[PLUG] Need advice, suggestions, etc.

Kelly Guimont verso at mac.com
Wed Oct 30 20:57:22 UTC 2002


Hi Marie,

I know a lot about osx, I run it at home and used to at work. I do a lot
with it, both in the gui and the cli portions. I'm not so much the linux
geek, but I know how to get things done or find out how. What sort of help
do you need?

-Kelly



On 10/30/02 12:45 PM, "Marie Deatherage" <marie at mmt.org> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am a former subscriber who recently returned to the fold, as it were.
> For the past few years at my workplace, I have been the staff person
> assigned to get Internet access for our office, primarily based on the
> fact that I set up a LAN and got DSL service for my family at home the
> first month it was available in Portland.  Therefore, I was further
> along on the learning curve than anyone else in the office, hence the
> duties fell to me.  After researching the options, I recommended we use
> Linux on a proxy server.  My boss went for the notion, and it has served
> us very well from a stability standpoint, but since I have way too many
> other job duties, I never had time to learn Linux and just sort of
> patched my way through learning just enough to do a few simple things.
> 
> We hired an outside source to provide Linux support, but it apparently
> went out of business shortly thereafter (hopefully there was no
> connection).  We have continued to limp along, but I have been very very
> worried about our lack of technical support.
> 
> Recently we had a change in our leadership, and our new director is
> prepared to get serious about technology.  We've been getting assessed
> by outside consultants, and perhaps it will come as no surprise to
> anyone on this list that the standard recommendation is to purchase a
> windows server and become a windows/access/explorer/etc. world and all
> that it entails.  We are told that Linux hardware and software cost just
> as much and are much harder to figure out, maintain, etc.  This flies in
> the face of what I think I know and believe, but I do not have the
> expertise to do much more than raise questions (but what about licensing
> fees? etc.) and say things like "That's not what I have heard."
> 
> At the individual user level in our office, we are mostly a Macintosh
> environment.  We have not yet made the transition to OS X.  We have a
> very large database in Filemaker pro.  We have quite a few users who, if
> not technophobes, are not particularly sophisticated or confident, so
> keeping things simple at the desktop level is a must.  Unfortunately, it
> seems that there is a tendency among consultants  to completely overlook
> what we already have and recommend that we migrate to windows for
> everything.  I am concerned that this snowball could just keep rolling
> all the way to the bottom of the hill unless I figure out how to stop
> it.
> 
> So here is my question:  is there anyone(s) on this list with a combined
> expertise in Linux and Mac (esp. OS X) who might be able to assess what
> we have and provide an alternative view?  In addition to deciding what
> hardware/software changes we might need, we will be looking to hire
> someone on a long term part time basis to train staff, sys admin, etc.
> etc.
> 
> Please contact me privately if you have this expertise and can suggest
> something and/or might be interested in following up.
> 
> Thank you,
> --
> Marie Deatherage
> marie at mmt.org
> 
> 
> 
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