Linux in a small business
I have set up a business that ran purely on Open Source. SuSe desktop, Mitel SME for fileserver / eMail.
It all ran beautifully until...
- People wanted to exchange files with the outside world (Open Office vs Microsoft Office)
- They wanted Salesforce integration - MS Office only
- They wanted screenpop / telephony CTI
- They wanted some industry specific applications (Windows only)
There was also some fairly major headaches getting single sign-on working with NIS/Kerberos and all in all, I think we spent more time in support than we saved on licenses from MS
From a purely non-tech point of view, the differences between Open Office files and Microsoft files caused a significant headache. I know that OO saves as MS Office files, but it just did not work in the real world.
To take eMail as an example - People also get comfortable with the Outlook instantaneous update you see with exchange - not so happy with a 5 minute poll on a local IMAP / POP server.
I am in a similar situation as you. I was hired as the IT manager for a small non-profit association of 7 employees. In the past, the association used Windows SBS for all of its tasks.
A lot of the big Linux enthusiasts may disagree with me, but I strongly believe that Windows is the best option for the Front End. Your receptionist will likely know the user interface, be familiar with Office and can start right in (including if you have to hire a new one). Like you had said, any industry specific applications will run on it. And it is not that expensive to purchase with a new PC, if you consider how much it is used in daily office work.
That being said, on the backend, I recommend going open source all the way. The plus side is that the licensing can all be free. However, you are going to pay more in the way of people who know how to set up and run the systems.
Here, we have Windows + Office on the frontend. On the backend we still use Exchange for email and calendaring. But then, our website and e-mail filtering is all done on a Linux machine. Honestly, for our next version we will probably move to a hosted exchange solution. The big up front costs for the server and software doesn't make sense for a small organization.
Any other kind of back end file systems / storage or databases can all be Linux based. As long as the non-techies do not have to access it, and a knowledgeable IT person can administer it, it makes sense to have Linux on the backend.
It all boils down to software. Will this small business have or use a software package or website that requires the use of Windows? If so, don't bother looking at Linux. You will be trying to shove a square peg in a round hole with no real benefit to the business. The computer is simply a tool for the business. They should not use a tool that interferes or impedes their business.
We have rolled out such a scenario. Typical rollout was:
- Ubuntu Linux
- OpenOffice.org
- Skype
- JungleDisk (offsite backups, etc)
- Set up printers, networking, etc.
In some rare cases there will be some custom software that only runs on Windows and doesn't work properly under WINE, etc. In those cases we set up a single PC with Windows XP and allowed people to use that PC for the specific task. Depending on the software and task, this doesn't always work... but you'd be surprised what you CAN'T do if you set your mind on solutions rather than objections.
Hope this helps.
PS - Its also worth mentioning the savings involved and less down-time associated with running Ubuntu/Linux vs Windows. The employees stopped installing garbage on their PCs, the PCs didn't get infected with viruses, etc. The long terms savings on stuff like this was just a bonus.