Previously, Mark and I recorded a podcast on Linux migration strategies.  I find that assisting people or organizations through the change to open source or Linux is a key factor in the success of long term adoption.

There are two scenarios for the use of OSS.  One is in a green field, where it is someone's first exposure to computing, and the operating system is of no consequence when they are learning from the beginning.  Second, is when an organization understands some of the benefits to migrating from Microsoft based systems, including lower costs of software or less maintenance. 

From my personal experience, it is quite different to be using Linux as a hobby vs actually deploying in a large business or educational setting.  I know that I was lucky to have exposure to UNIX/Linux in my role as a network admin, but to bring that experience to the desktop side of things has been a challenge.

In order to stay aligned with the work that I do, which is to actively encourage organizations around the globe to adopt open source solutions, I knew that I had to walk the walk, and work on a Linux desktop system daily, so that I could have a similar experience as that of the users I support.

I have Fedora 10 on my desktop.  Most of my daily work is OS agnostic because  I use Open Office, Thunderbird, Google Calendar, a web based CRM system etc.  I do not have many apps installed locally except for Gwibber, Skype & Audacity.

But my laptop proved to be more of a challenge for me.  I decided to go the route of a dual boot scenerio, installing Ubuntu 9.04, while I took inventory of all the applications and requirements I had, so I could work through the migration with minimal disruption.  I know that the hard core Linux users would rather I just nuked my OS and started fresh. My end result will be a full install of Ubuntu 9.04 with Virtualbox, so in the rare occasion I have a webex seminar, I can load a guest OS of XP.

I must admit that when I first booted the Ubuntu install disk, and started through the process, I thought I might have selected the wrong option, and my hard drive was being formattted.  It was at that moment when I realized I had forgotten to back up my pictures folder which contained photos of my recent trip to Cuba.  I had momentary heart failure, and will use Clonezilla to make an image of my hard drive prior to the the next step in the migration.

On a final note, I believe that as cloud computing becomes more mainstream, the operating system powering the desktop will become irrelevant, and migrating users will become less challenging.