[ILUG] Suggestions for Windows to Linux desktop migration.

[Harry Duncan]

Hi Guys,

Some of you may have traveled this route before, so I'm hoping to pick
your brains.

I have an opportunity to deploy replacement computers into an office
using linux as opposed to windows workstations. Reason? With the
advent of ios and android, minds are opened to alternatives as being
viable, and budgets have been slashed and significant savings can be
had by avoiding the software licence. The initial deploy would be to a
single team of 6 users, with a view to rolling it out for future
upgrades, team by team to the remainder of the 120 users in the
organisation.

I have all angles covered bar one.

The users are non technical, they are therapists who council clients
through problems, and use computers to type up session notes which are
stored on the office samba server. The workstations are windows, the
office tools are microsoft office with a small bit of libreoffice
thrown in here and there on some newer machines.

We have tested them on linux before, having provided all systems
training through linux workstations (web based reporting app's etc),
and nobody has flinched at the desktop environment, everybody seemed
to find their way around ok.

The users are non technical, so libre office will fit the bill nicely,
and is proving more user friendly to the users than the newer version
of MS office which they can't get their heads around since MS changed
the UI, LibreOffice looks more familiar to the users.

The stumbling block is connecting to the samba shares.

In windows, we map a shared drive, and put a shortcut on the desktop.
User clicks into the shortcut, it prompts for a username and password,
and they get in. Browse to their files, double click to open.

When I do the same thing on my office desktop I usually have an fstab
entry and mount from a terminal, a solution which won't run for these
guys. If it involves a terminal, the solution isn't a runner.

When I've tested mounting from the file browser, I have issues with
the office tools working with files on the remote samba server. If I
mount as root, it works fine, mount through the gui userspace with
user and password, and I hit problems, must copy the file to my local
profile first.

I need to replicate the windows user experience for accessing the file
server, the requirements are:

1) Click through a folder / shortcut / file browser icon to get into a
shared network location.
2) Be presented with a username and password to authenticate to the
shared resource to give the user the reassurance that these sensitive
files have access control restrictions.
3) Be able to browse into the share through a gui file browser and
double click a file to open it in an office tool without having to
copy it to the local profile folder first.
4) Be able to save to the shared drive direct from office tools to
facilitate hot desking.

Would an alternate file sharing scheme on the file server give better
results than samba which I've been using religiously for yonks because
it "just works" ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Harry.