🚀 go-pugleaf

pete wrote:
> "Thing" <nospam@hting.dyndns.org> wrote in message
> news:3DEC6AD1.4070709@hting.dyndns.org...
> 
>>Oliver Bannatyne wrote:
>>
>>>I am investigating technology solutions on behalf of a small-medium
>>
> sized
> 
>>>inner-city finance firm. The firm is looking at a number of possible
>>>technology options. At the moment the firm has about 20x Pentium II PC's
>>>running Windows 95, 98, and 2000 and MS Office 95 and 97.  The firm is
>>>looking at moving to either stand-alone workstations or thin clients
>>
> running
> 
>>>linux, and MS Office (by use of Codeweavers CrossOver product -See
>>>http://www.codeweavers.com/products/office/ and
>>>http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxofficeserver/.). The workstations
>>
> will
> 
>>>be upgraded, but only if they need to be.
>>>
>>>I am trying to ascertain what is possible, and whether a (thick/thin
>>
> client)
> 
>>>linux (running CrossOver Office and MS Office) is robust enough in an
>>>commercial environment for use by this financial firm. I am unsure of
>>
> the
> 
>>>hardware requirements and the coverage of technical support available
>>
> for
> 
>>>such a setup. (Note: the firm does not have dedicated IT staff.) To
>>
> further
> 
>>>this goal, I am looking for any organisations that have implemented any
>>>similar system in New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the world.
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>
>>>Oliver Bannatyne
>>>Technology Consultant.
>>>
>>>Phone Mobile: +64 21 2613151
>>>Temporary Phone DDI: +64 9 375 8513
>>>Temporary Email: KerrynB@SHlock.co.nz
>>
>>
>>I would ask why keep MS office, download and trial openoffice, I am at
>>work and its good.  See if its good enough for you.
>>
>>You have P11s so are they good enough ? or they lacking grunt? I would
>>not run a 20 pc office without a server to centralise and back up your
>>data. MS SBE is a reasonable product for that size of business, take a
>>look at it, it depends on you want.  Linux could be an acceptable
>>solution for thin clients but your talking 2 small servers clustered to
>>ensure availability, thats not a real option for your size.
>>
>>I would tend to suggest keeping the present MS clients, move to
>>openoffice with samba as a file server. My reasoning for this is its
>>simple, The key to supporting your business is KISS, keep it simple and
>>stupid. Once you have proven openoffice is adequate consider moving to a
>>linux desktop to improve reliability.
>>
>>If you had 100 users or 200 I would tend to look to a thin client
>>solution using 2 decent servers in a HA cluster situation, but at 20
>>users the savings are just not there to justify the complexity.
>>
>>regards
>>
>>Thing
> 
> 
> E-Smith (aka Mitel SME) would be a useful back office server for an
> organisation of this size, keep your client machines as they are (already
> paid for, etc) and you already have Office 97 which is OK for most things.
> 
> 

yes true. 97 is getting a little long in the tooth, but OpenOffice can 
always be installed along side for zilch cost

regards

Thing