14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the rapid growth of the tablet industry in the last couple of years, Microsoft's Windows remains the dominant operating system on the desktop, not necessarily thanks to the launch of Windows 8, but mostly thanks to the previous OS versions that are still powering millions of computers across the world.
However, some governments are planning to move from Windows to open-source alternatives, mostly in an effort to cut costs and go for a platform that has what it takes to replace Microsoft's without a drastic effect on productivity.
Several cities have at least considered the switch to open-source software, including the City of Vienna, while authorities in some countries, such as the French Police and the Singapore Ministry of Defense, tried to performed some studies to determine the impact a switch to open source would have on its employees.
The City of Munich, on the other hand, actually switched to open-source software completely, dumping Windows and Office for Linux and freeware productivity suite. Staff training was obviously needed, but German authorities proved that going from Windows to Linux is indeed possible, even though many critics explained that such a transition would actually do more harm than good.
The main reason for all these changes is actually the overall costs of Microsoft licenses and support, as open-source software clearly has a major advantage this time. There were some voices however which explained that freeware alternatives might actually be more expensive at the end of the day due to the necessary training, support, and app compatibility issues that might be experienced after stepping away from Windows.
But as Gartner analysts said a few months ago, the whole migration from Microsoft software to open-source apps is actually backed by Google which is actually offering some pretty neat solutions for those who are no longer running Windows.
The battle is moving to the cloud, Gartner said, and living proof is right Google Apps, which allows users to run the productivity suite they need the most, including a document and a speadsheet creator/editor right in their browsers.
“As they strive to look for more savings, governments around the world rightly look at how to use the procurement lever to reduce their cost base, cut unnecessary spending and squeeze more efficiency from their relationships with technology suppliers. Alternative sourcing models, including cloud, open source, crowdsourcing and new forms of partnerships will become increasingly popular,” Gartner said.
Microsoft has already launched a powerful offensive to slow down the migration of its software, trying to show the advantages of sticking to Windows and Office in a series of commercials shown all over the world.
The latest such ad calls Google Docs an inferior replacement to Microsoft Office, pointing to the formatting issues and compatibility problems as the key reasons for sticking to its own productivity pack.
The main catalyst of the transition to another platform remains the overall costs, so unless Microsoft tackles this issue, it might lose many more users than expected.