Re: January meeting

[ross <nospam [at] virgin.net>]

> Craig Andrews wrote:
>
> 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?!?
>
i would like to think that with the involvement of borland and thier
visual programming languges this will soon change (even i can use c++
builder!!)

> 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.
>
well i've found that it's only personnal motivation that causes me to
persist with linux. commonsense says stick with windows. for anyone
looking for a challenge, it's great. i would like to think that if
anyone put thier mind to it, they could get (almost) a windows
equivelent machine. i'm not far from it myself, but it has taken some
time (and half a rain forest of 'how-to's'!!!)

> 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.)
>
worst thing of all....i know we have cron, but unless you can write
scripts, or use a k'app it's not a lot of use (compaired to windows
which is a piece of p*** to use)

> 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've got to disagree here....... I recently purchased a copy of Suse6.3
installed it (default settings though), and had it running with all the
graphic, internet, office features in about 1-2 hours.
the settup wasn't ideal by any means, but most windows users wouldn't
notice!

Start your own FREE mailing list at

© 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved