Encourage developers to learn new skills

As the transition continued at Novell, internal software developers were encouraged to learn new skills and languages to work with open-source applications, Anderson said. "They had to be willing to go backward [sometimes], to accept a product that temporarily has features that are inferior to proprietary products until you contribute the changes" back to the open-source project, she said.

Linux was also moved into the company's data center, with some 47 percent of the servers now running the operating system, she said.

Those moves have saved Novell millions in support costs over proprietary applications, she said, and have resulted in higher employee satisfaction, based on internal surveys.

When the idea of moving to Linux and open source was raised several years ago, some initial reactions were that it wouldn't be possible to do, Anderson said. "Frankly, it was possible, and it wasn't that hard to do," she said.