[dundee] Webtrust volunteering

[Martin Habets]

Looks like I'm going to have to miss tomorrow's meeting. I'd hate to miss it but I
have an early flight on tuesday and need to get to Edinburgh monday evening.

In order to provide my 2 cents, below are the points (*) I gathered from Angie's mail
(http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/dundee/2003-October/000881.html)
with the responses I saw plus my own remarks (->). At the end I added
my own notes.

* produce training manuals for various Linux packages
-> This looks like a good start:
->
http://www.debianhelp.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3201&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

* helping identify some office applications for Linux that would be suitable
for use in charity administration work?
-> I would need more details what charity administration work entails.

* which Linux system is easiest to install/use for non-techies (as most
charity workers are)
-> Let TLUG (or WebTrust) do the install. All flavours are equally easy in use
-> if you use Gnome,KDE, or Fwm95 (?).
-> But what about support/maintenance/upgrades? (see below).
-> Maybe do all work from a bootable CD? (and save user stuff to the 
-> hard disk)

* alternatives to MS Office - I've had a quick look at OpenOffice on windows
which works though it struggles with some of my MS Word Docs, messing up
formatting where I have used tables and textboxes)
-> Later versions of OpenOffice are better. This definitely is the way to
-> go as an MS Office replacement.

* a database system that is as easy to use as Access (i.e. no need to know SQL
to build/query tables).
-> mergant
-> OpenOffice has a database built-in too. Anyone been using that?
-> Kexi (http://www.koffice.org/kexi/screenshots.php)
-> Rekall (SLUG)

* graphics packages
-> GIMP
-> OpenOffice Impress is a PowerPoint replacement. I've used it quite a bit
-> in the past, imported to/from PowerPoint, and no one could tell until
-> they asked how I got that great theme (it was built-in).

* web dev. software - is there a descent GUI HTML editor (preferably that
doesn't mess up the source code) something that office workers could easily
use to update text and perhaps add images to a ready built web site)?
-> Mozilla composer, peacock

* How would a Linux machine fit in to a mainly MS office - is there a utility
to read MS files in Linux apps and vice versa?
-> Samba solves this issue, right?

----
My notes:
* What about support, maintenance & upgrades?
-> For immediate support the IRC channel could work well.
-> Maintenance & upgrades is bit more difficult. Do charities have a contract
-> with WebTrust for this? The easiest solution I see is to login remotely
-> and do "apt-get update/upgrade" once in a while. Maybe a weekly
-> cron-job to just get the security-updates (as that would not need any
-> interaction).
-> Remote login may be too big of a security risk however, so maybe on-site
-> visits are needed here until customers are comfortable running apt-get
-> themselves.

* Is there any need for finance administration, people administration, or
  e-business applications?

* I did not see anything related to some of the other purposes that Linux'
  is used most for in the commercial marketplace:
  * print server
  * web server
  * firewall
  Is there no need for these? It may be a good start to set up a web server
  (with on-line shopping) on a Linux machine if a charity does not have anything
  like that yet.

* Acting as a file-server & backup-server would also work really good in an
  MS environment.

Martin Habets


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