Excellent point!

George


Matt Alexander wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2001, George Toft wrote:
> 
> > Short version: Converting to Linux costs much, much more.  An
> > example is presented for a "hypothetical" local company converting
> > their desktop to Linux.  Result is that it will cost over
> > $900K - just to avoid a $150K license.
> 
> I agree that trying to switch a medium or large company COMPLETELY over to
> Linux in one big move would be rather painful.  Small companies could make
> the switch much easier.  However, George seems to be suggesting that
> companies are stuck with Windows forever just because the switch might be
> more costly.  I know of many companies that would like to get out from
> under Microsoft's licensing thumb, so I would recommend to them that they
> spend some time/money bringing their IT help desk support staff up to
> speed on Linux (this is what I'm doing now at my company) and then slowly
> deploy Linux in areas at first where it's the least disruptive to business
> needs.   For example, everyone in our call center needs occasional Web
> access, email access, and a telnet client to access the billing software
> on our Unix servers.  So for them, it'll be a relatively easy switch if we
> take it slowly.  For some of the other departments, such as HR or
> Marketing, we may never be able to switch them over to Linux entirely
> simply because of the Windows-specific apps they use and the complexity of
> their needs.  This is perfectly acceptible to me.  We can run a mixed
> environment and just not upgrade the Windows boxes.  I predict that other
> companies with an interest in using Linux on the desktop will have to run
> a mixed environment for a long time as well with the long-term goal being
> to migrate as much over to Linux as possible.
> ~M
> 
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