1.1  The migration landscape today

As this book was being written, the range of choices and capabilities of native 

Linux software was expanding rapidly. For those few nascent IT organizations 

that have the choice to grow an install base of Linux desktops organically (that is, 

they are starting a desktop IT infrastructure from scratch), then the Linux choice 

should provide a basis for all of their application needs today. But the majority of 

Linux desktop deployments will most certainly occur within the context of a 

migration. And, at an application's level, one of the most common and important 

migration challenges will likely be the feasibility of migrating users from the 

Microsoft Office productivity suite to a Linux based equivalent.

Other high profile migration challenges with heavy network infrastructure 

dependencies include messaging (Microsoft Outlook does not run natively on 

Linux), and to a lesser extent interaction with enterprise directory and 

authentication services. This book does include sections that discuss and 

demonstrate migration methods for Linux client integration into an existing Active 

Directory/Exchange based network. 

As for migration of office productivity suite applications, at this time we believe 

that the odds for migration success currently favor organizations or end users 

that do not rely heavily on use of advanced functions in Microsoft Office, or 

customized applications that integrate with or extend Office. We believe that 

greater odds for success currently favor the  fixed function  or 

 technical/transactional  usage patterns, as defined in 3.1,  Assessing usage 

patterns  on page 28, and 4.4.3,  Functional segmentation   Fixed function to 

general office  on page 65.

Important:

 In the near term, successful Linux client migrations will favor 

limited use clients. As Linux based office productivity suite applications (and 

the content migration tools supporting those applications) mature, we expect 

greater frequency and success for migration of advanced office users.

Thus in the near term we believe that a significant share of desktop Linux 

deployments will be targeted at highly technical workers, students, and 

transactional workers. We expect that the public sector, especially outside of the 

US, will also be a major driver of desktop Linux adoption. Large deployments, 

ranging from 14,000 government desktops in Munich to 80,000 PCs for students 

in Spain, are already under way. Thanks to the unique nature of open source 

software, the lessons learned from these initial deployments are likely to rapidly 

result in even stronger Linux desktop offerings in the near future. 

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Linux Client Migration Cookbook   A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide for Migrating to Desktop Linux