A Model for the Successful Migration to Desktop OSS

Although open source software (OSS) has been widely implemented in the server environment, it is still not as widely adopted on the desktop. This chapter presents a migration model for moving from an existing proprietary desktop platform (such as MS Offi ce on an MS Windows environment) to an open source desktop such as OpenOffi ce on Linux using the Gnome graphical desktop. The model was inspired by an analysis of the critical success factors in three detailed case studies of South African OSS-on-thedesktop migrations. It provides a high-level plan for migration and is illustrated with an example. This chapter thus provides a practical guide to assist professionals or decision makers with the migration of all or some of their desktops from a proprietary platform to an OSS environment.