Trying out open source is getting easier
One of the difficulties of testing open source solutions is the range of linux flavours and the difficulties of setting up different test enviornments and switching between them.
With virtualisation reaching the desktop now, this process is much easier.
VMware provide a virutalisation player that is free of charge. Ubuntu, Suse and other flavours of virtualised "appliances" can be also be downloaded. They run up instantly, with no installation lead time. This can make it much faster to try out an open source project, or even just to muck about a bit with Linux, in enviornments where this would otherwise be nearly impossible. I'm using just this technique to give myself a mobile platform for working in a joint Windows/Linux enviornment for Koha3 software development & testing. The nicety of some of these appliances is that a lot of the core linux driver configuration, which can be fiddly and distracting, is not needed.
There is still some legwork in installing the open source application itself, of course.
The move f the O/S into the computing "cloud" offers other possiblilties that are quite exciting to increase the accessibility of core Open Source applications to anyone wanting to experiment.
Edmund Balnaves