Sorry to sound like devils advocate here, but how do you fight it? Microsoft products are used in the office environment, therefore Microsoft products are used in schools and colleges. Microsoft products are used in schools and colleges, so Microsoft products get implemented in office environments. Its an evil self perpetuating cycle, but where do you stop it?

And then there's the technical reasons. There just isn't the availability of linux desktop software for the business. Sure there are office replacements and windows replacements, but groupware? Easily setup VPN? Terminal Services? What about accountancy packages? Wages software?

Sure some of the servers could run linux, in theory, but Microsoft requires you to run everything integrated. The exchange server is tightly integrated with the Active Directory, which runs the file server nice and easy.

I hate Microsoft as much as anybody, but they do make easy to use software which works.

But I still use Windows for the following reasons:

- My printer only works with it (tho it's currently on the blink)
- I cannot find any alternative that's suitable (yes I know there's Linux), but can you use RealPlayer, Windows Media, and, dare I say it, MSN messenger (it's the only thing that my friends use)?
- With my previous attempts at Linux, I got pissed off with not being able to install drivers etc without having to have a full course in the damn thing (hence why I resorted to installing Windoze 98 again after roughly one hour)
- What is all this kernel stuff?!?!?

However, I have switched to Mozilla, but still use IE for stuff that doesn't work in Mozilla , such as Hotmail cause I reject cookies, and I use Staroffice (got it when it was still free) over Micro$oft Office too.

Oh well, I hope the penguin will fly high after the revolution...

the labour party is not in bed with microsoft they are part of the same body
the body that is the ruleing class which encompasses both the western
politicians and that of the big trans national business ,they are all
the same thing .The title gives the impresion that new labour party is somthing seperate
from the labour party and can be saved, it is not ,it is just the latest movement of the
labour party which has never represented anyone except itself and the ruling elite
from the very start of its history.It is time to dump the whole labour party new or old.
cheers
freddie the gold fish

A quick response to Richard and Thomas J...

There are plenty of alternatives within the 'opensource' or 'free software' world (what you call it depends upon which side of the philosophical divide you come down on, but that's not for here... more can be found by watching the excellent docu-drama Revolution OS) for programs commonly used on a micro$oft office machine. Here are some examples:

Groupware - I think you mean office sharing software such as 'groupwise' or the sharing capabilities of M$ outlook. Ximian produce Evolution which is a fine alternative.

Accountancy packages - try GnuCash for starters

there are plenty of terminals which come with any linux distribution - also editors, shells and plenty of other things which I haven't ever needed to understand in all the time I've used linux (3 years, so fat, and I'm no computer phreak either)

There are versions of RealPlayer (www.real.com), adobe acrobat reader and windows media player (Xmms - the equivelant audio player *nix operating systems) as well as Xine, a free high quality video player. Indeed, as I checked out the link to make sure it was correct, I discovered that xine has just been "borrowed" for use in a commercially available personal linux environment. I won't provide them with free advertising space!

There are numerous messenging programmes which will connect to a variety of different networks and protocols, including irc, aol, m$n, jabber, icq, and so on...

Finally, several things should be remembered about the linux distributions now available. Over the past few years, the huge number of people using them has multiplied to even more people using them. At the same time, discovery of software bugs has increased (due to more usage) and more modifications have been made. Strange pieces of hardware (tv cards, winmodems, cd-burners, printers, whatever) have been adapted to work using the linux operating system and normally someone has had a similar problem to you before. Consequently, it is really easy to type a question into google - or a few key words (try "free video player linux" and see what comes up!) - and get a piece of software that will work on your computer and do what you want.

The one catch might be that I think a good internet connection is essential - I have broadband and it does mean that I can make good use of both new software and updated versions of my current software as they are developed. And there is no cost.

Have fun (and get off the internet - the revolution will not be broadcast on broadband, even if the war in iraq is)

Hmmm.. the links didn't come up in the previous response so here they are:

 http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/07/274430.html - Revolution OS

 http://www.ximian.org - Ximian Evolution

 http://www.gnucash.org - GnuCash

RealPlayer -  http://www.real.com

Adobe -  http://www.adobe.com - follow the link 'other operating systems' on the acrobat download page

 http://www.xmms.org - Xmms - free audio player

 http://xinehq.de/ - Xine - free high quality video player

Ximian is fine, but there's no decent replacement for Microsoft Exchange Server. Gnucash is ok for personal use, but not for big business; big businesses use software which is windows only and tends to run on Microsoft SQL Server, not because they want to but because that is what is available.
The question is how do we change it. Sure we can create Linux accounting packages suitable for big business, sure we can create servers which will do what businesses need. But you can't cross over straight away - you need to port the data, and you can't gradually change over because time spent dual booting would take up half the day.
Wine is good, but nobody is going to support it.

I do want to see free/open software used in business, it's just difficult and costly to get it in.

We have to get rid of Microsoft now. Except for taking away control of PCs from specialised programmers and enabling ordinary people to use computers, leading to the growth of the home PC market, resulting in prices of computers tumbling, leading to the Internet becoming viable as a critical mass was reached, meaning that sites like Indymedia could subsequently reach millions, what have Microsoft ever done for us????

UK.gov security is pants!
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32104.html

A project is well under way to create fully-featured open-source groupware - which should prove a more than adequate alternative to Exchange:

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32119.html
 http://www.opengroupware.org/

Though I'm still resigned to using Windows as my OS, I rarely have to use any of their applications any longer. OpenOffice does everything I need an office suite to do very capably, and web browsing/emailing in a mixture of Mozilla and Opera is a pleasure compared to having to use Internet Exploiter.