Company executives tend to know one name above all others in technology: Microsoft. Let’s give Microsoft credit for becoming a huge global brand name, whether achieved fairly or not. But using Linux rather than Windows on PC hardware can save companies huge amounts of money, not to mention increase security and decrease support costs.
Check out 10 Ways to Sell Corporate on Linux from TechRepublic. You may not consider your company “corporate” but your owner or manager has the same concerns about switching from Windows to Linux as every big corporation: will it make things better or worse? If corporations, as full of idiot vice presidents as they are, can move part of their employees over to Linux platforms, certainly smaller and more nimble companies like yours can do the same thing.
My love of the 80/20 rule applies here as well. 80 percent of white collar “knowledge workers” can use Linux, or Macintosh for that matter, to do their every day jobs with no loss of productivity or need for retraining. The Macintosh option doesn’t offer the ability to use existing PC hardware, but does lower support costs and reduce your security headaches.
How mainstream has Linux become? You can now buy a Linux PC from Sears for $199. They only sell them online, so you can’t have the fun of seeing a Linux PC beside washers and dryers and power tools and bathmats, but you can send Sears some money and get a Linux PC in return. That’s mainstream.
Technology Is Broken 