Linux Mint desktop as a productive workstation

[ccc]

Hi

Are you using Linux Mint desktop as a productive workstation at your company, I mean for a normal non IT, office user?
Which Desktop Environment and Windows Manager?
Which hardware, experience, advantages or disadvantages etc?
Which Management Software are you using to manage Linux workstations?

[mustafa]

Hi

Are you using Linux Mint desktop as a productive workstation at your company?
Which Desktop Environment and Windows Manager?
Which hardware, experience, advantages or disadvantages etc?
Which Management Software?

I don't know what do you mean by productive workstation! I use mint in my work to program websites using php, can we count this as productive workstation?

[Reorx]

Yes, about a month ago I switched from a WinXP laptop at work to a Linux Mint 9 main edition (Gnome) 32 bit laptop. I use the laptop to do mostly word processing but I also surf the net a bit, send and receive e-mail, do some spreadsheet work, create PDFs occasionally, etc.

The hardware I am using is a Dell Vostro 1015 (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vostro-1015/pd?oc=bqctlt13&model_id=vostro-1015) which I purchased from Dell specifically for the purpose of putting LM9 on it for use in my office. The hardware/OS compatibility is very good but not perfect... the system speakers are very basic and the speakers do not mute when I plug in my earphones (it's a software issue that I have not sorted out yet). The only other problem (minor) is that I can not get my touchpad to scroll (probably another minor software issue). Otherwise the machine runs great...

Advantages? The most useful advantage is that it is NOT Windows. It does not need Internet security (expensive, annoying, performance crippling) bloat-ware. It comes with everything I need & use every day right out of the box. It runs faster than Windoze on most hardware and it runs pretty well on old &/or modest hardware. It is less memory hungry. It is faster and easier to install than windows.

Disadvantages? Running Windoze software can sometimes be a tedious, clumsy, and/or annoying to set-up. The learning curve initially can be somewhat steep if you will be expected to troubleshoot it. The learning curve for a "regular user" is relatively shallow - mostly involving learning how to use a different word processor, or browser, or e-mail client, etc. - not all that difficult really.

I am not sure what you mean by "management software" so I assume that I am not using any...

[gibbs1984]

I wish, I can't stand using Windows at work, my laptop has continually got slower and slower over the past 2 years (it wasn't fast to start with) and is near enough unusable now! And then we have to use IE for the online in house websites we use we annoys me even more, unfortunately FireFox doesn't work well with those sites as they were designed for IE only.

[richyrich]

Yes, yes, and yes . . All Mint 9 LTS, gnome, kde, xfce, and yes, even fluxbox. File servers, print servers, firewall/gateway, and workstations . . hardware ? no ati motherboards or graphics in any of them.

I most frequently use open source vpn software for remote access through business class vpn/router appliances.

[ccc]

THX!

[cwwgateway]

I have done projects and made documents using linux, but I still run Windows a lot (I think PowerPoint and Publisher still are superior to LibreOffice).

[daviddd]

I have been using Ubuntu for work for some years now.
I stopped using Windows for Internet after my ISP told me my computer had been sending out viruses.
It turned out to be a serious keylogger that no normal anti-virus could detect and I have never used Windows again for online banking!
Also the patching of Windows is very annoying and works much better in Ubuntu and Mint.
It is also a huge advantage that you can simply install Linux without activation or bloatware.
I was satisfied with Ubuntu up to version 10, there were always a few bugs but nothing insoluble but don't like their current direction, they seem to be trying to win over Apple users.
Even after getting rid of Unity desktop, Ubuntu 12 has a lot of new features I do not like and also seems much more buggy
I don't want a user experience, eye candy or the computer doing clever things, sorry. It just needs to work.
Windows 2000 and Ubuntu 10 were just fine but no longer get updates!
I am now changing to Mint and have installed it on a new laptop and the first impressions are very good.
Please don't let Mint go in the same direction as Ubuntu!
Main problem with my work as a translator is that many users have changed from XP at last and don't change the default settings so they send me DOCX files, which Libre Office mucks up. This is presumabably the intention of Microsoft, who have now completely moved from being a provider of software that people want to a provider of software that people have to use due to their monopoly. The next step in their progress downhill will probably be to turn into a copyright troll company.
Some specialist applications are also only available under Windows.
The answer was to install Office 2010 in Virtual Box.
This means I have safe Internet access, all the super Mint applications like CD burner, Gimp, Music, Thunderbird etc. and can still work on a DOCX file and several PDFs simultaneously.

[mfluder]

hello. My company uses windows machines exclusively. I work in IT so I had the freedom to install Linux Mint 13 on my machine. I had to customize it heavily in order to use it safely on our domain with custom firewall rules. Also, I needed to be able to mimick all of the tasks that I performed on my windows machine. I tried other distros, but Mint is the one that moved me away from windows permanently. While the rest of the company suffers with windows viruses, I am at peace with NO antivirus. It works great and I couldn't be happier.

[Orbmiser]

Way too much latitude in Company Needs & Requirements. And examples given highly dependent on personal requirements for that company. Without taking into consideration for interaction with other companies or clients personal requirements.

Even something simple like 100% office documents requirement means a fail for Linux as a viable alternative.
Open Office or LibreOffice both fail in that regards as documents created in either can easily fail due to embedded charts,graphs,tables,etc... Not Linux programs fault but Mircosoft's but doesn't change the fact of locking in businesses to Microsoft.

Example: May very well create my bills & quotes or bids for doing a job and look great on this end. But then you have them opening up on their Microsoft Office and looks unprofessional due to breakage. As a result of Microsoft's closed and non-compliant open standards.

Companies have to be very careful about transitioning over to Linux and remain compliant with other businesses or customers they interact with thru digital means. As can cost you money on that lost bid,quote and come across as unprofessional. As presentation is a big part of getting the contract,job,etc...
.

[ccc]

Thx for ALL interesting und useful answers.