Re: A rambling discourse on the last hurdle.
From: Harry Phillips (harry_at_hkjsfh.com)
Date: 03/04/04
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Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 14:45:58 +1000
Autocoder wrote:
> If you don't like rambling, stop now.
>
> Until about last year I would never have recommended Linux to a non-geek,
> non-nerd, non-techie, non-etc unless they wanted to become one. But
> recent distros have made huge advances in ease of use and installation.
>
They have haven't they. I did not use Linux as my primary desktop until
Mandrake 9.1, before that it was just too ugly. Now the only reason I
boot into Windows is to do my accounting.
> Some of them have plug and play capabilities that Windows users can only
> dream of. I only realised that when I recently yanked the hard drive out
> of a P3 system and plugged it into a totally different and 4 year newer
> AMD 64 bit job. It found and configured everything on the first pass!
> Windows would have blue screened on the first access.
>
If I have an unknown card I boot into Linux, it is found, installed and
configured for me. I then use that information to find the Windows
drivers :)
> Now I can recommend a Linux system for non-techies who want to practice
> safe surfing and emailing. Works great for that person who just wants to
> use the PC for its capabilities without worrying constantly about worms
> and viruses and could care less about clock speeds and front side busses.
>
Well if you setup a Mandrake system for them they won't have any
problems at all.
> Now as to the last hurdle (as I see it.) A school district here with an
> aging Novell network wanted (wants) to upgrade.
So they have a server they want to replace, ok.
> Fortunately they see the
> unmitigated hell of their sister districts trying to use Windows for
> something that it was never designed for - i.e. networking and computing.
>
Well aren't they clever, usually the thought process is "If we get into
problems those other schools already know how to fix it and can help
us", the herd mentality.
> The local techies put together a mini-fair and demoed Linux to the school
> suits. They liked the price ($0), but what they really liked was the
> non-necessity of keeping voluminous records about licensing to keep the
> legal vultures away - I didn't realise that was such a major chore.
That cost of licensing administration is not seen in a MS sponsored TCO
studys.
>
> They demoed away like pros. Everything went great - until...
>
> A question was asked about a music editor like the Creative Labs program.
That sounds like a workstation app, mmmm are they looking to replace
workstations and servers with Linux?
> No problem, just search the net, download one of many and crank it up.
> Oops. You know the rest - the demo decended into that cesspool that we
> all know as "Dependency Hell." Two hours later of trying to resolve
> broken libraries and links that even Linus himself couldn't fix, the
> project went to the status of "Lets wait till Linux matures some more".
>
I am the first to admit that Linux cannot be everything to everybody
*right now*, if there is something they require that is only available
on Windows, guess what I would suggest? Use it.
That doesn't mean the school in question can't take advantage of Linux
as a server, why throw out the baby with the bath water cause they
pissed in it?
You are talking two separate entity's here. Replacing a Novell server
and the workstations that can run the "Creative Labs" app. The Windows
machines will happily login to the Samba domain.
One of the things I love about Samba, you can create a share with the
same name but it points to a different dir.
As an example, you ave two groups, "staff" and "students". In smb.conf
you have the entry:
[group]
path = /home/%g
When a student logs in the "group" share will point to the directory
/home/students, when a staff member logs in the "group" share will point
to the directory /home/staff.
The advantage of this is when you create the login script all you have
to do is have an entry:
net use g: \\samba\group
Both will have their G drive mapped and they will point to different
locations on the samba server. Windows can't have two shares of the same
name pointing to different locations. You have to create a "staff" share
and a "student" share, then you have to manage all the login scripts etc...
> Unfortunately, I have also seen this before with individuals who really
> wanted to try Linux but just flat could not get past the problem that
> installing new apps is almost impossible for someone with less than
> considerable experience. Yes, some of the tools like Aptget and Emerge
> work great, but 90 someodd percent of the world is still on dialup access
> and if you can wait that long then you don't have enough to do.
>
> Just my opinion, but this is the one problem that has GOT to be fixed
> before Linux is sold "over the counter."
>
If you use Mandrake you can easily solve the dependency hell. Keep the
iso files that you downloaded (or create them from your boxed version).
Mount the ISO's like I do in /mnt/images/cd1 etc. Configure urpmi to
look at those mount points. Use urpmi to install anything you desire,
everything will be worked out for you and it won't ask for the CD's.
If you have workstations you can do the same thing, just export the
mounted ISO image dir on the server and NFS mount it on the workstation.
Go through the same urpmi configuration on the workstation.
--
Regards,
Harry Phillips
--- Failure is not an option,
it comes bundled with your Microsoft product.
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