What are the right questions to ask?

[Shane Hathaway]

Andrew Jorgensen wrote:
> It sounds like they're a small business.  They probably don't have a
> full time sysadmin and they probably shouldn't but you can guarantee
> they'll need someone there full time to hold their hands for the first
> several months if not years.

Good point.  Steve, assuming you want to help them make the transition,
you need a contract, and you should expect to be paid well.  Negotiating
a contract will help them cool down and think about making IT changes in
terms of monetary benefits or losses.  Sometimes change itself costs a
lot of money.  I know that sounds like a Microsoft ad, but the truth is
it's a lot easier and cheaper to start a company with Linux than to
convert a company from Windows to Linux.

> They also need to find out how well their windows apps run under wine
> before spending even a dime on a transition as that could be a
> deal-breaker.

Personally, I wouldn't try Wine.  The Wine project is a great effort,
but it's far from complete.  Windows inside VirtualBox is much nicer.

Shane