Looking for new business oportunities

[Darryl Moore]

Hello list. I'm a frequent reader of this list, but alas not a huge
contributor.

I am currently looking for new business opportunities for myself and the
people in this group may have some insight into some ideas I have, so if
you have a moment please read and comment on the following.

In my previous business I built vehicle tracking hardware that ran on
satellite and cellular networks. The hardware I built typically were not
linux based (too small) but they did sport a POSIX API. I did develop
one ARM based device which ran linux but that product was not completed
before my departure.

I built the company IT infrustructure on linux, and all my home PC's run
linux as well, so I do have some basic Linux sys admin as well as
programming skills.

I have developed a bit of a FLOSS obsession over the last few years and
have been wondering if I could turn this into a business. What I'd like
to do is target local companies that are big enough to have purchased MS
volume licenses, but small enough that a small IT company could
reasonably support, (Say 10-100 machines) and help them save money by
converting their IT infrastructure over to Linux. Either the entire
network, or simply their servers, what ever they are more comfortable
with. I would take my pay as a fraction of what they save by being able
to cancel their MS business agreement.

There are gaps in my knowledge of course which I would have to fill, but
there is an Ubuntu partner in Montreal which offers training. As well,
I'd have to get some reasonable estimates of what MS business licenses
typically cost (currently I have no idea). Everything I've found online
is suitably vague. One must call a MS rep before getting any real
estimate.

Mark Shuttleworth is currently working hard to get Ubuntu onto business
desktops, and with the current economic downturn, it seems to me that
there should be a ripe market of small companies looking to reduce costs
whereever they can. This is a niche that will a bit of training and
marketing, I think I can fill.

I would be looking (at least initially) at companies with simple needs;
office productivity, email, file servers, web servers, and supporting
both Windows and Linux based work stations.

If anybody here has technical or business advice on this idea, I'd
dearly like to hear from you.

Thanks,
Darryl Moore