Embracing Open Source Software for the Enterprise

There are many companies out there today that are willing to embrace Open Source Software for a lot of their production services. They will run servers on them, often using Linux. They will run their web services on them, through Apache, JBOSS, and other products. They will run their instant message services through a Jabber derivative. They run production monitoring/alert systems through OSS as well, using things like Zenoss and Big Brother. However, how many really try to take this to the next level? How many run their desktops on Linux? How many put it on their laptops?

In this current environment, where businesses are trying to cut costs at every turn. Wouldn't it be better to keep more employees on the payroll in exchange for dropping Microsoft? Don't use Microsoft Office, instead opting for Open Office. I would love to see more companies going this route. A lot of people in a lot of offices think they cannot function without Windows, but they can learn something new. As long as you provide them everything they need to get their job done, they will be fine on any operating system using any kind of tools. They will learn some new transferable skills that will help them land on their feet somewhere else, should the bottom still fall out of your company anyway. Beyond that, they will be part of something new and fantastic. A company that is not paying royalty/license fees to anyone. A company that can even give back to the Open Source community via the bug reports, feature requests, etc, that an entire enterprise running OSS could provide. In house development patches, fixes, etc, could be released to the Open Source community that would help even more enterprises go down this same road. It is a win-win for everyone involved...

So why won't a large enterprise make this switch? Or have some large ones already done it, from the top to the bottom, and I just have not managed to read about it somehow?