Dr. Pete Thompson, president of the main campus of East Coast Career College in Virginia Beach received a message that the educational institution needs to cut costs. The college intended to upgrade the OS in its computer labs, but research indicated that a hardware upgrade was needed. Due to the message received about the need to reduce costs, it is impossible to achieve this goal. Thus, the best solution for college would be a migration from Windows to Linux.
Linux is an open-source operating system (OS), whose main advantage is the absence of the need to purchase a license, in contrast to Windows. Migration from Windows to Linux, contrary to expectations, will not have a steep learning curve. Despite the fact that this OS is more flexible and has more settings, its graphical user interface (GUI) is user-friendly. OpenSUSE, through which you can download the Linux installer, offers two types of interfaces: K Desktop Environment (KDE) and GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME). The difference between the two interfaces is only in the programming language, while they offer the same functionality (Basta et al., 2012). The Linux GUI is also similar to Windows, which will not cause problems for students to learn it quickly.
Additionally, Linux offers the same capabilities for creating and accessing documents, presentations and using the Internet as Windows. However, in addition to the standard functions, Linux also offers a number of features, including multiuser, multitasking, and networking connectivity (Basta et al., 2012). Multiuser allows all the students to have access to the same server where all the information is placed. This feature is an advantage since it provides the ability not to back up multiple computers, but only one. While home-use Linux rarely involves the use of this system, for East Coast Career College, this feature is extremely useful, as it saves data storage space. Multitasking allows students to run multiple processes at the same time as it is done in Windows. Thus, it will be easy for them to adapt to the transition from one OS to another since Linux is as comfortable to use as Windows. Networking connectivity also provides easy and familiar Internet access via TCP / IP protocols. Thus, Linux has the same capabilities as Windows and will allow students to both have access to a server with files and create text documents or presentations.
For East Coast Career College migration from Windows to Linux, the best choice is to use virtual machines. The minimum system requirements for Linux include a Pentium III 5000 MHz or higher processor, 512MB Ram, 3GB free disk space, and 800 X 6000 display resolution (Basta et al., 2012). However, the College already has at its disposal computers with Pentium 4 1.8 GHz processors, which exceeds the minimum requirements, which will provide the best performance for Linux systems. Using a virtual machine will allow the College to preserve all the files existing on the server that students can still have access to and accelerate the access to them through the new OS. Moreover, the use of Linux will allow the College to save money on installing a licensed Windows using an OS with an open-source license.
A virtual machine will also allow centralizing the use of all files on the system, making it easier to troubleshoot and control access. At the same time, centralized access can be a disadvantage, as failure in the central server will block access to all computers; however, timely troubleshooting will avoid such difficulties. Additionally, the use of Linux and a virtual machine will simplify authentication and configuration since these processes can be performed for all computers through a central server. Thus, the migration from Windows to Linux will allow the College to save money on hardware replacement and licensed OS for computer labs. Additionally, the use of a virtual machine will allow the installation of the system on a central computer with universal access to files for all users. In addition, centralized access will provide unified control over files and changes to the system.
Reference
Basta, A., Finamore, D. A., Basta, N., & Palladino, S. (2012). Linux operations and administration. Cengage Learning.