The Open Source desktop has finally arrived

Over the past year, I've run Windows Vista, Mac OS X (Tiger), and several flavors of Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise). Although it is true that Mac OS X is my favorite operating system for multimedia support, user experience and stability, it only runs on Apple hardware. As a road warrior CIO, I need a 12" subnotebook weighing 2 pounds, which does not yet exist in Apple's product line.

For the past 6 months, I've been running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Linux with Open Office, Evolution email, and Firefox on a Dell D420 subnotebook. It has been good enough for all my computing needs, providing secure, reliable, easy to use software with a low total cost of ownership. However, there have been a few annoyances. Suspend/resume works about 80% of the time. When it does not work, my matchstick mouse locks up and I have to close the lid, resume again and all is well. Occasionally, upon waking from suspend, my laptop does not reconnect to my home wireless network. The Evolution email client can be slow to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange because it does not cache email locally and thus downloads all email headers from scratch whenever the email application is started. However, all office productivity, browser, and multimedia applications work flawlessly.

Tonight, as part of the normal Ubuntu updating process, I clicked on Update Manager to automatically replace the entire Linux operating system on my laptop with the next release of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon. The new operating system downloaded, automatically installed itself and resolved every problem I have ever had with Linux. Congrats to the folks at Canonical who maintain Ubuntu and to the folks at Novell who have significantly upgraded their Evolution email client to meet the needs of Microsoft Exchange users.

I am completely confident in saying that "Linux your grandmother could use" has now arrived. With Ubuntu Gutsy Gorilla, everyone can have a free desktop/laptop operating system with all the productivity tools necessary to get your work done.

Two years ago, when I had dinner with Steve Ballmer, I explained that healthcare needs highly reliable, lower cost, more secure desktop software. He countered that new features are the highest priority of Microsoft customers and that it would be impossible to create a lightweight, reliable, low cost, secure version of Microsoft operating systems and applications given the demand for ever increasing features.

I am a realist and recognize that Microsoft provides many enterprise software products that will continue to have a strong presence in healthcare. However, now that Ubuntu is good enough, I expect that more people will try it and experience the advantages of running software with just the right balance of features, speed, and stability. And it's always free.

To try it yourself, go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Let me know how it goes!