Beginning in 2021, the Hong Kong based congramorate (Sensetronics) appointed HighFlyer to design, develop, and deploy their IT ecosystem. Because the organisation's chairman had an engineering background, HighFlyer was easily able to explain the underlying technologies and assist in determining what was best for the organisation. As a venture, the client sought a cost-effective solution.
Initial plans called for a simple network infrastructure consisting of a primary LAN connection with Wi-Fi. As a result of the organisation's significant reliance on cloud-native products, it was determined during the requirements gathering phase that a backup internet connection was required. Consequently, a load balancer was used to connect two active Internet connections from two different ISPs.
Choosing an operating system was straightforward. After analysing the requirements, a stable, low-maintenance, and user-friendly operating system was required, so Ubuntu was probably the first thing that came to mind. Due to its extensive documentation, community support, and readily available YouTube tutorials, HighFlyer continued to use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which is their preferred operating system.
The client requested that Microsoft Office be implemented as their primary office suite. This was practically impossible on Linux without the use of a third-party compatibility layer such as Wine. The client opted for Microsoft Office 365 (O365), so the MS Office web version was displayed, which is compatible with the vast majority of modern web browsers.
The client was introduced to the Helakuru and Google input tools for inputting in Sinhala, which transliterate the user's inputs. HighFlyer wrote a bash script, which was an Ubuntu Sinhala Font Configuration Utility that substituted the existing font globally with Google Noto Sans Sinhala.
As everything in the cloud operates in real-time, backups were simple and there was almost nothing to back up separately.
Before the staff went online, HighFlyer did provide a brief training session on how to power down and reactivate only the desktops by indicating their location, as well as a briefing on Linux.
A small number of their laptops and desktops were updated with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, while the preponderance of their hardware was supported out of the box. So far, two problems have necessitated troubleshooting: a malfunctioning Ubuntu display server and multiple power interruptions resulting in a file system error.
Linux is free of software licensing fees, less susceptible to prevalent viruses and other security risks, and has enhanced stability as a result of prevalent software update problems and infections. However, hardware compatibility must be verified beforehand, and the user may lack the skills necessary to resolve common issues. Every system has inherent trade-offs.