The Open Source Workstation: A Migration Guide for Applications, the Desktop, and the Managed Linux Estate¶
Stefane Fermigier (Abilian) · sf@abilian.com
Draft working paper v0.9, 2026-08-30. Guide 2 of 2. The companion volume, Open Source Back-End Services: A Migration Guide for Directory, Storage, Mail, and Real-Time Communication, covers directory, storage, mail, and real-time communication. Product statuses are stated as of the date given in §1.5; entries marked † were moving at that date and need re-checking before a procurement decision.
Abstract¶
This guide covers the end-user workstation: the applications on it, the operating system under them, and the machinery that manages both across an estate. It adapts a February 2024 Swiss federal study of client applications and two 2022 studies of the Linux desktop, one German and one French, from their public-administration setting to organisations generally.
It differs from the Swiss source in one structural respect. That study excluded the client operating system by design, stating that "Ein Umstieg auf Linux wird in dieser Studie explizit nicht angeschaut" [Standtke and Tiede 2024b]. This guide treats the Linux desktop as the destination and open-source applications on Windows or macOS as a transitional stage worth completing on its own terms. The two stages are separable, the first is cheap and reversible, and an organisation that stops after it has still removed real dependencies.
Three findings shape the advice. The Swiss study's own prioritisation method produces an ordering that inverts the usual migration plan: stateless single-purpose tools first, and the office suite and mail client last, because those carry the format entanglement. The German and French sources agree that the operating system should be the last thing to change, after every layer above it has already moved. And the French field evidence, which is the only observational evidence in the corpus, finds that the strongest resistance comes from the IT department rather than from users.
The management layer decides these projects. Applications reached parity years ago; §§7 to 15 cover provisioning, policy, packaging, inventory, client identity, encryption, printing, remote support, and hardware, which carry the actual work and which the sources treat thinly or not at all.
About this paper¶
| Programme | Migration guides |
| Genre | Report |
| Version | v0.9 |
| Date | 2026-08-30 |
| Full text | |
| Plain-language explainer | The office suite goes last |
Cite this paper¶
Fermigier, S. (2026). The Open Source Workstation: A Migration Guide for Applications, the Desktop, and the Managed Linux Estate.
Report v0.9, Abilian Econ Lab.
https://econ.lab.abilian.com/papers/workstation/