Ubuntu in the office

So yes, I've been running Ubuntu (6.10 and now 7.04) in the office since October. I've definitely had my challenges but now I rarely need to cross over to Windows. The one thing that vexes me is a good substitute for Visio. I've got UML tools and Thinkature
but thats about it. So how do I get by with Ubuntu in a largely Windows corporate world? Here's how:

1. Buy in. My management is completely cool with my running Linux instead of Windows. I exist in open source goodness by the grace of their positional authorities. If you dont have buy in, you're asking for trouble, run Ubuntu as VMware or on a thumb drive.
2. Email. Well Outlook seemed to be an insurmountable challenge. I have Outlook Web Access which is pretty damn swell in Exchange 2003. But I've forced myself to know Evolution and I've been pleasantly surprised with how well it performs on Feisty Fawn. Its everything I need in an email client but it still has it quirks. It occasionally hangs, or crashes without saving my appts to my calendar, etc. But overall, no issues.
3. Development. Well this is afterall what I am supposed to do. I have been forced to use MonoDevelop in lieu of VS.NET 2005. I like MonoDevelop, but I am limited to doing just source code and very little complex stuff. I can check it in through KDESVN *I still say Tortoise is WAY better. And even though MonoDevelop is based on my all time favorite OSS IDE for .NET (SharpDevelop (I LOVE YOU BABY!)) its no where near as good as VS.NET 2005 or SharpDevelop yet. I also use Eclipe with a variety of plugins for Ruby, BPEL, UML, and many more. I really really like what they've done with Eclipse. Now if they could just get the refactoring thats built into NetBeans or a plug-in like ReSharper (the BEST Visual Studio plug in EVER) I would never leave. AND it runs SOOO much faster on my Ubuntu than Windows ever did for me.
4. Web. Oddly enough there are still times when I wish for IE back. I know its odd to say but for some Microsoft only solutions, its king. I was pleasantly surprise to see Sharepoint 2007 work well with FireFox 2.0. Nicely done Microsoft. And yes, I did install IE for Linux *v6 but sill dont like it as much as the real thing.

Conclusions? Ubuntu, OpenOffice, a SLEW of development tools....Ubuntu is great. Challenges? Enterprise buy in and integration challenges, no corp VPN, no corporate virus protection, no Outlook. If I have a problem with it, I own it. Other challenges, HARDWARE. Driver issues plague open source systems. Try to get full compatiblity with NVidia or worse yet ATI with Ubuntu. Got a Web CAM? Try to use it with GAIM or aMSN....its not that easy. Ubuntu is the best Linux yet for the desktop. For open source shops or non-Microsoft developers, this is a real consideration.