efaardvark
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So we're getting a dozen or so new workstations at work that will be running Oracle Linux. Hardware is Dell quad-core Xeons (W-2125s), several with dual ultra-wide HD monitors. The systems that these new systems are replacing are old Sun-branded sun/solaris unix systems (thus Oracle) that we are running system monitor and control software from/on. It is getting impossible to find parts and they're coming up with unpatched/unpatchable security issues now so they gotta go. They're also incredibly slow by today's standards, and the GPUs are so ancient we have to run the desktop in 8-bit/256 color mode to be able to bump the resolution up to something that modern monitors will even accept. Sorry, not sorry to see them go. (What gfx card were YOU using a decade ago?) The taxpayers certainly got their money's worth there!
Big hardware/software upgrades like this are always "interesting" in a 24/7 operations environment, but the end result should be so much better than what we've had to deal with up to now. I'm optimistic that things will go smoothly. I mean, what could go wrong? Heh.. I'll let you know later.
First system is scheduled to go live next week to replace a relatively unused system. After that system soaks for a while in the ops area & we take care of the inevitable issues there we'll install the rest on a more aggressive schedule. Probably sooner than later. The guy who ordered the systems has already received the boxes and had no place to put them except his office. 14 CPUs, ~20 widescreens, and assorted cables and accessories have basically taken over his office to the point that he's hardly able to move in there. He wants them OUT! 
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"we have to run the desktop in 8-bit/256 color mode"
I think that says it all.
I'm surprised though, why didn't you guys get an upgrade a lot sooner? Is it just one of those 'as long as its enough we don't plan on upgrading' things? I know that public offices/institutions are not the richest, but that seems a tad outdated even for those standards.
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We haven't upgraded mostly due to (mis)management and bureaucrazy. There's a organizational boundary-crossing to overcome between the people using the equipment and the people buying it for starters, and the system weren't technically broken, just old/slow. Since Sun went under & was bought by Oracle it has also been hard to find parts & support.* When we do find support it has been expensive. That tends to eat up the replenishment budget, so there was no "extra" for hardware upgrades like this.
At some (much earlier) point management /should/ have gotten a clue (IMHO), but speaking technical to the MBAs running things has never been all that productive, and even the money angle didn't work when there's a risk involved in changing platforms, no matter how minor. I guess they figured it is better to be safe when it was only a problem for the people actually using the systems rather than risk being the ones all the fingers point at if things go wrong. It was only recently that these systems started appearing on things like security scans or breaking in other unfixable ways. That *IS* a management problem, so now suddenly we're getting new systems. Funny how that works, right?
Hell of a way to run a railroad if you ask me, but at least we're finally moving on. We should be in a better situation in the future as well.
*Oracle only bought Sun because Sun made the enterprise server hardware that ran Oracle's DB software and Oracle didn't want to chance possible disruption to their business if Sun went under and Oracle customers started having a hard time finding hardware to run Oracle's software. Oracle really never wanted to be in the hardware business, and certainly never in the business of desktop hardware like we've been using. For a while now Oracle has been pushing their old desktop unix customers inherited from Sun towards Oracle's Linux distribution on standard PC hardware.
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