The french legislature switched from windows to linux in July 2007. ZDnet ran an article a year later (in french) with several first hand accounts of the effects of the transition. The conclusion was that everything went well.
Now, the German foreign ministry is in the process of migrating its 11 000 desktops to linux with about half of the work completed. Interrestingly, a source in the foreign ministry says that the cost of operating the desktops has gone from about 3000 euros to 1000 euros per year per computer. While the situation may be a lot more complex (maybe the foreign ministry has linux wizards on its payroll) it is definitely something to consider if you’re running a business that uses any number of computers. With a potential economy of 66% of your operating costs, even a small business using only a handful of computers, it may be beneficial to switch. The cost of transition (per computer) may become quite high, but with such savings in operating costs, I bet a migration to linux will be self-financing in a very short time.
It may be beneficial to run the numbers for your business. Then again, if I had to run the numbers for a business of mine, I wouldn’t know where to start. There may be money to be made here. 🙂
Recent Comments