We were spending too much time and money maintaining our Windows environment.

In the end, we decided to make a big move and migrate most of our desktop PCs to Linux.

For the switch to be successful, we had to take it slow.

We made the change gradually, and kept users on Windows until we could work out the kinks and find all the apps people needed.

That also helped employees get used to the new system before making a total switch.

And we’re still running a few Windows machines now, in case employees need something that’s not available on Linux.

Now maintenance is a much smaller headache.

I have to service the Windows PCs about every two weeks, but rarely touch the Linux machines.

The cost savings weren’t too bad, either.

The new computers we bought to run Linux each cost about $300 less than what we would have needed to run Vista.

And the number of security incidents has gone way down, which saves IT a ton of work.
(Richard Giroux, IT Manager, Whitelaw Twining Law Corp., Vancouver, BC)

Tags: cost, Linux, migration, savings, Windows