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On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Graap, Ken wrote:
I'm trying find information relating to a successful replacement of a large Microsoft Office infrastructure with an Open Source office solution. Maybe one that runs on Linux in an iSeries (????) or Linux on an xSeries along with PC based clients or maybe even Linux based clients!
Others have already mentioned OpenOffice from http://www.openoffice.org (often abbreviated as OOo). OOo isn't the only open source office suite available, but it is excellent. Sun Microsystems also sells Star Office which is the Sun branded (and non-free) version of OpenOffice for which many levels of support are available. Both Star Office and OpenOffice are the same software, but Star Office has a few niceties added along with the support options. A license for Star Office is less than $100 - far cheaper than a MS Office license.
There are other open source office suites as well. KOffice is an example. Most of these office suites support the ODF format which is becoming the standard format for document exchange. Several proprietary office suites support ODF (though Microsoft has so far refused to support it). As well, many of these also support PDF creation directly which increases your document interchangeability.
OpenOffice runs on linux, Windows, Mac, and many other OSes. You can very easily install it on your current machines to test it out.
Replacing all your MS Windows machines with linux is a viable option. The Ernie Ball story linked to in a previous post is one example of a company that made the switch. An advantage to using linux in a networked environment is that unix in general is designed to integrate many machines together well to reduce administration and maintenance issues. Whereas in the MS Windows world the solution to a given problem might be to just get another PC, in the linux world the solution to that same problem is most likely to be to extend the existing machines by using their network capabilities better.
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