Linux Not The Savior For Our Economy

Ok, time to poke some holes:

An you'll still need to pay for support from Red Hat, Novell or others.

Yes, that's true. But if you go the Windows route, you'll have to spend a good deal of money on Windows licenses. Probably on Windows tech support as well, but I don't know how much Windows tech support costs, if anything. However, while I don't have the numbers in front of me, my guess is that the cost of Red Hat, Novell, etc. support will be a most equal to the cost of Windows licenses, and probably much much cheaper. Again, sorry that I don't have hard numbers, but neither did you, so we are even. And don't forget that forgoing paid support altogether can be a viable option in Linux do to the strength and helpfulness of the Linux community. Many times, 20 minutes spent to make a forum posting and wait for the answer has served me far better than spending 30 minutes on hold, another 20 minutes trying to explain my problem to the tech support guy, and another 15 minutes while he reads an irrelevant step-by-step "solution" out of the book on his desk. But that was with a proprietary company's tech support. I have never used nor needed Red Hat or Novell tech support, so I can't speak for them.

How about retraining users so they can be productive on a Linux desktop using Open Office? What's the productivity hit to the business for that?

The productivity hit there is probably about as much as trying to retrain the workers to use Office 2007, with its radically changed interface. In fact, Open Office still maintains an interface that is similar to the old Office 2000, 2003 interface, so it might actually be smoother to transition from Office 2003 to Open Office than from Office 2003 to Office 2007. Not to mention the cost incurred by having to buy all those Office 2007 licenses so that people can actually do something with any OOXML files that come their way. Did I mention that Open Office 3.0 can also deal with OOXML files, and that Open Office currently supports the international standard document format, ODF, which is an open specification and therefore compatible with a large list of office applications? Of course, if long-term document fidelity and preservation isn't a concern, one can also use the Microsoft formats in Open Office.

Additionally, if you have any workers that need training from square one in a given area, then there is zero cost in learning a Linux method first since they never picked up any Windows bad habits in that area.

Plus there's the cash outlay to replace all the other software you use (systems management, virtualization, etc.).

Ok, I'm not sure I understand this point. If you are replacing it with open source stuff, odds are that the software you get will be gratis, though, again, there may be a support contract that you can buy, if you so choose. But again, compare that to the license fee you would otherwise pay.

As a parting shot, I agree that competition is good and necessary for innovation and a vibrant economy, but remember that Microsoft has historically been against competition and to this day faces heavy fines from the EU for its criminally anti-competitive tactics.

I'm not to make the argument that Linux can single-handedly pull the economy out of the fire, but I have seen that, in many fields of work, Linux offers irrefutable advantages over Windows in terms of features, security, cost, and reliability.