With questions and uncertainty about Microsoft's Vista, and the emergence of new Novell and Red Hat desktops, the buzz has never been louder regarding Linux as an alternative client operating system for enterprises.

For large and small organizations, switching to Linux desktops isn’t as simple as changing break room coffee vendors, or the company that services your copy machines. Jonathan Reed, a systems administrator at MIT, who manages a wide array of Linux desktops, as well as Unix and Apple and Windows clients, says there are myriad issues that must be thought through before a Linux client rollout.

Key among all the things to think about is a Linux desktop support model. Organizations that have long supported their own Windows desktops must consider if this model will suffice in a new Linux environment.

“If the organization will have in-house, Tier-1 support, they may only need to purchase Tier-2 support from the vendor or a third party,” Reed says. “An organization may also decide that they simply don't have the time or resources to provide internal IT support and may outsource everything.”

If an organization goes the in-house route, the next step is to draw up the Xs and Os for this model.

“Will the organization make its own RPM or DEB packages?” Reed says, or “will users receive updates strictly from the vendor? How will software be deployed?”

In organizations where end-users do not care how their machines are configured, and simply want computers that work, a good practice is to have a central "bundle" of applications or even a disk image that is deployed to all the workstations. "In that case, fixing a corrupted installation is as simple as re-imaging the disk," Reed says.

For more tips and ideas on how to prepare for a Linux desktop rollout, check out Network World’s Guide to Linux.