[GRLUG] Opportunity to promote Linux to Vice President of a Company

[John Harig]

Quick question:  Can anyone suggest links to studies
or data to help convince corporate heads to adopt open
source / linux solutions for the company? (Especially
studies/articles about saving $$$$ with linux over
windows)

Background:

I'm not an IT person, I just use Linux/BSD because it
is  practical for my personal use and great fun and
the best OS alternatives out there.  (Minimal virus
risks are a plus too) 

All the IT people at my company are the die-hard
Windoze certified sort who laugh me off as an open
source freak because I insisted that if they could not
let me install linux, that they at least let me
install open source ports of the programs I like to
use.

The other day the corporate VP came by and advised us
that we could email ideas to save money.  Normally my
open source ideas wouldn't have a chance to get past
Tech Support Level 2, but I think this might be a
small possibility of opportunity.  

I know we touch on it often in meetings, but how do
you successfully convince a non-technical windows VP
corporate head to switch over to linux?

This is my basic plan (keeping it short and simple).

First suggest that Open Office be implemented in a
testing phase on the existing windows computers to
replace M$ Office.

Then, after outlining the savings in the cost of
licensing fees for the Office Applications, I would
suggest cost savings over Windows, advising of the
imminent support death of Win XP in a year, and the
pending hardware upgrades that Vista would require.

I would love to hear about things that seemed to work
to sell linux/open source to corporate heads. I'm
still young and idealistic and think that because
something makes more sense that people would naturally
just do it, which, I have already discovered, isn't at
all how the corporate world works.

Maybe studies showing have open source would allow
them more time to play golf would be the most helpful
. . .