What problems would that be?

Exactly my point. At the moment he has Linux/Windows/Mac in a diverse situation and it sounds like he doesn't have the Windows/Mac Adminstrative knowledge, however, doing a unified Hardware/Software plan would save his company considerable money and time in admin costs.

I know what you are referring to as far as the "Corporate Gmail" but the user didn't specify which he was referring to, however, I would imagine that running your own Exchange Server or "Outsourcing" your email would likely have comparitive costs. "Outlook is slow and cumbersome to use" -I don't know what version of outlook you're using or what hardware you're using it on but I don't have those issues with Exchange or Outlook. I am a BSD/IMAP/QMAIL Guy myself but Exchange 2007/2010 paired with Outlook 2007/2010 on proper hardware works just fine when properly maintained and configured. ""collaboration options"? In Outlook? What are you talking about?" -Referring to Distribution Lists, the Outlook Calendar, Shared Calendars, MS Communicator, all would be lost in the move to GMail. Often these options can help different deparments (i.e. Sales, Marketing, Administration, etc) together in one application, even across different Operating Systems (Using OWA). "As for him being fresh out of college, I don't know what college he went to, but in my reading, it seems like most colleges and universities these days are locked into Windows, and even teach only MS technologies in their CS departments." -This couldn't be farther from the truth. While most universities teach heavily in windows, most computer science classes focus on Linux and in some cases Solaris. Most younger professors preach Linux as the cure all to Windows Issues. Over all what I am saying is a Unified Hardware/Software plan properly installed and maintained is cheaper on the Administrative Costs than a 3 Teired Windows/Linux/Mac Setup.

Lets break this down: "I see this as an opportunity to bring up the topic of migrating the majority of our office from Windows 7 to Linux and from Exchange to Gmail" -Why? Most users are not comfortable with anything other than Windows. Second Windows 7 is still somewhat fresh, I mean, your going to depreciate software that you likely purchased less than 6 months to a year old? Sounds like an immediate waste of money rather than a long term savings. The Second part of your question makes it seem like your some dumbass fresh out of college. Really? GMail over Exchange? Are you willing to hedge your business needs on a free email service, not to mention the loss of collaboration options, etc? All in all it sounds like this situation: 1) You're a Junior Administrator or Helpdesk Engineer 2) They fired the ACTUAL IT Staff and left you since you are cheap enough to keep on the books. Look, want to save money? Look into Virtualization Options, Open Office instead of Microsoft. Linux is not the end all at the workstation level, no matter what they tell you in college.

Everyone, Remember this is the president that has implied that we are all guilty as terrorists until proven innocent. Bush authorized AT&T to do this "Dragnet" and frankly they were stupid enough to do it. This will hopefully spawn a mass exodus away from AT&T's Voice and Data infastructure. What I'm concerned about isn't just the home data connections, but what about major DataCenters that have AT&T Peering? I'm wondering if that secure private data off the servers in those datacenters is being chewed up by the NSA? At any rate screw them, their prices suck, their cell phones BLOW, and their data services is unreliable (now at least we know why... NSA looking up all those nude pictures of Chelsey Clinton).