Migration Posposal: Windows to Linux Systems

Migration Posposal: Windows to Linux Systems

To: Senior Management Team

From:

Subject: Windows to Linux Systems

Date: 31st March 2022

I wish to submit that Linux's open-source nature makes it free to use in any environment. Faster Computing Inc can deploy many inexpensive systems to support its Web applications. Linux also provides load balancer and clustering, which helps ensure that Faster Computing, Inc's servers can handle sudden surges in traffic without crashing. These features provide fault tolerance and bring high availability to any business application without purchasing many costly hardware devices.

There are various ways in which security be implemented in the Linux systems, both workstations and servers, as follows:

• The Linux systems will be implemented with a security system that allows only root access to the machines.
• Users will have a login name and password, which they must use to log in to their respective machines.
• They will not be able to change this login name or password, as the root user will control them.
• The root can create a new user or delete a user if he/she so chooses (Praptodiyono et al., 2019).
• The users will have access only to the directories that root creates for them, which we call a chrooted environment.
• This means that we can control what files the users can see by simply creating these directories and placing files in them that we want the users to see.

Other security features include the following:

• File permissions. The permissions set on files are very important to maintaining system security. These permissions define who can read, write and execute these files.
• Linux's built-in firewall, IP-tables, provides a powerful and flexible method for controlling traffic flow into and out of your system.

How activities such as web-browsing would be carried out using the previous Microsoft Office files are highlighted below:

• The transition from Windows to Linux can be a daunting task, but the transition will be smooth if done properly and efficiently.
• They will use open source software for their web browsing, and the office files can be converted to the equivalent of LibreOffice or OpenOffice.
• The end-users would be able to browse the internet using a web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Opera (Praptodiyono et al., 2019).
• The only major difference is that the user wouldn’t have the ability to use Active X while browsing the internet.
• Microsoft Office files can be opened and edited using Libre Office, compatible with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access files.

Moreover, the Windows admins also wish to administer some tasks in Linux through monitoring and management. The following points explain how it is done and how logging also works.

• Process management is a common task for any system administrator. Process monitoring and management in Linux are similar to Windows.
• We use the ps and top commands at the command line to view running processes, and we use kill to stop unresponsive ones.
• The ps command provides more information than the tasklist command in Windows; it includes the process ID (PID), the tty (terminal) associated with the process, CPU usage, memory usage, and start time.
• We can use the ps aux command at the terminal prompt to view a full list of running processes and PIDs.
• Microsoft introduced a new utility called Get-Process in PowerShell that provides similar information as ps.
• Logging is another common task for system admins.
• Windows has event logs that can be viewed using the Event Viewer console or PowerShell using Get-EventLog.
• On Linux systems, logs are stored in text files under /var/log/. Logs are not centralized like they are on Windows systems; instead, each service has its log file, such as auth.log for authentication-related services or Syslog for kernel events.

Some folks in IT raised questions about the Linux flavor that was recommended. Therefore, the following recommendations explain why Ubuntu is the most popular and the best option.

• The Linux flavor that was recommended is the Debian-based Ubuntu. Here are the comparisons of other Linux flavors(Redhat and Gentoo) with Ubuntu:
• Both RedHat and Gentoo have better package management systems, specifically yum and emerge.
• RedHat also has more enterprise support options than Ubuntu.
• Ubuntu is more stable than Gentoo, which is less stable.
• The most important thing is that Ubuntu, though a Debian derivative, provides the end-user a more consistent interface in terms of installation.

There are various ways in which software installation works on Linux:

• The first thing you should know about Linux is its many different operating systems.
• There's no one core Linux operating system. Instead, different companies and organizations have created their software distributions, or "distros," of the open-source code.
• Each distro has its software repository with its catalog of applications, so while they all have some things in common, they can be significantly different depending on which one you use.
• The second thing you need to know is that there are two main ways to install a Linux program: from your distro's repository or a third-party website.
• Some programs can only be installed by downloading them directly from the developer's site.

Conclusively, it is also significant to explain how Linux works together with the systems that will continue to run Windows and how we can share files between the different system types as follows:

• There are several possible solutions for Windows-Linux file sharing. The most common is to set up a Samba server on the Linux system (Adekotujo, Odumabo, Adedokun, and Aiyeniko, 2020).
• This will allow you to mount the Linux directories as network drives on your windows systems.
• Another option is to run a VNC client in one of the Windows systems and use it to connect to a desktop session on the Linux system. You can then drag and drop files between desktops as needed.
• One final option is to run an FTP server on your Linux system and connect using an FTP client on your Windows system.

Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions and is also the most widely used Linux desktop. Users new to Ubuntu could find it a little overwhelming at first, but you will appreciate its ease of use once you get used to it. Ubuntu offers a stable platform with regular updates to keep your system secure and up-to-date. It also has a large community support forum where you can get help when needed. I chose Ubuntu over others because it is very easy to use and has a lot of online help. It is also a good choice for beginners because it is easy to set up and use. The other reason is that it has a large community support forum where you can get help when needed.

Thank you for your cooperation!

References

Adekotujo, A., Odumabo, A., Adedokun, A., & Aiyeniko, O. (2020). A Comparative Study of Operating Systems: Case of Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS. International Journal of Computer Applications, 176, 16-23.

Praptodiyono, S., Sofhan, R., Pramudyo, A. S., Firmansyah, T., & Osman, A. (2019). Performance comparison of transmitting jumbo frame on Windows and Linux System. Telkomnika, 17(1), 68-75.