Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Office-Worker Linux: It's Here and It Works

Posted by timothy on from the fud-for-thought dept.

A few weeks ago, dot.kde.org featured a great why-should-this-be-amazing story about Linux being used as the day-to-day desktop operating system for city employees in Largo, Florida. Roblimo got a chance to see the system in action to find out how ordinary office workers are proving that the old "Linux is tough to use" shibboleth is nothing but FUD, and how a medium-sized city is saving buckets of money by minimizing the tax dollars spent on licenses and hardware. Oh, and they've also pre-empted the kind of costs (in hassle and money) that can face any organization that Microsoft suspects may have some licenses out of order. This is the kind of thing every elected official should have politely waved in his or her face by concerned taxpayers. The Largo system uses KDE on Red Hat, but since both KDE and Gnome are paying much attention to user interface, similar systems could easily be running on various combinations of hardware / distribution / desktop system.

5 of 615 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So Robin, I gotta ask by Brian+Knotts · · Score: 4, Funny
    They never had to set Linux up.

    Gee, how unusual. I suppose the average corporate drone is handed a Windows CD and an Optiplex?

  2. Re:So Robin, I gotta ask by elefantstn · · Score: 3, Funny
    They never had to set Linux up.

    <sarcasm> Oh, right. Let me guess: where you work, all the secretaries installed NT on their own, and as soon as those W2K boxes arrive, they're going to upgrade. </sarcasm>

    --
    If it ain't broke, you need more software.
  3. ot: just on time by navindra · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is exactly what I needed -- a Slashdotting so that I can finally try to optimize the dot server to handle it. (no joke) :-)

    Cheers,
    -N.

  4. Re:What? by nmos · · Score: 2, Funny

    The joys of having the entire contents of your "My Documents (and others) folder copied to every machine you ever sit down at, even if all you need to do is send a quick email.

  5. OfficeSpace Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Ummm...yeeaaahhh...if you could come in on saturday and ummmm...recompile the kernel with the latest USB patches so that your scanner will work...ummmmm...yeahh...that'd be great. Ummm...I'm also gonna need you to come into the office on Sunday too...yeeahh...you gotta get Linux printing Pantone colours to that Winprinter over there...yeaahh...that'd be great too. Oh...and don't forget those TPC coversheets! When you've figured out how to make Linux print as well as Windows, go print yourself out a dozen copies. Grrreeeaattt!"