2.2  When to migrate   Or not to migrate

This book focuses on methods for migrating Microsoft Windows based clients to 

Linux based clients within a mainly Windows based enterprise. But in general 

the client migration is almost always part of a larger migration to open source 

software within the enterprise. This has to be taken into account when planning a 

client migration.

Even though the new Linux desktop might have properties (as indicated in 2.1, 

 Why migrate  on page 12) that are in favor of a migration, the total end result of 

the migration must have advantages as well. The total end result of the migration 

is not just a number of clients running Linux. Because of infrastructure and 

application environments, the architecture after the migration is usually more 

complex.

In this section we look at some circumstances that favor a decision to migrate to 

a Linux client. These circumstances can mostly be described as an absence of a 

complicating factor. We describe some in detail.

2.2.1  Client roles fit thin/slim client model

Clients within a client/server model are generally called either fat, slim, or thin. 

This indicates where the majority of the application used actually runs. For 

example, in a thin client only the presentation part of the application runs locally 

(for example, in a browser), and the rest of the application runs on the server. 

These different roles are described in more detail in 4.4.2,  Logical segmentation 

  Thin, slim, or fat  on page 64.

One of the complicating factors in the migration is a large number of fat clients. A 

fat client is a client with a large number of applications locally installed. The 

larger the number of applications then the greater the chance that some of those 

applications will be difficult to migrate to the Linux client. Some of them may even 

be unmigratable, which leads to a more complex infrastructure integration, as 

described in 4.7,  Unmigratable applications  on page 81.

If the current client is thin, this means that migrating the client to Linux does not 

involve the complicating factor of a complex infrastructure integration. In the 

idealized case of the end user only using a browser to connect to a portal for all 

of their application needs, then migration becomes almost trivial.

The more the client fits a thin or slim client model, the easier it is to migrate to a 

Linux client. This leads to most early migrations only including the thin clients in 

an organization and leaving fat clients in their present state. It may also bring 

organizations to move to a thinner client prior to migrating to an alternative client 

OS altogether.

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Linux Client Migration Cookbook   A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide for Migrating to Desktop Linux