switch to linux desktop are you nuts?
The average public sector body has a score of major applications, hundreds of minor applications and thousands of users with better things to do than learn a new operating system.
The low hanging fruit is office software , after all that accounts for 50% of Microsoft profits.
6/7 years ago when I worked for a large local authority we looked at moving to open office. There was a fair amount of good will towards it since we were aggrieved at what always felt like rack renting by MS. But the transition costs were just too great.
We then thought about how often we should revisit the decision (on the basis that open office would get better with time) and decided that rather than spending loads of effort reviewing OO from time to time we should treat a sharp reduction in MS prices as the signal that they felt threatened.
I don't know the details of the latest agreement but maybe now is the time.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
