I recently attended an event where a huge debate was in progress regarding the use of Open Source on the desktop. Most CIOs said they did not want to upset their users by using Linux on the desktop or changing their office suite to Open Office. But one bold CIO stood up and narrated a different story.

They had received a call from a proprietary software vendor who told them that they were using unlicensed software and they needed to buy the license within the next two days. Here is the conversation that transpired between that CIO and his CEO, as narrated by the CIO. I have added some spice to this conversation for two reasons: One, I don’t remember the exact narration, and two, in order to get you more interested in reading this.

CIO: “We need a few crores of rupees tomorrow to buy software licenses.”
CEO: “Are you drunk? What are you talking about? Where are we going to get the money from? We haven't budgeted for it.”

“No, I am not drunk! And I am talking English. Sorry we didn’t anticipate this, but we need to act fast.”
“But there must be some other alternative.”

“Sure, there is something called Linux. It won’t satisfy all our needs, but it could satisfy 90 percent of what our employees need and there is no license cost.”
“Is that for real? Then what are we waiting for?”

“Yes it is, except that some users are likely to complain. And we may need to spend a small amount on training and support.”
“Go ahead and do that and I will make sure that all employees cooperate.”

So the organization switched overnight to Linux Desktop and the users had a surprise waiting for them the next morning when they switched on their computers. The IT team had installed Linux on most of the desktops, except for a couple, which they kept in case someone really needed to use a specific application that didn’t run on Linux.

They set aside a budget for providing training to the users and that helped reduce the barrier to adoption. The CEO also played his part by e-mailing everyone and explaining the rationale behind the switch. The first few weeks were difficult, of course, but a year later, everything ran smoothly, and the savings were obviously huge.

In the current global economic situation, users too are more receptive to change and are willing to try out alternative solutions. Simultaneously, the management is eager to look at ways to reduce costs and that’s what is driving the interest in Linux and Open Source.

Here are some alternatives to popular proprietary applications:
If the above list doesn’t satisfy your requirements, you could visit this site: www.osalt.com. It has a lot of options you might be interested in.

Moral of the story: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You just have to take the plunge at some point. Unless you are desperate, you don’t have to take any drastic steps. You can plan a migration over a couple of months. And you don’t need to jump in at the deep end; you can start with baby steps by moving small groups of users every month.