While there are some challenges for many notebooks and even a few desktops out there, for the most part the office environment is ready to go right now in a Linux world. With the free office suites and new software being developed everyday, I think that some of the new software options coming our way show a lot of promise. Included this article, you will have the chance to check out some real-world examples.

Linux is already a major platform used in the business back-end where it provides transparent interoperability with Windows file and print servers. It is already the major platform for corporate Web serving. Clearly, it is a major business platform already, but not on the desktop. That is where the growth potential is. I believe that most administrators will be surprised to find that the application capabilities demanded by most users can be met by the Linux desktop right now.

In this update on the business Linux desktop, I’ll outline the needs of enterprises and how Linux applications are or are not ready to fulfill them.

What’s available right now?

In office automation, the use and adoption of the open source office suite, OpenOffice, is growing exponentially both on Windows and on Linux platforms. It is only a matter of time before OpenOffice will eclipse Microsoft Office.

In e-mail, Novell Evolution e-mail, collaboration and calendaring groupware and similar tools are just as powerful (if not more so) than Microsoft Outlook. Many who have switched to Evolution are just as much at home as they were in the Microsoft Windows equivalent. Most do not want to switch back.