Oil and Gas is the same as any other industry. They want to use something that will work, and they want it to be cost effective. In that order.
Most management has never heard of Linux, so they simply do not believe that it will work. If they have no confidence that it will work, it will never have the opportunity to become cost effective. Here was my strategy. Decisions come from senior levels. I can whine, moan, or anything else, but the truth is, I need senior (VP or higher) people selling Linux, because I can't succeed at selling it to them. What I can do, is inspire fear. (It works for the government south of us). So I talk about viruses, and people being hacked all the time. Talk about "Look at how fast Identity Theft is growing in the last couple of years", "High Speed Internet connections are attacked at a rate of 5x per day" Stuff like that. Naturally, they'll eventually ask "What can be done". "I protect my network at home by running a firewall." I'd respond. "It actually has the added benefit of allowing me to have more than one PC connected at the same time as well." (This isn't much of an issue any more, but it used to be.) "How much does it cost, and how hard is it to set up?" They'll ask. "I use a free one". "Can you set me up with one?" - Notice they're asking for this. Also note that Linux has never entered the conversation yet. "Sure". So I set them up something with DHCP, DNS Caching, Squid, and maybe Samba. They take it home, and their kids see a big improvement, so I ask them about it later. "How's that Linux box I set up for you last month working out?" "Great. It was easy to use. I plugged it in, and everything just orked." - Notice Linux is being complimented here. "I've always found Linux to be really good at things everything it does." "Yeah. My kids are running my Hard Drive out of disk space with all the MP3s they're getting though." "Hahahaha. I set up the Linux box to also be a server like the ones we use here. I'll email you a script file so that you can connect to it. Then the kids can put their music on the server rather than the desktop." "That's cool. That would be great." - So I email him a batch file with a 'net use' command in it. >From there, just check up on the Linux box every once in a while. Remember, from the time it starts working, it's a Linux box. This is the hardest part. Just wait. Point out every once in a while when a company that your boss (not you) cares about posts a Linux success story. Let you boss feel cool. "They're finally getting to the level that your house has been at for how many months?" Linux is cool. Make sure your boss feels cool for running it. Make sure he knows he's ahead of the curve. People like to make the right decision. They especially like to see others fail, and come to the same decision they made months earlier. So if Acme Trading decides to dump their Microsoft Server, and move to a Linux server. Point it out to him, and say something like "We've been here for a year. They should have just asked us..." Sooner or later, a project will come up. For us, our backup server died. So I said "listen, I can build a Linux server out of one of our spare desktops. It's not a good long term solution, but I can have it working almost immediately, and it'll do the job well." By this time, he's heard Linux for several months. He's ran it at home, and seen that it is rock solid stable. "Sounds good. A short term strategy is fine, because the backup server should be back online in a week". Boss is happy. His problem is solved. The significance of running Linux here isn't much, but it still matters. There should be a few of these. Linux should "get the company out of a jam" at least a couple of times. Eventually, there will be a new project. This will generally be about a year later. This will be a real project. For us, it was a web server. We wanted to create a web server in house. So I proposed Linux. I said "We keep using it to save our bacon when other solutions fail, lets just start with it. It's free, so we have nothing to lose anyway. We all run it at home (Our Controller, IT manager (also the VP) and I all did, so this was totally true), we've seen it be totally reliable for a year now." There might be some hesitating, but they'll generally say yes. Once it's in the door, you're gold. A few notes. Don't let it fail. Especially not in the beginning. This might mean spending additional time monitoring it to make sure it's up as expected. Accept that as the cost of getting in. Also, don't bail on this just because you leave the company. The next person through the door will be able to take up where you left off. If Linux isn't the right solution, then don't propose it. Don't be scared to say "let me check on that" or "I'm not sure". That gives you a chance to get back to the manager to discuss Linux again. ALWAYS refer to Microsoft as Legacy. Even my manager does it now. Remember, Linux is cool, Microsoft is legacy. Don't slag Microsoft because they're Microsoft. They have enough obvious flaws, they can make themselves look bad without any help. Just make sure Linux is always the saviour when things go wrong. Kev. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jesse Kline" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 12:54 PM Subject: Re: (clug-talk) OSS Oil & Gas
