Business Impacts of Ubuntu

 To:         Henry Martin

CC:         Richard Peterson

From:     Asif Mahmood

Date:      09 Jun 2014

               

I hope this Memo finds you well.  I wanted to let you know that I have conducted research on the Ubuntu solution. Ubuntu is an alternative operating system that the firm could choose to migrate to in order to replace the Microsoft Windows operating system we use currently. There 2 main reason I do not believe we should convert to Ubuntu is the fact that Compatibility and availability of software.

The first reason is when manufactures make a computer, they have an assumption that the computer will run on windows. As you know, we have almost 1000 desktop computers and all computers are from Dell. Every 3 year we change all company computers and all new computers we purchase come pre-installed with Windows operating system. When the computers arrive, we have to only install our company software, which takes only 4 to 5 hours. I contacted with our sales agent at dell and found out if they can pre-install Ubuntu on all of our new PC but they refused to do that due to incompatibility. Dell provides support for the hardware in terms of availability of drivers and other issues. Dell does not support Ubuntu operating systems. For example if I wanted to upgrade my RAM but since my OS is not supported it makes it difficult for me to obtain support even if it’s just an upgrade. Therefore windows have far better support than Linux. We are getting best prices from Dell on our lease of computers, which we cannot find anywhere in market.

Lastly, since Ubuntu/Linux has a relatively less market share, availability of popular software for Ubuntu is a major concern. Some users are forced to stay with windows since their favorite software is not available on the Linux platform. Many of our software that we use run on windows and do not work on Ubuntu. These are the top of the line programs in the accounting industry and unfortunately are not compatible with Ubuntu. Along with that, I researched other accounting and tax software and none of them are compatible with Ubuntu operating system. To run an accounting and tax software on Ubuntu it would need to be customized specifically for this operating system which would most likely cost our company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We can save good amount of money if we move towards Ubuntu but, we have been functioning successfully for many years using windows. Until many of the accounting programs begin to adapt to Ubuntu it would be illogical to convert to Ubuntu for our operating system.