January meeting

[Craig Andrews <nospam [at] currantbun.com>]

how about this for a small topic for discussion... How useful
can Linux be, compared with Windoze, in an Office environment?

    1) Availability of software. Recently I was
required to look for some sort of accounting package for my Linux box. I only
found one of any use, but which I run in X-Term. Sure, you may pay a fortune for
Windows stuff, but the company I work for paid £15.95 to buy me a
ruler?!?

    2) Ease of use. Many people who I work with
still only know as much as is absolutely necessary to run their PC's. To do
something other than use a pre-configured spreadsheet or database, or type up
anything other than the simplest document, they're stuck. Let's face it,
EVERYONE who uses IT knows how to use Word, at least as far as to type a
memo.

    3) Ease of maintenance. A great many people
I know in the IT industry see PC's as one thing, and one thing only. An Intel
Pentium based system (486, whats that?) running Windows 95 or 98. Anything else
is alien. If a whole factory of people had to learn a new operating system's
methods, my job would be absolute murder (not least due to only two other people
in the company, to my knowledge, even having a working knowledge of
Un*x.)

    4) Speed of deployment. Put simply, build a
PC, install Win95, and be on the network with Office97 and full network printer
support in 3 hours. However, teaching a co-worker the most basic of commands
(ls,cd,mkdir and the like) took more time than I'd like. Although this is not
that far removed from MS-DOS commands, the fear factor prevents many people
seeing how elegantly simply the whole thing fits together.

    I don't know if anyone read the article
about the airlines, (I can't remember where I saw it), it certainly applies in
the office!!! (If you would like to read it, I could send you a
paraphrase).

    Just a thought, anyway, to get the old ball
rolling!

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