Linux for a nonprofit org to be easy to switch 5226

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:52:19 -0400, Adam McCarthy

My suggestions:

standard wisdom is to start off by using the open source equivalent software (i.e. mozilla and OpenOffice) on MS first to sort of 'prime the pump'. I don't know whether that is really useful or not.

I think it's best to present a KDE environment rather than gnome (you can upgrade ubuntu to the kubuntu desktop fairly easily), as it's not as big a jump.

In January of this year we installed Linux on public access internet computers at a local library. I installed Mandrake 10.1 with KDE. I planned the deployment logically, and installed not only OpenOffice but also AbiWord and Gnumeric (word processing and spreadsheet are the most frequently used 'office' type apps and AbiWord and Gnumeric are smaller stand alone products which load and run much more quickly than OO), and all the readily available broswer plugins. Also set them up to print to the networked HP printer. To date there have been zero complaints. A 'customer satisfaction survey' a couple of months ago showed a high level of acceptance with some respondents indicating by their replies that they were not aware they were not running MS.

PLAN your installation and setup - try to foresee problems and difficulties. By anticipating the real needs you can avoid many problems. The jump for your average Joe from MS to KDE is not a huge one.