Benefits not enough to warrant a major shift in platform strategy, finds report

Few firms are planning to move to Linux on the desktop, and will stick with Windows as their desktop PC operating system, according to research. A report from Forrester Research, The State of the Corporate PC, said that Linux does not pose a serious threat to Microsoft's dominance of the desktop. Half of the small firms interviewed for the report, and 47 per cent of enterprises, told the analyst that they will not replace any of their Windows-based corporate desktops with systems running Linux. In contrast, Windows XP migrations are in full swing. Some 77 per cent of enterprise users are upgrading, 37 per cent on new PCs and existing hardware and 40 per cent on new PCs only. Forrester also noted "aggressive plans" to deploy Longhorn, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, when it is released. The analyst explained that firms are committed to the Microsoft platform and have built their application environments around Windows. Survey respondents also expressed concern that the cost savings would not be significant enough to warrant a major shift in platform strategy. "Linux adopters expect significant cost savings for hardware and software," the report said.