Wrestling with the monopoly

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A side effect of this is that large organisations have increasing demands for the storage and retrieval of documents, accessible by all users, now and for years to come. Each office suite on each desktop comes at a premium, with a word processor, a spreadsheet and a visual presentation tool, crammed with features that are never used, and demands an upgrade every other year to conform with the current data formats.

The content hasn't changed. The functionality hasn't changed. But the upgrade is essential to keep the cycle going. And the Office format, which is usually undocumented, changes from release to release. Hence the demand from many governments for an office document standard, which is fulfilled by the Open Document Format (ODF). The ODF is supported as the default output format by most of the major office suites with the notable exception of Office, which controls the market. Microsoft appears reluctant to support the ODF.

A document format that is truly open levels the playing field for competing office suites. The publication of network protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs) provides a level playing field for desktop operating systems. This in itself won't lead to the widespread adoption of the Linux desktop, but will make it much easier. The more likely avenue for greater adoption of Linux is through government which has an overriding interest in the preservation of standards and is ultimately driven by cost. Linux is cheaper, OpenOffice is free and vendor lock-in is no longer a problem.

At the same time the industry drive is towards web computing, accessing utilities through the browser and across local and wide area networks. Web computing demands adherence to open standards, and open standards are the food and drink of free and open source software. Linux is far more versatile than Windows and can be deployed on thin and thick clients, and on everything from the smallest mobile to the most powerful supercomputer. As pressure grows on IT budgets, to reduce power consumption and the continual churn of the upgrade cycle, Linux on PDAs and thin and thick clients becomes an increasingly attractive option.

Last year's thing

As a competitor to Microsoft's suite, Linux and the free software stack offers something that the software giant has never had to compete with before. Linux plays well with other software, belongs to nobody, and is free. It is also supported by most of the major players in corporate IT.

Linux slots into a Windows network seamlessly, on the server side or the desktop. The forward-looking IT manager who is trying to reduce costs and expand the potential of their network will implement the Linux desktop on a gradual basis, one desktop at a time. Most users aren't power users and their desktops don't require power applications, meaning such users will barely notice a difference beyond a more customisable desktop. Furthermore, many enterprise applications are supported on Linux. OpenOffice can be implemented on Windows desktops. .NET applications and Windows desktops can slot into Linux networks. For those that don't, or the user that wants to move to Linux wholesale, there are companies such as MainSoft that offer a wide range of enterprise-level utilities for interacting and porting Visual Studio and .NET technologies to Java and Linux and vice-versa.

The compelling attraction of Linux is its versatility, the freedom it offers and its adherence to open standards. Free and open source software are the inevitable future for the software industry. The networking of everything from our fridges to our phones will demand an open future. From this perspective, the closed and monolithic desktop of the present already looks like last year's thing, an expensive indulgence that still fails to be "good enough" - in the unalluring shape of Vista - for the changing circumstances.

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