Linux in the US Federal Government?

Grech asks: "I work for a US federal agency that replaces its workstations and attendant software every 3-5 years. At the moment, the environment for most workers consists of an OS, an office suite, a UTS60 emulator, and an X Server. Logic seems to say that when all this gets ripped out and replaced in a year or so, it could be done cheaper with Linux, but a case will have to be made, and a strong one. I've got the arguments, but I need the numbers and the anecdotes to back up such a huge project."

Comments

Nice idea...

[dimator]

But being realistic, the cost of such a switch is not just the hardware/software involved. Do you really think switching EVERYTHING, down to the office suite, would fly with the users of these systems? Don't you think the training costs, and the costs involved with the reduced workflow (due to more time being spent re-learning how to save documents, print, etc.) are worth the reduced software costs?

If I was in charge, I'd start small. A few alternative office suites at a time, slowly bringing people up to speed, etc.