Open Source As a Foundation

We all, including your CIO, rely on open source.  If your company has outsourced its web presence (likely) then it has a very good chance of running on an Apache server on Linux.  So on the server side, open source IS the foundation.  Why is it so ubiquitous at this level but not at the enterprise desktop level?  There are many reasons, but at the core is lack of vision.  In 2002 I presented an open source concept for the enterprise desktop, but was not in the right place at the right time.  I present the vision for that model and ask your consideration.  Change is hard and established practices are etched in bedrock so this is a daunting proposal.

I challenge you to evaluate this concept (below) and try it for yourself.  Of course most of you have already done this on a personal level, but I'm talking about those of you who can influence your organization or company to try this at work.  Call it a pilot project.  Get $100,000 of internal play money (you know, the kind companies charge themselves in between departments), put a charge code in your SAP system (or whatever you are using), and try this out!

VISION

• A major company shows the world what a life on open source could look like.  It has capabilities for email, an office suite, web interfaces to its accounting system, HR system, knowledge sharing systems, etc.  It has an open source project management suite, software development suite, and has enough clout to nudge its major suppliers to ensure that their software can interoperate with open source solutions.  It shares documents and files with open source solutions enterprise-wide.  It deploys this solution worldwide, with tens of thousands of employees.
• The server farms at this corporation run an open source operating system, they run open source web servers, open source file sharing software,  open source database management services, and open source email services.
• The desktops run an open source windowing system.
• An open source virtual machine system allows individual desktops or server farms to present necessary proprietary operating systems for each user for specific applications that are not available in open source.
  
• CRITICAL COMPONENT: The corporation spends money on those open source solutions it uses.  It hires a team of software developers who work on the features that this company needs.  They write in those features, then give them back to the open source community.  On occasion, they write proprietary secret sauce software the company keeps inside itself -- but this is a rarity, not the norm.

PILOT PROJECT

1. One or two people (the future leaders of the software team above) put together a desktop suite that satisfies most needs of one department's employees.  They use virtual machine software (Commercial software is ok for the pilot!) to provide those necessary components that are provided commercially and can't be changed without major upheaval.
2. The department is switched over, starting with a small group.  Group by group switch each employee over to the new desktop.
3. Once the department is on the new desktop, fix each problem as it arises.  Make sure that everyone can do his necessary job functions with no interruption in service, no down time.  The team IS the help desk support for this project.
4. Run the department this way for six months. We are talking about 200 people or less for this pilot.  Everyone in the department must play, including the manager and the administrative assistants.
5. Write a financial analysis of the project.  Include support costs, switchover costs, software costs, maintenance costs.  Project the costs/benefits for five years.  Include the cost of the internal software team that will be giving back to the open source community.  This team is most likely your support team as well.  Contrast this analysis with a similar analysis of leaving things as they are currently established with proprietary systems.  Include costs of proprietary OS, proprietary email servers, proprietary office suite, etc.
6. Get permission to publish your results in CIO magazine.  You will turn some heads.

Good luck, and get to work!