Linux and Open Source in the hands of a field tech

I have been a user of Linux now for the past 16 years and using Linux full time in a MS Windows environment for the past 11years. I have found that the only thing that I can't use Linux for is the Outlook template. But that is a small insignificant issue.

I am a field tech for an energy company responsible for 51 sites from Oklahoma to Iowa and from Kansas to Wyoming providing desktop and network support.

Linux network tools are superior to Windows tools in determining the number of devices that are on a particular segment, and monitoring network traffic using Zenmap and Etherape.

There is a MS version of Zenmap that does scan a network, but the isn't a desktop/laptop version of Etherape that I have been able to find. Along with these applications there is Evolution for Outlook and OpenOffice to replace MS Office.

OpenOffice will read a Office 2007 document, but will not save to it. You can only save to Office 2003 format at this time.

There is rdesktop and vnc to remote to a Windows machine and the Samba client is mature that I have the ability to transfer data from a Window PC to my external drive on Linux.

But the biggest advantage of Linux is that there currently no viruses in the wild to cause issues. That can't be said about Microsoft products.

I chuckle to those articles that Linux is not ready for the desktop. It is a far superior OS than MS Windows of thought of being!!