[dba-Tech] The perfect storm

Given all the free apps available on various Linux flavours, as well as the
user-friendly downloads of Ubuntu, Mint and others, and the costs of
training the user-base to adapt to Linux vs. the costs of training said
base to learn Windows 8, for me at least this is a no-brainer.

I recommend to all my clients and friends who are open-minded, to switch to
Linux and forget once and for all about costly updates to all the essential
components that describe your environment.

The various Linux installations have all pretty much achieved no-brainer
status. LibreOffice can do anything Office can do. Linux in any variant has
made it, and IMO has eclipsed Windows+Office. There's no longer a contest
any more. The real question is "How can MS respond? And the available
answers are:

a) the Ostrich strategy: stick your head in the sand and hope for the
best.Given the animosity MS has created in the world of Access developers,
not to mention those in the Excel and Word  3P communities, I see no future
in this avenue.

b) Offer future versions of Windows and Office for free (two chances of
that: a fat one and a slim one).

Long story short, I see no future in betting on Microsoft, and I say this
sadly, since for most of the past 20+ years I have made my income in
betting on MS. But I no longer see that as a viable play. The more I
examine the terrain, the more I feel that Ubuntu + Libre + various other
packages comprise the most viable solution, for everything from Mom 'n' Pop
to Large Scale Businesses.

There is a cost-of-transition, no doubt about it. But compared with the MS
licensing fees, this transition cost is trivial. An organization can adopt
Linux, LibreOffice and MySQL for free and forever. Punch an accountant and
ask her to wake up and smell her coffee, and further to test said
implementation on any available disposable machine, or even a VM (which is
also free, such as Oracle's VirtualBox).

In short, there is no contest. All that remains is the will-power of the IT
people in the given organization.

Arthur