Yea, Macs are great, if you can actually get one. The company that I work for just replaced our whole infrastructure, and I was responsible for developing the recommendation for new hardware. I REALLY wanted to replace our Windows desktops with an operating system that requires less babysitting but was afraid of causing panic with too much change at once. So, I ended up recommending Linux for our servers, Macs for 3 of our desktops (we're not a large organization), and new Windows boxes for the rest. Got the Windows machines in less than a week, the Linux servers, in less than a month, my PowerMac order has been "shipping within the next 2 weeks" since September! Thank goodness I didn't order Macs for all of our desktops. I'd be looking for a new job by now.
"But since this is for a business and maybe accessed by other people I must do it in a format they can use... we all know the standard and I'll have to get Word and Excel some how to stick to it."
I share MS Office documents created in Open Office at work practically every day. "Save as" is your friend. You can even configure Open Office to save in MS Office formats by default.
Tools -> Options -> Load/Save -> General -> Document Type -> Always Save As
Sorry, for the knee jerk 'BS' intro in my response. I don't know about Linspire (Lindows), my main distro is FC. I did however finally manage to convert my wife from Windows to Linux after I got her to try Xandros. In the context of the conversation, "Xandros gives root by default" sounded like a FUDster comment.
Bullshit! While the default KDE login for Xandros does not hide the root user account, the default login (appearing on the login screen) is that of the most recently logged in user. If you wish to hide the root account on the login screen, this can easily be done by going to Launch->Control Center->System Administration->Login Manager->Users, and selecting root under "Hidden Users."
I use both Linux and Windows and was really hoping to be enlightened on how Windows could save the day when I had a Linux problem. I thought 'dozens of times' I must be missing something. Apparently not. You couldn't come up with one concrete example. Just a smart ass comment.
Doing a live show can pay as little as $150! Three hours there, three hours back...
Your cousin needs a new agent! I've been a professional musician since the early 80's. You don't have to be a 'Rock Star' to make a decent living playing music. You do however, have to treat it as a business. If the local market can't support your product, you either need to change your product or move to a different market.
I'd like to hear about some of them. I've never been in a situation where Windows could correct a problem that I was having with Linux. I have, however, been in many where the opposite was true.
But any office I've ever been in, the cost of re-educating every employee on the simple mechanics of getting around the interface...
I am so sick of the whole "cost of retraining exceeds the licensing savings BS!" The company that I work for just replaced 1/3 of our Windows/MSOffice desktops with Linux/OOo in order to expand, and still stay within this years licensing budget. The total amount of re-training was about 5min of instruction, and a sheet of paper like this:
Evolution=Outlook
Calc=Excel
Writer=Word
Impress=Powerpoint
etc...
And, not only did we save on Windows/MSOffice licenses, we also saved on Antivirus and AntiSpyware software licenses. Not to mention the fact that IT has 1/3 more time to spend expanding available services. (Since we don't have to worry about viruses/spyware on the Linux pcs.)
80% of guns used in violent crimes were not registered to the person who used them.
That is such a lame argument. To whom were they registered? Were they registered to someone who loaned the perpetrator their gun? Did they find it laying in the street? Or, was it stolen off of the gunrack in some law abidin' redneck's pickup truck? They had to come from somewhere....illegal gun smugglers perhaps? Using the 30,242 US firearms related deaths in one of the previous posts, the other %20 percent that were registered to the person who used them would amount to 6,048 deaths. Hardly an insignificant number, especially to the families of those victims. Maybe if law enforcement wasn't so busy investigating the 30,000+ firearm related deaths each year, they would have more time to crack down on those nasty illegal gun smugglers.
The oh so often used "protecting myself/ my family" argument is just as weak. As parents, we try to protect our children by telling them to avoid dangerous situations. (e.g. don't talk to strangers, don't play in traffic, stay away from drugs) As mature adults, we should know to avoid those same dangerous situations. Every country in the world with strict regulations on firearms has a significantly lower crime rate than the US. Wouldn't we be best protecting ourselfs and our families by making our country safer, thereby reducing the likelyhood of a violent crime be committed against us/them?
I agree. Unfortunately, I can only suggest solutions. I don't have the authority to make the purchasing decisions. The good news is, 'Windows' with it's tremendous stability and security (sarcasm) has given me the opportunity to introduce Linux into our server mix. When I started here, we had a recently out-of-warranty Dell server that the previous support contractor had been told, by Dell, could not be fixed and should be replaced because it kept crashing and loosing it's entire configuration. I asked if I could take a look at it, installed Linux, configured some services that were desired, but not currently offered. The machine hasn't crashed once in the 6 months since. Now, in order to offer those same services on a 'Windows' platform, we would be required to go OVER budget.
Oh well, I guess we'll have to continue to offer those services running Linux on that $9,000 gold plated Dell server that was in the dumpster. Maybe we could use the money that we saved on licenses to purchase a couple new servers?
Additionally, after nearly 3 month's of me stating that I believed that our Exchange server had been compromised and not having the authority to do much about it because we were still under a contract with the previous 'support' company, our domain was blacklisted. Since then, my suggestions have been given a little more consideration. I'm now in the process of configuring a (hopefully) replacement server using Postfix, ClamAV and SpamAssassin.
I hear from users that WP is better to use, but personally I could care less. Office is just plain less trouble to support, and most things Lusers want to do is stupid anyway. Psst... you are on the clock to work, not to play.
Funny. In every system analysis & design class I've taken, I've been told that a good system is based on USER requirements, not lazy tech support toady requirements.
Ever heard of a not-so-little thing called the GAO?
Ever heard of a not-so-little thing called reality? I recently got hired as a Systems Admin for a state government office. Despite the fact that the state is deeply in debt, the biggest objection that I've received when suggesting OSS has been "If we reduce our licensing costs, they'll cut our budget for next year!?"
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Yea, Macs are great, if you can actually get one. The company that I work for just replaced our whole infrastructure, and I was responsible for developing the recommendation for new hardware. I REALLY wanted to replace our Windows desktops with an operating system that requires less babysitting but was afraid of causing panic with too much change at once. So, I ended up recommending Linux for our servers, Macs for 3 of our desktops (we're not a large organization), and new Windows boxes for the rest. Got the Windows machines in less than a week, the Linux servers, in less than a month, my PowerMac order has been "shipping within the next 2 weeks" since September! Thank goodness I didn't order Macs for all of our desktops. I'd be looking for a new job by now.
"But since this is for a business and maybe accessed by other people I must do it in a format they can use... we all know the standard and I'll have to get Word and Excel some how to stick to it."
I share MS Office documents created in Open Office at work practically every day. "Save as" is your friend. You can even configure Open Office to save in MS Office formats by default.
Tools -> Options -> Load/Save -> General -> Document Type -> Always Save As
Sorry, for the knee jerk 'BS' intro in my response. I don't know about Linspire (Lindows), my main distro is FC. I did however finally manage to convert my wife from Windows to Linux after I got her to try Xandros. In the context of the conversation, "Xandros gives root by default" sounded like a FUDster comment.
Xandros gives root login by default.
Bullshit! While the default KDE login for Xandros does not hide the root user account, the default login (appearing on the login screen) is that of the most recently logged in user. If you wish to hide the root account on the login screen, this can easily be done by going to Launch->Control Center->System Administration->Login Manager->Users, and selecting root under "Hidden Users."My wife is a big country fan.
I'm sorry.
(I kid, I kid!)
That's not bad. When I first read "My wife is a big country fan.", I thought, 'Big Country?' I didn't even know that band was still together!
"... I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert"... the rest of this comment has been removed at the request the copyright owners.She turned me into a newt!
...I got better.
Lin-o-nut?
I use both Linux and Windows and was really hoping to be enlightened on how Windows could save the day when I had a Linux problem. I thought 'dozens of times' I must be missing something. Apparently not. You couldn't come up with one concrete example. Just a smart ass comment.
Win-o-jerk!Doing a live show can pay as little as $150! Three hours there, three hours back...
Your cousin needs a new agent! I've been a professional musician since the early 80's. You don't have to be a 'Rock Star' to make a decent living playing music. You do however, have to treat it as a business. If the local market can't support your product, you either need to change your product or move to a different market.
I'd like to hear about some of them. I've never been in a situation where Windows could correct a problem that I was having with Linux. I have, however, been in many where the opposite was true.
But any office I've ever been in, the cost of re-educating every employee on the simple mechanics of getting around the interface...
I am so sick of the whole "cost of retraining exceeds the licensing savings BS!" The company that I work for just replaced 1/3 of our Windows/MSOffice desktops with Linux/OOo in order to expand, and still stay within this years licensing budget. The total amount of re-training was about 5min of instruction, and a sheet of paper like this:
Evolution=Outlook
Calc=Excel
Writer=Word
Impress=Powerpoint
etc...
And, not only did we save on Windows/MSOffice licenses, we also saved on Antivirus and AntiSpyware software licenses. Not to mention the fact that IT has 1/3 more time to spend expanding available services. (Since we don't have to worry about viruses/spyware on the Linux pcs.)
80% of guns used in violent crimes were not registered to the person who used them.
...illegal gun smugglers perhaps? Using the 30,242 US firearms related deaths in one of the previous posts, the other %20 percent that were registered to the person who used them would amount to 6,048 deaths. Hardly an insignificant number, especially to the families of those victims. Maybe if law enforcement wasn't so busy investigating the 30,000+ firearm related deaths each year, they would have more time to crack down on those nasty illegal gun smugglers.
That is such a lame argument. To whom were they registered? Were they registered to someone who loaned the perpetrator their gun? Did they find it laying in the street? Or, was it stolen off of the gunrack in some law abidin' redneck's pickup truck? They had to come from somewhere.
The oh so often used "protecting myself/ my family" argument is just as weak. As parents, we try to protect our children by telling them to avoid dangerous situations. (e.g. don't talk to strangers, don't play in traffic, stay away from drugs) As mature adults, we should know to avoid those same dangerous situations. Every country in the world with strict regulations on firearms has a significantly lower crime rate than the US. Wouldn't we be best protecting ourselfs and our families by making our country safer, thereby reducing the likelyhood of a violent crime be committed against us/them?
I agree. Unfortunately, I can only suggest solutions. I don't have the authority to make the purchasing decisions. The good news is, 'Windows' with it's tremendous stability and security (sarcasm) has given me the opportunity to introduce Linux into our server mix. When I started here, we had a recently out-of-warranty Dell server that the previous support contractor had been told, by Dell, could not be fixed and should be replaced because it kept crashing and loosing it's entire configuration. I asked if I could take a look at it, installed Linux, configured some services that were desired, but not currently offered. The machine hasn't crashed once in the 6 months since. Now, in order to offer those same services on a 'Windows' platform, we would be required to go OVER budget.
Oh well, I guess we'll have to continue to offer those services running Linux on that $9,000 gold plated Dell server that was in the dumpster. Maybe we could use the money that we saved on licenses to purchase a couple new servers?
Additionally, after nearly 3 month's of me stating that I believed that our Exchange server had been compromised and not having the authority to do much about it because we were still under a contract with the previous 'support' company, our domain was blacklisted. Since then, my suggestions have been given a little more consideration. I'm now in the process of configuring a (hopefully) replacement server using Postfix, ClamAV and SpamAssassin.
Hooray for Microsoft!
I hear from users that WP is better to use, but personally I could care less. Office is just plain less trouble to support, and most things Lusers want to do is stupid anyway. Psst... you are on the clock to work, not to play.
Funny. In every system analysis & design class I've taken, I've been told that a good system is based on USER requirements, not lazy tech support toady requirements.
Ever heard of a not-so-little thing called the GAO?
Ever heard of a not-so-little thing called reality?
I recently got hired as a Systems Admin for a state government office. Despite the fact that the state is deeply in debt, the biggest objection that I've received when suggesting OSS has been "If we reduce our licensing costs, they'll cut our budget for next year!?"