[Alas Babylon!]

However, our IT guy is not comfortable with that.

That has always been the long pole in the tent.

I am also a MCT and LPIC-3 instructor but never get many people to sign up for my Linux courses.

I ask the Windows Server students how they feel about switching over to Linux; mostly they are afraid to--lack of knowledge.

I do believe it is not that they're stupid; just too busy to learn something new which is no harder than what they already know, but don't know that.

[dhs12345]

Too bad. The lower cost option is compelling. MS Office costs around $200 per times many licenses is a lot of money.

And the Linux office programs work pretty well and are mostly compatible with MS Office. However, as was mentioned, support us not always best under Linux. Best to test compatibility and avoid frustration later. It would have worked well for us since most of our computers are cookie cutter — same hardware, same software.