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I joined my new office in July 2010. Assigned to the Purchasing Department, I was given my own workstation. The IT department in my company was humble and friendly. Since they had their department on the same floor as my department, we used to bump into each other often. I was curious to know how the company network was set up and in what manner it was running. Being an Ubuntu fan, I wanted them to have a look at the OS and try it for official use.
Initially, my PC had some problems; some were related to hardware, and some to software. Hence, the IT guys had to spend some time to make amends so that my work would not come to a sudden halt altogether. In the process of problem solving we started to discuss Linux.
A few days later, I was talking about Ubuntu, and my IT guys, Pravin and Kalpesh, were happy to know that someone in the whole company knew about Linux other than themselves. They knew about Fedora and Red Hat Linux, and wanted to try Linux as a Server OS. Soon, we three started to discuss Linux Server OSs, and they both tried some flavours on two spare PCs which they used as a Server. After a long testing and trial, they chose to install Fedora as the Server OS, and also use it to route the internet traffic through the whole company network.
The company's network was now administered by Fedora OS, and the Internet routed through the same Server PC which was running Fedora (Server Edition). Also Ubuntu 10.04 was installed on a second PC to try out new additions without affecting the Network. But Linux has its own share of problems.
We had to find replacements for old programs, and ensure smooth functioning of the company network and flow of operations. We have IP Messenger on all PCs, and the OS is Windows, hence Gnome IP Messenger came in as a replacement on the Server. Squid was deployed to control traffic through the network. Also VNC was installed so that, in case of any problems, the same could be solved without the user being affected (since the network is spread over three different levels in two separate buildings). The virus database was also centralised and henceforth all the updates are made from the Central Server. Wine was installed and is now used to run some software which runs on Windows but does not yet have suitable replacements in Linux. There were some minor issues such as blocking of unintended sites by squid, domain assignment, and even some freezes, but they were solved thanks to the community, which is always there to help us all out.
In this way, Linux replaced an older OS on my company server, and is now fully functional. And yes, since we are an infrastructure company, we have issues on our various sites that are as far as 400-700 kms from us which are solved through TeamViewer.
All my thanks to the Ubuntu community, and my best wishes to your readers. Keep reading and keep using FOSS.