Thursday, October 4, 2012

Linux on the Desktop Dead? More Alive then Never - 750 Desktops at Portugal

Portuguese Insurance company Tranquilidade made the transition to Linux of 750 Computers.

The success made a study case and granted them an award of ESOP (Portuguese Association of Opensource Software Companies).

This award was given at Evento Linux 2012 - X Encontro Nacional sobre Tecnologia Aberta (Linux 2012 Event - 10th National Encounter of Open Technology).

According to source, it allowed Tranquilidade savings around 80% on software costs.

The solution is Ubuntu Linux based with Gnome 2, before 12.04LTS, they dont specify. They have intention of upgrading to 12.04 and use MATE desktop.

On the the desktop they use Firefox+Nautilus+Libreoffice, for email they use webmail previously used before.

They run 450 VDI computers (terminals) and 300 Laptops.

The transition was not done in one time, as they started using Libreoffice/Openoffice and webmail in 2009, making the users transition much softer, as this usually is the main problem for common users.


Sources: 
http://www.esop.pt/a-esop-%E2%80%93-associacao-de-empresas-de-software-open-source-portuguesas-esteve-presente-no-evento-linux-2012-x-encontro-nacional-sobre-tecnologia-aberta-que-decorreu-no-polo-tecnologico-de-li/
http://www.esop.pt/uploads/2012/09/TranquilidadeDesktopLinux.pdf

 
Made in Portugal