This document is a sanitized version of a document I wrote for another organization in the summer of 2004. There are some fairly obvious search and replacements of sensitive names and phrases, but some portions of the document could be of value to individuals or organizations investigating desktop Linux, or Linux in general. Unfortunately, the sanitization process has crippled the flow of the document, and makes it somewhat unwieldy in places. I apologize for this discontinuity, but hope that it will be of value anyway. I have tried to provide extensive documentation to support my assertions, wherever possible, with approximately 60+ citations in the document as it currently stands.
I put this document out for public consumption in hopes of promoting a better understanding of the issues surrounding Open Source Software in the enterprise. This document and associated tools are to be used for non-commercial purposes only. To obtain rights to the commercial use of this information, please contact the author for permission. If you think the paper is useful, I'd love to hear from you. If you have a valid argument that might challenge my thinking, I'd also love to hear from you. I have done my best to minimize my personal bias, and provide a fair and impartial treatment of the subject, but as with anything, this is impossible to do completely, so this document should be considered the subjective opinion of one individual.
The opinions expressed in this document are those of Mark Lachniet, and Mark Lachniet alone. I welcome any comments, questions or clarifications you may wish to offer. If there is sufficient interest in this document, I would consider revising it, in particular in areas that are especially weak such as the Vendors section. If you are an Open Source Software vendor, and would like to craft a section, in the format given, I would be glad to include your text in future versions of this document.
This document can be found at http://lachniet.com/desktoplinux
Thank you,
Mark Lachniet, CISSP, CISA, LPIC-1, MCSE, MCNE, CCSE, TICSA
mailto: mark@lachniet.com
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