Comment Re:Move away from Windows or just Office? (Score 2, Insightful) 682
I think that simply moving towards a different Office Suite would be a great short-term solution and a great first-step in a long-term move away from Microsoft.
SHORT TERM:
Take Staroffice for Windows; I think they just announced their new pricing scheme and volume licensing for small businesses is like $50 per copy. You get a good, easy to learn program that works on top of an environment your people already know. AND it costs significantly less than Microsoft so the finance guys are happy. Keeping Windows on the machines also avoids the headaches of installing and upkeeping a Linux house, which unless you have someone in house is VERY expensive (consultants aren't cheap). ~$40 per copy of OEM Windows with the PC is a lot better than a "free" OS that requires hundreds or thousands in fees to get going.
LONG TERM:
The advantage to this is that you have also (hopefully) shown everyone that Open Source works. In 3-5 years you can walk into the boss's office with a plan to migrate away from Windows, given the right *nix platform, and there will be very little backtalk about reliability, etc. since they already know Open Source works.
I talk to much. Going from MS Office to Staroffice will save you $250 per PC at least. Try that first before doing anything more complicated.
SHORT TERM:
Take Staroffice for Windows; I think they just announced their new pricing scheme and volume licensing for small businesses is like $50 per copy. You get a good, easy to learn program that works on top of an environment your people already know. AND it costs significantly less than Microsoft so the finance guys are happy. Keeping Windows on the machines also avoids the headaches of installing and upkeeping a Linux house, which unless you have someone in house is VERY expensive (consultants aren't cheap). ~$40 per copy of OEM Windows with the PC is a lot better than a "free" OS that requires hundreds or thousands in fees to get going.
LONG TERM:
The advantage to this is that you have also (hopefully) shown everyone that Open Source works. In 3-5 years you can walk into the boss's office with a plan to migrate away from Windows, given the right *nix platform, and there will be very little backtalk about reliability, etc. since they already know Open Source works.
I talk to much. Going from MS Office to Staroffice will save you $250 per PC at least. Try that first before doing anything more complicated.
