While most of the world has been ignoring Linux on the desktop, it appears that the makers of Ubuntu have managed to score a lucrative deal with German insurance giant LVM Versicherungen.
Canonical, which makes Ubuntu, will convert 10,000 PCs to use Ubuntu Linux across the entire company.
Included in the project is the conversion of 3,000 desktop and laptop computers in LVM's Muenster HQ with a further 7,000 in the company's agencies around Germany.
At the moment the company's core software is LAS, a Java-based claims-processing application which is backed by Lotus Notes, Adobe's Reader and OpenOffice.
LVM has been using Ubuntu for some time, but converting the outfit's install base to use the software is a coup. It appears that the company had been using Windows XP.
It is not a an easy environment for any desktop to work in either. The company uses a large pool of self-employed and mobile sales representatives that sell insurance and the LAS system is 'always-on'.
Canonical's VP of business development, Steve George said that many companies were waking up to the realisation that there is an alternative to an endless cycle of licence fees that can amount to millions of dollars.
Hope many more companies do the same & the trend continues on 1000's more.
Wish my public school system would do this. Ubuntu has an awesome Edubuntu package that can easily be had by the administrators & parents alike. The school system might even save a buck or two on the deal, or at the very least it would enable more parents to HAVE some software that we could all use freely.
In general a large company is going to have its own IT team that services user requests and handles the infrastructure, as you know. So in the long-term they will look after the Ubuntu machines in just the same way as the current infrastructure.
What Canonical can help with is the initial change over to the new environment. Both the technical elements and helping to teach the users. And of course over the long-term we can act as an escalation point should there be any problems outside the in-house teams experience.
I assure you that any fees you pay to Canonical are going to be small compared to the cost of a legacy operating system environment like Microsoft!