Re: January meeting

[Sam Simpson <nospam [at] freenet.co.uk>]

Oddly enough, only yesterday I was looking at
http://www.samag.com/linux/articles/v08/i06/a3.shtml
which is a piece about the all linux office. There's other stuff there
in the same vein.

sam

> Craig Andrews wrote:

>
> sheflug - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
> how about this for a small topic for discussion... How useful can
> Linux be, compared with Windoze, in an Office environment?
>
> I say this for a great many reasons...
>
> 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!
>
> Craig
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