author of all her Actings, and by the strict Rein of his Providence, is the Continual and Exact Guide of her Executive Power; but still 'tis plain that in Some of the Principal Parts of Nature she is Naked to our Eye, Things appear both in their Causes and Consequences, Demonstration gives its Assistance, and finishes our further Enquiries: for we never enquire after God in those Works of Nature which depending upon the Course of Things are plain and demonstrative; but where we find Nature defective in her Discovery, where we see Effects but cannot reach their Causes; there 'tis most just, and Nature her self seems to direct us to it, to end the rational Enquiry, and resolve it into Speculation: Nature plainly refers us beyond her Self, to the Mighty Hand of Infinite Power, the Author of Nature, and Original of all Causes.
- 74. Among these Arcana of the Sovereign Oeconomy, the Winds are laid as far back as any. Those Ancient Men of Genius who rifled Nature by the Torch-Light of Reason even to her very Nudities, have been run a-ground in this unknown Channel; the Wind has blown out the Candle of Reason, and left them all in the Dark. Aristotle, in his Problems, Sect. 23. calls the Wind Aeris Impulsum. Seneca says, Ventus est Aer Fluens. The Stoicks held it, Motum aut Fluxionem Aeris. Mr. Hobs, Air mov'd in a direct or undulating Motion. Fournier, Le Vent et un Movement Agitation de l'Air Causi par des Exhalations et Vapours. The Moderns, a Hot and Dry Exhalation repuls'd by Antiperistasis; Des Cartes defines it, Venti Nihil sunt nisi Moti & Dilati Vapores. And various other Opinions are very judiciously collected by the Learned Mr. Bohun in his Treatise of the Origin and Properties of Wind, P. 7. and concludes, 'That no one Hypothesis, how Comprehensive soever, has yet been able to resolve all the Incident Phenomena of Winds. Bohun of Winds, P. 9. This is what I quote them for, and this is all my Argument demands; the deepest Search into the Region of Cause and Consequence, has found out just enough to leave the wisest Philosopher in the dark, to bewilder his Head, and drown his Understanding. You raise a Storm in Nature by the very Inquiry; and at last, to be rid of you, she confesses the Truth, and tells you, It is not in Me, you must go Home and ask my Father. Whether then it be the Motion of Air, and what that Air is, which as yet is undefin'd, whether it is a Dilation, a previous Contraction, and then violent Extension as in Gun-Powder, whether the Motion is Direct, Circular, or Oblique, whether it be an Exhalation repuls'd by the Middle Region, and the Antiperistasis of that Part of the Heavens which is set as a Wall of Brass to bind up the Atmosphere, and keep it within its proper Compass for the Functions of Respiration, Condensing and Rarifying, without which Nature would be all in Confusion; whatever are their efficient Causes, 'tis not much to the immediate Design.
- 75. 'Tis apparent, that God Almighty, whom the Philosophers care as little as possible to have any thing to do with, seems to have reserv'd this, as one of those Secrets in Nature which should more directly guide them to himself. Not but that a Philosopher may be a Christian, and some of the best of the Latter have been the best of the Former, as Vossius, Mr. Boyle, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Verulam, Dr. Harvey, and others; and I wish I could say Mr. Hobbs, for 'twas Pity there should lie any just Exceptions to the Piety of a Man, who had so few to his General Knowledge, and an exalted Spirit in Philosophy. When therefore I say the Philosophers do not care to concern God himself in the Search after Natural Knowledge; I mean, as it concerns Natural Knowledge, meerly as such; for 'tis a Natural Cause they seek, from a General Maxim, That all Nature has its Cause within it self: 'tis true, 'tis the Darkest Part of the Search, to trace the Chain backward; to begin at the Consequence, and from thence hunt Counter, as we may call it, to find out the Cause: 'twould be much easier if we could begin at the Cause, and trace it to all its Consequences. I make no Question, the Search would be equally to the Advantage of Science, and the Improvement of the World; for without Doubt there are some Consequences of known Causes which are not yet discover'd, and I am as ready to believe there are yet in Nature some Terra Incognita both as to Cause and Consequence too. In this Search after Causes, the Philosopher, tho' he may at the same Time be a very good Christian, cares not at all to meddle with his Maker: the Reason is plain; We may at any time resolve all things into Infinite Power, and we do allow that the Finger of Infinite is the First Mighty Cause of Nature her self: but the Treasury of Immediate Cause is generally committed to Nature; and if at any Time we are driven to look beyond her, 'tis because we are out of the way: 'tis not because it is not in her, but because we cannot find it.
- 76. Two Men met in the Middle of a great Wood; One was searching for a Plant which grew in the Wood, the Other had lost himself in the Wood, and wanted to get out: The Latter rejoyc'd when thro' the Trees he saw the open Country: but the Other Man's Business was not to get out, but to find what he look'd for: yet this Man no more undervalued the Pleasantness of the Champion Country than the other. Thus in Nature the Philosopher's Business is not to look through Nature, and come to the vast open Field of Infinite Power; his Business is in the Wood; there grows the Plant he looks for; and 'tis there he must find it. Philosophy's a-ground if it is forc'd to any further Enquiry. The Christian begins just where the Philosopher ends; and when the Enquirer turns his Eyes up to Heaven, Farewel Philosopher; 'tis a Sign he can make nothing of it here. David was a good Man, the Scripture gives him that Testimony; but I am of the Opinion, he was a better King than a Scholar, more a Saint than a Philosopher: and it seems very proper to judge that David was upon the Search of Natural Causes, and found himself puzzled as to the Enquiry, when he finishes the Enquiry with two pious Ejaculations, When I view the Heavens the Works of thy Hands, the Moon and the Stars which thou hast made; then I say, what is Man! David may very rationally be suppos'd to be searching the Causes, Motions, and Influences of Heavenly Bodies; and finding his Philosophy a-ground, and the Discovery not to answer his Search, he turns it all to a pious Use, recognizes Infinite Power, and applies it to the Exstasies and Raptures of his Soul, which were always employ'd in the Charm of exalted Praise. Thus in another Place we find him dissecting the Womb of his Mother, and deep in the Study of Anatomy; but having, as it may be well supposed, no Help from Johan Remelini, or of the Learned Riolanus, and other Anatomists, famous for the most exquisite Discovery of human Body, and all the Vessels of Life, with their proper Dimensions and Use, all David could say to the Matter was,
- 77. Good Man, to look up to Heaven, and admire what he could not understand, Psal.—I was fearfully and wonderfully made, &c. This is very Good, and well becomes a Pulpit; but what's all this to a Philosopher? 'Tis not enough for him to know that God has made the Heavens, the Moon, and the Stars, but must inform himself where he has plac'd them, and why there; and what their Business, what their Influences, their Functions, and the End of their Being. 'Tis not enough for an Anatomist to know that he is fearfully and wonderfully made in the lowermost Part of the Earth, but he must see those lowermost Parts; search into the Method Nature proceeds upon in the performing the Office appointed, must search the Steps she takes, the Tools she works by; and in short, know all that the God of Nature has permitted to be capable of Demonstration. And it seems a just Authority for our Search, that some things are so plac'd in Nature by a Chain of Causes and Effects, that upon a diligent Search we may find out what we look for: To search after what God has in his Sovereignty thought fit to conceal, may be criminal, and doubtless is so; and the Fruitlesness of the Enquiry is generally Part of the Punishment to a vain Curiosity: but to search after what our Maker has not hid, only cover'd with a thin Veil of Natural Obscurity, and which upon our Search is plain to be read, seems to be justified by the very Nature of the thing, and the Possibility of the Demonstration is an Argument to prove the Lawfulness of the Enquiry. The Design of this Digression, is, in short, That as where Nature is plain to be search'd into, and Demonstration easy, the Philosopher is allow'd to seek for it; so where God has, as it were, laid his Hand upon any Place, and Nature presents us with an universal Blank, we are therein led as naturally to recognize the Infinite Wisdom and Power of the God of Nature, as David was in the Texts before quoted. And this is the Case here; the Winds are some of those Inscrutables of Nature, in which humane Search has not yet been able to arrive at any Demonstration.
- 78. 'The Winds,' says the Learned Mr. Bohun, 'are generated in the Intermediate Space between the Earth and the Clouds, either by Rarefaction or Repletion, and sometimes haply by pressure of Clouds, Elastical Virtue of the Air, &c. from the Earth or Seas, as by Submarine or Subterraneal Eruption or Descension or Resilition from the middle Region.' All this, though no Man is more capable of the Enquiry than this Gentleman, yet to the Demonstration of the thing, amounts to no more than what we had before, and still leaves it as Abstruse and Cloudy to our Understanding as ever. Not but that I think my self bound in Duty to Science in General, to pay a just Debt to the Excellency of Philosophical Study, in which I am a meer Junior, and hardly any more than an Admirer; and therefore I cannot but allow that the Demonstrations made of Rarefaction and Dilatation are extraordinary; and that by Fire and Water Wind may be rais'd in a close Room, as the Lord Verulam made Experiment in the Case of his Feathers. But that therefore all the Causes of Wind are from the Influences of the Sun upon vaporous Matter first Exhal'd, which being Dilated are oblig'd to possess themselves of more Space than before, and consequently make the Particles fly before them; this does not seem to be a sufficient Demonstration of Wind: for this, to my weak Apprehension, would rather make a Blow like Gun-Powder than a rushing forward; at best this is indeed a probable Conjecture, but admits not of Demonstration equal to other Phænomena in Nature. And this is all I am upon, viz. That this Case has not equal Proofs of the Natural Causes of it that we meet with in other Cases: The Scripture seems to confirm this, when it says in one Place, He holds the Wind in his Hand; as if he should mean, Other things are left to the Common Discoveries of Natural Inquiry, but this is a thing he holds in his own Hand, and has conceal'd it from the Search of the most Diligent and Piercing Understanding: This is further confirm'd by the Words of our Saviour, The Wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the Sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh;
- 79. 'tis plainly express'd to signify that the Causes of the Wind are not equally discover'd by Natural Enquiry as the rest of Nature is. If I would carry this Matter on, and travel into the Seas, and Mountains of America, where the Mansones, the Trade-Winds, the Sea-Breezes, and such Winds as we have little Knowledge of, are more common; it would yet more plainly appear, That we hear the Sound, but know not from whence they come. Nor is the Cause of their Motion parallel to the Surface of the Earth, a less Mystery than their real Original, or the Difficulty of their Generation: and though some People have been forward to prove the Gravity of the Particles must cause the Motion to be oblique; 'tis plain it must be very little so, or else Navigation would be impracticable, and in extroardinary Cases where the Pressure above is perpendicular, it has been fatal to Ships, Houses, &c. and would have terrible Effects in the World, if it should more frequently be so. From this I draw only this Conclusion, That the Winds are a Part of the Works of God by Nature, in which he has been pleased to communicate less of Demonstration to us than in other Cases; that the Particulars more directly lead us to Speculations, and refer us to Infinite Power more than the other Parts of Nature does. That the Wind is more expressive and adapted to his Immediate Power, as he is pleas'd to exert it in extraordinary Cases in the World. That 'tis more frequently made use of as the Executioner of his Judgments in the World, and extraordinary Events are brought to pass by it. From these three Heads we are brought down directly to speak of the Particular Storm before us; viz. The Greatest, the Longest in Duration, the widest in Extent, of all the Tempests and Storms that History gives any Account of since the Beginning of Time. In the further Conduct of the Story, 'twill not be foreign to the Purpose, nor unprofitable to the Reader, to review the Histories of ancient Time and remote Countries, and examine in what Manner
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