We are running Ubuntu Linux on half of our office PCs and laptops including both of our director's machines. Are you ready for the change?

The answer is that we are using software that is not locked-in to a particular operating system (with a couple of exceptions - see below). All of our current applications were running on Windows PCs previously, but even at that time we chose carefully, based on functionality, support, stability & cost. By selecting - in most cases - software that could run in Windows, Mac & Linux environments, we knew that we had options - freedom to choose - in regard to the sort of hardware and operating systems we used in our business.

One of the key decisions we made a number of years ago was to embrace the power of web applications to assist us with the above requirement. As our core applications needed to be replaced, we found web-based applications to replace them. This meant that we only needed a web browser to run them, and therefore Operating System freedom was achieved.

So the move to Linux did not affect the core applications that we use on a daily basis. And an interim trial on a Mac provided the same experience - same applications, no affect on our daily work.

So what are the core applications that allow you to do this?

Our 'core applications' are Email and Internet Browsing. Yours might be different, but I'm sure Email & Internet Browsing rank fairly high.

By selecting Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox for these tasks, we can move effortlessly between Linux, Mac and Windows machines - as we are given the same experience on each.

For our business, our Time tracking system & Customer/Contact database (CRM) system are the two most significant 'production' systems we use. Each of these is web-based and therefore is accessible from any PC, anywhere with an internet connection.

And is there anything else you might need?

The next group of applications you might term 'traditional' as they are all installed on your PC. Again, a number are 'cross-platform' which allows us to use them on all our machines. The most commonly used would be a 'Productivity Suite' - in our case Open Office. For a full list of alternative applications, some of which are Linux-only, have a look at our Equivalents List.

But what about the exceptions you mentioned?

Well, we still use two Windows-only-based applications; Quickbooks for our financials and MYOB Comacc for payroll. We run these either using a 'Virtual' Windows machine installed on our Linux machines, or a dedicated Windows PC or Terminal Server. As with all of our software applications we are always ready to review something new, and there are certainly options available for Accounting & Payroll, both web-based and non-web. Watch this space!

If you would like to plan your move to Linux, or look at where Open Source software could fit into your organisation please contact us.