Switching from Windows to Linux

[Sousuke]

Hey Everyone,

 

I need some help choosing a few things as I am having issues with a few things, I run all the IT Solutions for a charity/volunteer organization in which we have very little to spend on equipment.

 

We have around 10 computers and 1 server in which I need help choosing a linux distribution for them all.

 

Firstly the 10 machines are all running Windows Vista which looses it extended support in April this year and also its slow and buggy with the machines we are using as they are Core 2 Duo machines with only 2GB of Ram, also quite a lot of them run SAS Hard disk drives as they were donated to us by a large company.

 

These machines are only used for simple office tasks and working online using a nationwide system for training, so would like to know what Linux Distrobution I should use for these machines, also as the rest of the organization (As I only volunteer for 1 unit out of around 200+) uses Microsoft office so would also like advice on a free version of office which would work well with linux.

 

Lastly is the server, its a HP Microserver with about 4GB of ram but we don't want to store large files on it so we only have one 300GB Hard drive for normal use, one 80GB Hard Drive for the OS and 2 80GB Hard Drives in RAID 1 for important data and its basically a storage server, i've been running Windows 2000 on there for now as i had a licence floating around for some odd reason, well as small amounts of personal data is stored on the server I would like to run something more secure than a 17 year old operating system. Would also like this to be Linux.

 

I am a novice when it comes to Linux, its an OS I've played with before but not indepth so please keep that in mind as I will need to maintain these computers.

 

Thanks for reading

[Droidbot]

Ubuntu Server for the server and Zorin OS for the PCs. Zorin is based on Ubuntu, but looks more like Windows. 

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

Make life easier on yourself and Use ubuntu on everything. You can also use the server as a cache for apt so all programs and updates only need to be downloaded once

[Sousuke]

Thanks Both,

 

The only thing is that Ubuntu server has no GUI meaning that a total novice like myself may get very confused with it.

 

Has it got a web interface?

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Sousuke said:

Thanks Both,

 

The only thing is that Ubuntu server has no GUI meaning that a total novice like myself may get very confused with it.

 

Has it got a web interface?

If you need a web interface, get OpenMediaVault - it's a NAS OS based on Debian which Ubuntu is based on. Not much command line. 

[Sousuke]

56 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

If you need a web interface, get OpenMediaVault - it's a NAS OS based on Debian which Ubuntu is based on. Not much command line. 

Looks really good, and with the addition to plugins could give me options to add features in the future.

[Genius1237]

Ubuntu server for the servers. For the computers, something like xubuntu or ubuntu mate, desktops which are somewhat lighter. Also stick to 16.04 LTS and set up some kind of auto-updating feature.

[pyro57]

agreed ubutnu or one of its varients is probably the best idea, but Linux Mint for the desktops might be worth looking into.

 

Trust me on this running an ubuntu server in CLI is not hard even for a complete novice, that is why in most linux courses they actually use ubuntu servers to teach because though its CLI only it is noob friendly, and had FANTASTIC documentation online if you need help with anything.

[Azgoth 2]

For desktops: Given the low specs of the hardware, I wouldn't actually recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint if you want a smooth and responsive feeling desktop.  (Both will probably feel a lot better than Vista on this front, though).  I'd recommend something lighter.  Lubuntu is a very lightweight version of Ubuntu--actually, it is Ubuntu, but with a lot of the default applications swapped for more lightweight versions, and a lot of the extra fat trimmed off.  Debian (which Ubuntu is based on) might also be a good choice, as long as you either A) go with a lightweight desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE (LXDE is lighter), or B) do a net install where you manually pick all the software components by hand (giving you a super light, minimal system).  Lubuntu would be easier for users, but Debian will be a bit more stable due to how its releases are done. 

 

For server: I can't give much advice from experience here, since I don't ever deal with servers.  Ubuntu Server has a good repuation, but in the context of a larger organization I don't know if there are any drawbacks to consider.  Debian, again, can be used as a server (but requires some configuration), and Slackware is a great server due to its amazing stability.  Ubuntu Server would be the easiest one to use, I think, since it's already pre-configured to do servery stuff.  And, if you have your desktops running Lubuntu, everything is more consistent and thus easier to troubleshoot, since both are on the same basic platform.

 

As for office software, there's LibreOffice, which is a full-fledged office suite and is comparable to Microsoft Office.  It can open most (all?) of Office's formats, but I think some of the formatting in documents might not be 100% compatible (I've never run into any issues, though, but if you use a lot of more complicated/advanced features of Office, like a lot of macros built-in to documents, you may have some issues).  But you'll never be guaranteed perfect compatibility unless you're using Office itself, which isn't available natively for Linux, and I don't know how well it runs if you use WINE (it might run perfectly fine--do a bit of research on this).

 

Personally I'd recommend Lubuntu and Ubuntu Server as the combination to go for.  Lubuntu is lightweight and I've installed it on computers with comparable specs to what you described and it runs great, and both it and Ubuntu Server are just Ubuntu under the hood, so everything is going to be the same system (which makes maintenance easier--even if they were different systems, they'd still be able to talk to each other just fine).  Debian is a good alternative if you're already pretty comfortable with Linux administratory stuff, and it's much better for daily desktop use than it used to be.