The Desktop Dinosaur
Look inside your business - what do your staff spend most of their time doing at the computer?
Chances are, outside of some specialist functions, most staff spend the greater majority of their computer time doing three things:
- Reading and answering email.
- Information search - both internally and on the Internet.
- Creating, editing and reading documents.
So does this require a power hungry, chunky PC full of software you will never own? One that you are forced to replace more often because your primary software vendor deliberately releases larger and slower software every few years to keep the revenue rolling in?
Absolutely not.
Thin clients, or hardware terminals that are designed to provide a simple interface with network servers, have been around for years. With lightning fast, inexpensive network hardware and open-source powered servers, a business can substantially reduce it's energy consumption (thin clients usually consume a fraction of the power of a desktop PC), and it's network hardware spend.
At this point your current vendors/consultants will scream loudly that there are issues with thin clients. Flexibility is one, You can't run [insert application name here] over a network - or the old fall-back - "no-one else uses them, so they must be bad".
While we agree that no technology has universal application, the real reason why vendors get the shivers when you mention open-source and thin clients is that they can't fleece you with license fees for every single machine you own.
So what do we say to the pragmatic business person who wants to get out of this blind alley?
Baby steps. Nothing stings like a good idea badly implemented. If you want to give it a go - talk to a hardware vendor, or an IT associate who you trust to be fairly unbiased. Find a couple of thin terminals (they are usually only a couple of hundred bucks). Get them up and running with a couple of staff connected to a current (presumably non-Linux) server. See where it fits with how you do business and if you can see the potential.
You don't even have to go this far - put Ubuntu Desktop on an old desktop machine and try it out. There is even a live CD you can use to test the system without installing anything.
Next step is an Ubuntu server. Ubuntu is a breeze to set up and will run happily on an older machine. Ubuntu should also recognise all the Windows drives and printers on your network. Then try Open Office and a couple of the alternatives to Exchange (do note that Exchange webmail from anything other than a Windows computer running Internet Explorer is quite horrible - no surprise really).
These are only suggestions, they are obviously simplistic and there is some technical expertise involved - but no more than you usually expect from your IT people - internal or external.
The important thing is to step outside the box and challenge the way you currently do things. You can't change years of doing things a certain way overnight. The Desktop Dinosaur will have it's uses for a long time yet. Staff are also likely to complain as you push them out of their comfort zone. But the payoff is worth it - any overhead you save goes straight into your pocket.
And that money can be further invested in knocking your competitors off their perch.
