Myths Debunked: Why It Isn't So Tough To Switch To Open Source

by Sam Dean - May. 12, 2010Comments (3)

Can businesses and organizations paying for expensive licenses for proprietary software successfully switch to free, open source alternatives? If you ask many IT managers about that, they'll cite two common reasons why the answer is no, including "lack of adequate support" and "insufficient documentation." Or, as discussed in this post, inexplicable bugs in open source software can outrule the switch.

However, if you take a close look at the roadblocks to switching to free software solutions, it becomes clear that there are workarounds. In some cases these are free, and in some cases they cost very little. In this post, we'll use the example of a business looking to switch from Microsoft's Office suite to the free, open source OpenOffice suite.

Debunking Myth #1: There Is No Documentation. In the case of OpenOffice, there is in fact substantial free documentation for the suite, and there are free tutorials. You can find documentation for specific versions here. You can also find many free OpenOffice books here. You can also find many useful Flash tutorials here.

Debunking Myth #2: There Is No Support. OpenOffice has a very large community of users, and the Community Support option can be sufficient for many users, but it's not the only option. Inexpensive consultants offer support for OpenOffice, and there are inexpensive third-party solutions for paid support. OpenLogic is just one of the available providers.

In the coming years, improvements in the quality of open source software and other trends will cause many organizations to consider switching from proprietary solutions to open source ones. In some cases, this may be prompted by Microsoft's own policies. For example, Microsoft will not support Windows XP Professional after 2014. The good news is that if you do a bit of homework, it becomes clear that switching to open source alternatives is doable.

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by an anonymous user on May. 12, 2010

"Myths Debunked: Why It Isn't So Tough To Switch To Open Source"

One big reason that many people find it tough to switch to open source is that there are very few good people like you, Sam Dean to help spread the word.

Thank you!

But like Firefox that has been downloaded more than 600 Million times since January 21, 2010, open source products will soon get acceptance.

I've enjoyed using OpenOffice for several years. I now also use it with Google Docs and Zoho. I use the free extension OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs (gdocs_2.2.0.oxt 2.2.0): This extension helps me upload to Google Docs or Zoho in just 2 clicks!

1 Votes

by Jonathan on May. 13, 2010

Sometimes it's really hard to do that change because people are always sending their files in .docx, .pptx, etc. I use OO.o but when I get a MS Office 2007 file on an email or something, it looks awful when opened with OO.o, some stuff like math equations just won't show up.

I think people should support open formats as well as open source.

0 Votes

by Corfy on Jun. 04, 2010

There is another reason keeping IT departments from switching, and this is a bit more of a concern (I say this speaking as an IT guy wishing he could convince his workplace to switch to open source). The problem is data lock. As good as OpenOffice.org is (and I happen to think it is very good), Microsoft Office is specifically designed to keep data within Microsoft Office, making switching from Microsoft Office to anything else (open source or not) more difficult than it should be.

As I heard spoken one time (I can't remember who said it, unfortunately, but if I had to guess, I'd say Jon "maddog" Hall), "Proprietary software doesn't keep you coming back because it is so good, but because you can't get your data out of it."

Case in point... try working with a .pub file without Microsoft Publisher. Our office has a ton of Publisher files that we work with and update on a regular basis. Nobody listens to me that we need to redo the Publisher files in a format that would transfer better until someone gets a Publisher file that doesn't have Publisher on their computer, but they aren't the ones creating the files.

0 Votes