The key here is gradual change. Subjecting users to Linux *AND*
OpenOffice.org Office suite is like giving a driver who is used to
using an automatic car with power steering a stick shift with no
power steering. Introduce one first and in this case, OpenOffice.org
Office on Windows before changing the OS when they are familiar with
the office suite - believe me, they will not notice it much. :P
This is the strategy that I am inclined to use these days. Too much change can be intimidating to some people. However, I have had several Linux+OO.org migrations that didn't even have formal trainings but somehow the migration went well eventually. In one case, we migrated old computers running Win9x to an LTSP environment without formatting the hard drive. The idea then was that productivity should not be hampered by the migration so the old OS was preserved just in case there are difficulties that could not be easily done on the LTSP environment. For several weeks, only a few used the LTSP system. This changed later on when other people began noticing that the LTSP clients were running faster than their old PCs. This made the difficult ones consider the LTSP environment. And when their OS gave in to some trouble, they eventually used LTSP exclusively.
In another company, we migrated several PCs to Linux desktops and also installed an LTSP server. This was during the height of the raid scare perpetuated by the BSA. However, the people using the desktops who also occupied higher positions in the company had their IT guy convert it back to WinXP after the scare. But the LTSP system which also served as a Samba file server was preserved and the people who just needed a word processor continued using the clients.
Perhaps when people feel tangible benefits from a migration, they are more open and willing to accept the change.
Holden
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