Whilst a decade ago the idea of businesses switching their IT support offering to entirely run on Linux and other open source software was seen as almost comically aspirational, the free-as-in-speech and free-as-in-lunch software community has evolved in leaps and bounds.
The concept of “The Year of the Linux Desktop” has been equal parts aspiration and equal parts community joke since 1999, but a combination of significant compatibility improvements combined with an ever-evolving focus on digital sovereignty has put the spotlight on GNU more than ever.
Sole traders, major enterprises and even entire nations are making the switch, but is such a major IT transition worth the effort involved? Here are five questions to ask yourself, and if any of the answers are yes, it is very much worth considering.
Are You Still Using Windows 10?
Many businesses, either out of necessity due to hardware requirements or through choice due to somewhat questionable priorities and bugs, have opted to stick with Windows 10 despite the fact that it has ended its active support period and will stop receiving extended security updates in 2027.
For many businesses, there is no reason to switch to Windows 11; why fix what is not broken, after all? But once the extended support period ends, that puts potentially hundreds of millions of computers at risk of viruses and security breaches at a time when upgrading can be prohibitively expensive.
Linux is increasingly being positioned as a way around this, with the End of 10 campaign focused on how Linux can not only keep an older laptop or computer running but ensure it thrives whilst still using a familiar interface and mostly the same software.
As End of 10 notes, it is far less difficult to install Linux, either as a sole OS or dual booting with Windows, than it used to be. Most can be installed simply by choosing a distribution that suits your needs, putting it on a USB drive, plugging it into your computer and turning it back on.
Do You Use Online Apps Such As G Suite?
If you mostly use business software through a web browser, such as Google Docs, Microsoft 365 or QuickBooks Online, you probably could switch to Linux tomorrow and not notice much of a difference besides a boost in performance.
Many pieces of software today are designed to be platform-agnostic, which means they work on anything as long as they meet certain basic requirements.
All major web browsers, including Brave, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and even Microsoft’s own Edge, work natively on Linux, and due to less operational bloat, you can run more tabs or multitask more easily.
Do You Already Use Blender, LibreOffice Or OpenDesk?
A lot of industries are already moving away from Windows-only software as the business standard, with alternatives such as OpenDesk increasingly being adopted in the public and private sector.
The 2024 independent animated movie Flow, winner of the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars, was made using the open source 3D animation software Blender, and every programming language has a native editor in Linux.
If you have already moved towards open source solutions, the step towards an open source operating system is far smaller than you might expect.
Do You Want to Customise Your IT Experience?
Every desk is laid out differently, and every computer can and should have the same level of customisation, rather than having user interface changes be limited to the addition of features you do not want and cannot get rid of.
Because Linux systems are inherently modular, with practically every aspect having nearly endless scope to customise and change, you can work with users to tailor their user experience around their particular workflow, accessibility needs, brand identity or particular tastes.
Because the window manager is separate from the OS itself, you can have Linux functionality but a user interface that very closely resembles various forms of Windows, aiding in familiarity and functionality.
However, if you want to try something different that is more efficient for certain types of displays, hardware or job roles, there are a lot of options for customisation that can be easily switched in and out securely and without affecting the main system.
The only consideration is that it is best to choose more popular distributions such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint and NixOS, as they are regularly supported, secure and regularly updated.
Does Security Matter To Your Business?
Linux is famously very secure, partly because it is not as commonly used as other operating systems but also because it was designed to carefully lock down anything that could potentially cause harm to the underlying software or network.
Many businesses use servers powered by either Linux or Unix for precisely this reason.