Subject: RE: Linux in the NY Times today
From: Tom (thogland@alaskatech.org)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 14:55:17 AKDT
On Thu, 5 Sep 2002, James Zuelow wrote:
[snip the *real* message]
> *[Offtopic]
> In these days of serious budget shortfall for the State of Alaska, it might
> be an interesting question to ask just how much money is going to Microsoft
> every year, and how much of that would be saved by moving to a standard
> workplace package like Mandrake & OpenOffice. The initial transition costs
> would be high - consultants for retraining the IT staff, and a temporary
> productivity loss due to users being unfamiliar with the new environment,
> but long term you would not have to rotate equipment as often and the
> licensing/tech support fees would be greatly reduced. There would be some
> really hairy messes to clean up that would not happen overnight. Microsoft
> Access seems to be very popular in State offices because it is so handy for
> creating a small, customized database for a particular office's
> requirements. There isn't a simple drop in replacement for it like Word or
> Excel has with OpenOffice, AbiWord, Gnumeric, etc. So training people up on
> one of the various SQL databases and a GUI admin tool would take time and
> probably generate a lot of friction. I'm sure there are other similar
> situations. (What does AkPAY run on - a *nix server somewhere?)
> [/Offtopic]
We at DNR already started looking at that. We seem to spend a decent
amount on Windows and Office, although the entire network is *nix based
except for a couple special-purpose servers. Some is unavoidable -
AutoCAD is Windows-only, so the surveyors keep Windows - but people using
Word and e-mail could easily switch.
AKPAY is mainframe-based, in Juneau. The entire Land Admin System
(covering *every* land sale, lease, etc.) is mainframe-based, in Juneau.
Any TN3270 client can connect to those...
This might be a good time to bring this up: Suggestions for a good distro
to use to replace Windows? Something as close to a Windows install as
possible - I know the hardware, but something that will install quickly
and easily off CD, let me easily configure X (probably with KDE, but
something with a Windows theme would be fine) and just *work*. I use
Debian, which is *not* the right distro to use in this case (as much as it
hurts to say that!).
Suggestions? The hardware is 99% generic Dell or Gateway - ATI,
Matrox or Nvidia video, SB16 PCI or ISA sound, 3com NICs, so very
supported...
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Thu Sep 05 2002 - 14:54:48 AKDT