Hospitals are the big end of the data pipeline. All their suppliers feed off them, big and small. So the suppliers will need to switch if there are any 'problems'. And what is the switching costs for these suppliers? $0. So their managers will tell their workers to just download the LO software and get on with business. As noted elsewhere, the Danish gov't is using open document formats for their work so the Hospital is ok with that major interaction (and most is likely web-based form updates anyway.. switching to Firefox or Midori next?...).
I do consulting work with US Big 3 car OEMs... and trade LO / OOo documents all the time with their MSO infestations. As well with the global supplier pipeline. I go a step further and my whole compute stack is OSS from Linux to LO.
What about FreeSCO router project? It's Linux, it runs from a floppy, and runs on 386's... I've had it on a 486 before, but mostly only have newer Pentium-2s to use for that sort of thing. Which are good for FreeNAS.
Learn to build a LAMP server with Ubuntu or Debian and host the website yourself.
Install Wordpress and grab a theme you kind of like, modify the things you don't. There are a lot of free themes out there. You can make a more traditional website instead of a weblog (use 'pages' instead of 'posts').
Use Scribefire to edit the site, upload pictures and videos.
I run the above stack, on an old Pentium-2 machine or on a Virtual Machine. Granted the 'Slashdot effect' could bring those servers down... but it doesn't appear you're trying to find an IDE to create massive corporate web installations with fail-over and load-balancing and so on.
.The key with most sites ends up being the general color scheme, fonts, and graphics/pictures. That is what the end user sees and gets a strong opinion about. then it's if the site is easy to navigate, good content, etc. that they stay.
For raw site editors... Kompozer, Gedit, Kate, Bluefish, Quanta Plus.
Plenty of time from release of this movie to enter the psychy of a team bent on killing the Apple II line. And making that Mac commercial in 1984.
Apple has a known history for changing things with no notice and leaving previous tech to rot. ...I'm selling the first book I wrote, started on an Apple//e, finished on Linux, and published via Amazon's Kindle.
Kindle publishing has been lucrative for some.. Konrath Hocking Loche... $250,000 sales on their own per quarter, and thier royalties per copy are higher than through traditional publishers.
Apple has a history for rapid course changes and leaving the installed base to rot.
Electronic books are a hot zone right now.
Some news outlets reported that Amazon sold more Kindle books last year than Hard cover and Paperbacks combined.
I suggest for the OP to transform their code to run on Android, and improve it over Apples eReader so they sell a lot and cause envy.
My setup:
-Over the air antenna ("coat hanger antenna")
-P4 laptop with broken screen, plugged into tv
-Laptop runs Ubuntu Linux with Boxee, XBMC, Enna front-ends plus Prism (or Firefox) to stream network shows that were missed.
(I have an Atom mini-ITX fanless board with 4GB flash drive with Ubuntu I'll switch over to when I get a chance to finish the hardware box)
I also went with an Asterisk server ("PBX in a flash") to handle all my home phone needs.
Media stored on a FreeNAS box.
Also used a Vortexbox setup to listen to my old CDs that had been in storage.
I increased my internet speed and got rid of cable/dish and the phone.
1) While the MB is inexpensive relative to other components (CPU and RAM), it's a big problem for most people to change it. It's much easier to flop on a new CPU and plug some Ram in and they did their upgrade. If they don't do it themselves then they pay a big labor bill to do it. so the price is suddenly high.
2) It's also a hassle for people to build all-new if they are Windows users.. Windows checks that you have the same MB or it won't run - assuming you "stole it". I run Linux and don't have that concern any more! Heh heh.. I also get more CPU power out of it
3) Many people shop 'value'.. so they find a low-end system at their price range. A year later they can then upgrade the CPU and max the RAM for less than the price of the system they really wanted the prior year. And these upgrades make the old machine feel like it's got a pair of new shoes.
4) Viruses kill most Windows systems before many parts wear out, but if they are careful then either the HDD or power supply takes the unit out (I repair a lot of systems). While you're in there replacing broken stuff you might as well add more Ram or a new CPU (see #3), provided the CPU/MB manufacturer plans a good upgrade cycle.
...
Did AMD fix their modern CPUs to shut down rather than burn out when a heat sink/fan goes out and the chip over-temps? There were some years their chips didn't have any safety circuits while Intel's do. Kept me leery of AMD since then.
Here's a collegue.. wanted the Apple laptop $2000 version at the time. "I want better build quality", but what they really wanted was the brand logo. Most computers are made in the same plants with the same people (apple and dell share several motherboard builders for example). Most laptops break from dropping. I had suggested the collegue buy ten $200 netbooks and drop or lose them wherever they please and they will still have a few brand new machines the two years later they might want to 'upgrade' their koolaid. The logo was just too attractive for them. Their money.
This is where it starts. Design phase. The Apples are probably designed in the US and then built in China. There may be some back-and-forth between the Engineering design group and the Manufacturing group during development but if the parts are badly designed it's just asking the operators to make mistakes. The operators don't want to make an error - it's bad for them and bad for the company.
The curious part to know is what does Apple US dictate in the design parameters to the Manufacturing group, what is the detailed specification... from only requiring "it needs to be white and less than this thick" to minute details like "...and you have to use resistor 100k over here..".
The other issue is the review model could have been 'hand built' specifically for a press review, not knowing part of the review was a complete tear-down, so one person put the whole thing together rather than a tuned manufacturing process.
That's exactly why I switched... MS changed the file formats with each version change so that when a top fortune 50 company upgraded then their whole supply chain was forced to upgrade versions. And this network effect then seeped into every crevice. It was upgrade yourself or you'd be left out.
Now it's install LO or OO and you can work with old and new MSO files.
Ubuntu has always suffered in the Linux community for its popularity... there are many that think if it's not Slackware then it's nothing; if you use a gui and not the cli then you're not a real computer user. And those that want Alternative Rock (that later went mainstream) and down play anything in ascent. But if it's ever to be "the year of Desktop Linux" it will necessarily need to be popular.
Ubuntu caught up to Windows gui useability a long while back, and to get on par with the leading gui interface design and features requires doing what is going on with touch and the iPad and iPhone. Ubuntu will continue to improve and get there (with a six month Ubuntu OS cadence vs the three year Apple cadence it won't be long).
So expect more button moves from right to left (which is actually useful if you do a lot of remote desktop work).
I find LO a bit better at handling MSOffice open document format (.docx,.xlsx, etc) than OOo. Downside is presentation minimizer that I use a lot (all those MSO users I work with can't seem to minimize.ppt's) only works on OOo and not LO, yet. I find LO more stable than OOo.
I have an install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that I removed OOo and replaced with LO, so no dependency issues since it was all taken care of with the original OOo install and stayed for LO.
Get a kill-a-watt meter and actually check the computer; running and idle. You'll likely find 50W when full-on and 25W when sitting (unless you've got a screen-saver running...). And don't be fooled by pc age... I've checked Pentium-2s that ran in 45-55W (idle 25W) and Pentium-4s running 65-75W (idle 30-35W). Best to check.
Check into LTSP.org
The concept there is you transform previous thick clients into thin clients (basically rip out all the drives and network boot off the servers). You can take 10 year old desktops that are limping along on decade old OS and programs that don't fit on there anymore and run them from the central server with more horsepower. Then you're not buying new thin clients.
about as easy as moving them from MS Office 2003 to 2007.
You're probably moving them from XP with MS Office 2003 to something new like Win 7 with Office 2010, unless another better idea comes along. The users will be angry with that mix.. new OS and Office!.
So just move them to thin clients running Ubuntu and Libre Office and at least save some money.
Topgrading... those schools pick the successful students to go there as there are usually many more applicants than open spots. The same way that 'class A' high school sports teams generally whip 'class C' school sports teams. Larger draw and the ability to select the top end of the bell-curve at the start. It doesn't _really_ matter what the school teaches them after that (except for technical jobs like Engineering).
being on the hiring side of things, I've seen where some schools I'm willing to take more graduates from than others based on work experience.
My parents have been collecting genealogical records for 30 years. For a long while they were keeping records on BrothersKeeper, but I think that was an old-mac only program. I switched them to Gramps (and Linux) a few years back. Btw, the only help I've had to give them was updating OS.
100,000 copies per year is typical for general economics to work out for a car company.
Suppliers don't like to make parts for vehicles less than 30-50,000 copies. They love it if a vehicle hits 250,000 per year (provided they can make some profit on each unit). Their costs become the car manufacturer's costs.
All electric vehicle batteries will be a long term cost problem. Lithium has a limited supply (only a few countries actually have mines, and recycling becomes problematic) and so as vehicle demand ramps up the costs for the limited commodity will go up.
GM's solution to the consumer's 'range anxiety' by having the small conventional gasoline engine is brilliant and will make ultimate real consumer sales beyond the 'poser actors' that own a dozen SUVs and want to appear green.
Is the 4yo past the destructive "inquisitive" 2-3yo phase yet? If not then find an old desktop rather than the netbook. You may want to get a standard keyboard for them and a regular mouse (usb plugs right into the netbook)
Start them with Edubuntu and set up dansguardian. Make sure flash & etc can get them on disney, nickjr, game gecko, etc. give them a user id, not root, and make the login simple (like their name for user id and password - they like that and helps with pre-school). Then get the web browser bookmarked on some reasonable sites (like nickjr, etc). Load up the linux games with 'tux' (tux racer, tux paint, the tux side scroller like mario bros, etc).
You'll have to learn these programs to teach them, and be interactive with the creation process, but Synfig, Blender (look up the "Sintel" movie), Pencil, scratch programming (more like 6-7yo though), and then look into some music programs like Hydrogen drum machine and Openshot video editor. The idea is to get to a point where they can create their own stop-motion cartoon "movies" with your help to tell their own stories. The stories will be awful to you, but magical to them, and they will love your participation.
This is one of the better pieces of advice. Very flexible with adding the Virtual Machines.
For cost they could also consider Ubuntu or Debian or CentOS Server with VirtualBox. There are some VirtualBox appliance sites, plus many of the VMWare appliances can be converted over. Or just install from scratch into a VM, like Ubuntu Server in fifteen minutes.
Slashdot Mirror
The 'ribbon' was a 'new coke' oops for Microsoft. They've backed away/tweaked it.
I've seen more people forced to migrate from MSO 2003 to 2007/2010 that like LO better because it's more familiar and faster to use.
Hospitals are the big end of the data pipeline. All their suppliers feed off them, big and small. So the suppliers will need to switch if there are any 'problems'. And what is the switching costs for these suppliers? $0. So their managers will tell their workers to just download the LO software and get on with business. As noted elsewhere, the Danish gov't is using open document formats for their work so the Hospital is ok with that major interaction (and most is likely web-based form updates anyway .. switching to Firefox or Midori next?...).
I do consulting work with US Big 3 car OEMs... and trade LO / OOo documents all the time with their MSO infestations. As well with the global supplier pipeline. I go a step further and my whole compute stack is OSS from Linux to LO.
Don't fear freedom.
.
What about FreeSCO router project? It's Linux, it runs from a floppy, and runs on 386's... I've had it on a 486 before, but mostly only have newer Pentium-2s to use for that sort of thing. Which are good for FreeNAS.
Learn to build a LAMP server with Ubuntu or Debian and host the website yourself.
... Kompozer, Gedit, Kate, Bluefish, Quanta Plus.
Install Wordpress and grab a theme you kind of like, modify the things you don't. There are a lot of free themes out there. You can make a more traditional website instead of a weblog (use 'pages' instead of 'posts').
Use Scribefire to edit the site, upload pictures and videos.
I run the above stack, on an old Pentium-2 machine or on a Virtual Machine. Granted the 'Slashdot effect' could bring those servers down... but it doesn't appear you're trying to find an IDE to create massive corporate web installations with fail-over and load-balancing and so on.
.The key with most sites ends up being the general color scheme, fonts, and graphics/pictures. That is what the end user sees and gets a strong opinion about. then it's if the site is easy to navigate, good content, etc. that they stay.
For raw site editors
o
this is a great post!
...I'm selling the first book I wrote, started on an Apple //e, finished on Linux, and published via Amazon's Kindle.
Plenty of time from release of this movie to enter the psychy of a team bent on killing the Apple II line. And making that Mac commercial in 1984.
Apple has a known history for changing things with no notice and leaving previous tech to rot.
.
Kindle publishing has been lucrative for some .. Konrath Hocking Loche ... $250,000 sales on their own per quarter, and thier royalties per copy are higher than through traditional publishers.
Apple has a history for rapid course changes and leaving the installed base to rot.
Electronic books are a hot zone right now.
Some news outlets reported that Amazon sold more Kindle books last year than Hard cover and Paperbacks combined.
I suggest for the OP to transform their code to run on Android, and improve it over Apples eReader so they sell a lot and cause envy.
My setup:
-Over the air antenna ("coat hanger antenna")
-P4 laptop with broken screen, plugged into tv
-Laptop runs Ubuntu Linux with Boxee, XBMC, Enna front-ends plus Prism (or Firefox) to stream network shows that were missed.
(I have an Atom mini-ITX fanless board with 4GB flash drive with Ubuntu I'll switch over to when I get a chance to finish the hardware box)
I also went with an Asterisk server ("PBX in a flash") to handle all my home phone needs.
Media stored on a FreeNAS box.
Also used a Vortexbox setup to listen to my old CDs that had been in storage.
I increased my internet speed and got rid of cable/dish and the phone.
Google for "coat hanger antenna" and for cheap you can make a great antenna for HD over the air content.
1) While the MB is inexpensive relative to other components (CPU and RAM), it's a big problem for most people to change it. It's much easier to flop on a new CPU and plug some Ram in and they did their upgrade. If they don't do it themselves then they pay a big labor bill to do it. so the price is suddenly high.
.. Windows checks that you have the same MB or it won't run - assuming you "stole it". I run Linux and don't have that concern any more! Heh heh .. I also get more CPU power out of it
.. so they find a low-end system at their price range. A year later they can then upgrade the CPU and max the RAM for less than the price of the system they really wanted the prior year. And these upgrades make the old machine feel like it's got a pair of new shoes.
...
2) It's also a hassle for people to build all-new if they are Windows users
3) Many people shop 'value'
4) Viruses kill most Windows systems before many parts wear out, but if they are careful then either the HDD or power supply takes the unit out (I repair a lot of systems). While you're in there replacing broken stuff you might as well add more Ram or a new CPU (see #3), provided the CPU/MB manufacturer plans a good upgrade cycle.
Did AMD fix their modern CPUs to shut down rather than burn out when a heat sink/fan goes out and the chip over-temps? There were some years their chips didn't have any safety circuits while Intel's do. Kept me leery of AMD since then.
Here's a collegue .. wanted the Apple laptop $2000 version at the time. "I want better build quality", but what they really wanted was the brand logo. Most computers are made in the same plants with the same people (apple and dell share several motherboard builders for example). Most laptops break from dropping. I had suggested the collegue buy ten $200 netbooks and drop or lose them wherever they please and they will still have a few brand new machines the two years later they might want to 'upgrade' their koolaid. The logo was just too attractive for them. Their money.
Apple too ... don't forget when there was that lost iPhone 'prototype'.
This is where it starts. Design phase. The Apples are probably designed in the US and then built in China. There may be some back-and-forth between the Engineering design group and the Manufacturing group during development but if the parts are badly designed it's just asking the operators to make mistakes. The operators don't want to make an error - it's bad for them and bad for the company.
... from only requiring "it needs to be white and less than this thick" to minute details like "...and you have to use resistor 100k over here..".
The curious part to know is what does Apple US dictate in the design parameters to the Manufacturing group, what is the detailed specification
The other issue is the review model could have been 'hand built' specifically for a press review, not knowing part of the review was a complete tear-down, so one person put the whole thing together rather than a tuned manufacturing process.
That's exactly why I switched ... MS changed the file formats with each version change so that when a top fortune 50 company upgraded then their whole supply chain was forced to upgrade versions. And this network effect then seeped into every crevice. It was upgrade yourself or you'd be left out.
Now it's install LO or OO and you can work with old and new MSO files.
Ubuntu has always suffered in the Linux community for its popularity ... there are many that think if it's not Slackware then it's nothing; if you use a gui and not the cli then you're not a real computer user. And those that want Alternative Rock (that later went mainstream) and down play anything in ascent. But if it's ever to be "the year of Desktop Linux" it will necessarily need to be popular.
Ubuntu caught up to Windows gui useability a long while back, and to get on par with the leading gui interface design and features requires doing what is going on with touch and the iPad and iPhone. Ubuntu will continue to improve and get there (with a six month Ubuntu OS cadence vs the three year Apple cadence it won't be long).
So expect more button moves from right to left (which is actually useful if you do a lot of remote desktop work).
I find LO a bit better at handling MSOffice open document format (.docx, .xlsx, etc) than OOo. Downside is presentation minimizer that I use a lot (all those MSO users I work with can't seem to minimize .ppt's) only works on OOo and not LO, yet. I find LO more stable than OOo.
I have an install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that I removed OOo and replaced with LO, so no dependency issues since it was all taken care of with the original OOo install and stayed for LO.
Get a kill-a-watt meter and actually check the computer; running and idle. You'll likely find 50W when full-on and 25W when sitting (unless you've got a screen-saver running...). And don't be fooled by pc age ... I've checked Pentium-2s that ran in 45-55W (idle 25W) and Pentium-4s running 65-75W (idle 30-35W). Best to check.
Now of course .. most of these religions have been going strong for centuries. So I guess we must already be at that equilibrium model he so spoketh.
Check into LTSP.org
The concept there is you transform previous thick clients into thin clients (basically rip out all the drives and network boot off the servers). You can take 10 year old desktops that are limping along on decade old OS and programs that don't fit on there anymore and run them from the central server with more horsepower. Then you're not buying new thin clients.
about as easy as moving them from MS Office 2003 to 2007.
.. new OS and Office!.
You're probably moving them from XP with MS Office 2003 to something new like Win 7 with Office 2010, unless another better idea comes along. The users will be angry with that mix
So just move them to thin clients running Ubuntu and Libre Office and at least save some money.
.
Topgrading ... those schools pick the successful students to go there as there are usually many more applicants than open spots. The same way that 'class A' high school sports teams generally whip 'class C' school sports teams. Larger draw and the ability to select the top end of the bell-curve at the start. It doesn't _really_ matter what the school teaches them after that (except for technical jobs like Engineering).
being on the hiring side of things, I've seen where some schools I'm willing to take more graduates from than others based on work experience.
My parents have been collecting genealogical records for 30 years. For a long while they were keeping records on BrothersKeeper, but I think that was an old-mac only program. I switched them to Gramps (and Linux) a few years back. Btw, the only help I've had to give them was updating OS.
100,000 copies per year is typical for general economics to work out for a car company.
Suppliers don't like to make parts for vehicles less than 30-50,000 copies. They love it if a vehicle hits 250,000 per year (provided they can make some profit on each unit). Their costs become the car manufacturer's costs.
All electric vehicle batteries will be a long term cost problem. Lithium has a limited supply (only a few countries actually have mines, and recycling becomes problematic) and so as vehicle demand ramps up the costs for the limited commodity will go up.
GM's solution to the consumer's 'range anxiety' by having the small conventional gasoline engine is brilliant and will make ultimate real consumer sales beyond the 'poser actors' that own a dozen SUVs and want to appear green.
... yeah, I work in the automotive industry.
Is the 4yo past the destructive "inquisitive" 2-3yo phase yet? If not then find an old desktop rather than the netbook.
You may want to get a standard keyboard for them and a regular mouse (usb plugs right into the netbook)
Start them with Edubuntu and set up dansguardian. Make sure flash & etc can get them on disney, nickjr, game gecko, etc. give them a user id, not root, and make the login simple (like their name for user id and password - they like that and helps with pre-school). Then get the web browser bookmarked on some reasonable sites (like nickjr, etc). Load up the linux games with 'tux' (tux racer, tux paint, the tux side scroller like mario bros, etc).
You'll have to learn these programs to teach them, and be interactive with the creation process, but Synfig, Blender (look up the "Sintel" movie), Pencil, scratch programming (more like 6-7yo though), and then look into some music programs like Hydrogen drum machine and Openshot video editor. The idea is to get to a point where they can create their own stop-motion cartoon "movies" with your help to tell their own stories. The stories will be awful to you, but magical to them, and they will love your participation.
This is one of the better pieces of advice. Very flexible with adding the Virtual Machines.
For cost they could also consider Ubuntu or Debian or CentOS Server with VirtualBox. There are some VirtualBox appliance sites, plus many of the VMWare appliances can be converted over. Or just install from scratch into a VM, like Ubuntu Server in fifteen minutes.