3.4.1  Bridging applications can separate retraining from migration

Referring to the bridging applications mentioned in 3.2.1,  Bridging applications  

on page 30, the strategy of replacing current applications with OSS equivalents 

that are available on both Windows and Linux could reduce training costs. The 

migration could be done in a smoother way, as users have had the chance to 

acclimate themselves to the same applications that will be used on a 

Linux based client, prior to actual OS migration.

3.4.2  Learning a new look and feel 

Another strategy to save costs is the effort to retain the look and feel of the 

current applications and the desktop. It is possible to customize certain aspects 

of the Gnome and KDE desktops to emulate the look and feel of the Windows 

Desktop and Windows based applications. Many freely available themes are 

available for download and further customization. Examples for these can be 

found at:

http://www.kde look.org

http://art.gnome.org

3.4.3  Familiar actions

Emulating actions is also a good idea. A good example is enforcing double click 

instead of single click as the open action for desktop icons in the window 

manager. 

3.4.4  File systems: Everything has been moved

Windows users are used to a hierarchical file system based on partition mount 

points such as C:\, D:\, etc. The hierarchical file systems in Linux differ from this 

convention. Conventional mount points for file systems in linux include /usr, 

/home, etc. Migrated end users could encounter much confusion when trying to 

understand the new Linux file system hierarchy. To smooth this transition, one 

recommended method is to migrate the entire contents of the user's existing My 

Documents folder into a similarly named folder in the user's Linux home 

directory. Inside of /home/user/My Documents, the content and structure will 

appear exactly the same as was present in the original folder in Windows.

 Chapter 3. Organizational and human factors planning 

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