Not sure if this is the right place for it, but would anyone be interested in assisting an MSP in helping refine our Linux Stack?
Our goal is to take companies that are currently using a Windows stack and move them over without too much retraining on the user’s part.
Our current stack is Linux Mint, LibreOffice, a custom RMM agent, and a few bits and bobs that differ per client, but that’s all malleable. We have a stack, I’m just interested in anything that may make it better. Of note, we donate to FOSS monthly for roughly the licensing fees of the non-FOSS alternative that the clients would be using.
EDIT: Further info for some incredibly hostile replies who are seeking to purposely get offended…
As an MSP, the monthly client fee remains the same regardless of if the clients are on Linux, MacOS, or Windows. I assure you, we’re not winning new converts with Linux and hoping to capture some untapped market. This isn’t a money-maker. We are avoiding e-waste and upcycling machines for free on our own dime. If the client doesn’t want to convert, we donate the systems when they are discarded to one of the nonprofits we support for free. Again, switching clients to Linux wouldn’t make us any money as we don’t bill for project fees. If anything it would make us less money because we’re not trying to sell new objects to the client and are signing ourselves up to train and deploy to them. There’s no sneaky evil hidden agenda here.
I was never looking for someone to design the entire implementation, just one or two comments saying something to the tune of “X distro / software is easier for newbies, take a look!” or something.
So you do have some experience then. How do you plan on actually supporting Linux desktops? All of the mainstream vendors are Windows only as Linux on the desktop doesn’t really exist in the views of large companies.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be really cool to have Linux make more of a splash in the SMB space. However, it is tricky to maintain and doesn’t offer much of an advantage over anything else. A business doesn’t care about Linux evangelicalism. It is what makes the money.
Just FYI, 8 people is not medium sized. That is a very small MSP that is no where near the size of medium to large businesses. That doesn’t make it bad but you are not quite in same league. I’ve worked with small MSPs and most of them suck but if you do it right you can actually get a lot of business from small shops as I’m sure you are aware. Some of the crazier MSPs I’ve seen do all sorts of bad and wild things which you probably have seen the aftermath of.