Subject: RE: Linux in the NY Times today
From: Jim Gribbin (jewelrysupplier@gci.net)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 16:28:34 AKDT
Just out of curiosity, have the surveyors looked into something like
VariCAD? I know of a couple of people who use it instead (at least one
on the list) of autocad and seem to find it a reasonable replacement. It
doesn't seem like in surveying that they would be using the full power
of autocad anyway, and since I'm paying the bills ...
On Thu, 2002-09-05 at 14:55, Tom wrote:
>
> 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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-- Jim Gribbin ----------------------------------- Anchorage Jewelry Supply 700 W Fireweed Lane Anchorage, AK 99503Phone (907) 277-7338 Fax (907) 277-7339
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Thu Sep 05 2002 - 16:32:53 AKDT