[Nottingham] Using Linux in the Church Office

Paul RJ Mellors paul at paulmellors.net
Thu May 17 11:44:03 BST 2007


Michael Leuty wrote:
> I'm meeting with the Rector shortly to discuss the future of the
> network in our Church Office. We have five clients, of which four run
> a mixture of Win 98/ME/2000/XP (one each) and the fifth runs openSUSE
> 10.2 (hooray!). Most of the machines are near the end of their life,
> and the Rector wants to formulate a plan for the future. The secretary
> who runs the Linux box all the time is happy with it. People who have
> to use it on an occasional basis grumble because it isn't quite what
> they are used to.
>
> Of course, I would like to suggest a 100% Linux shop. There are two
> problems that I can foresee with this.
>
> 1. Software. Although most people only need browser / email /
> wordprocessing / flash / acroread, all of which Linux can provide, a
> few are used to using Visual Liturgy (version 3 will run under
> Crossover Office, version 4 will not, I have not tried the new VisLit
> Live), and one uses accounting software and gift management software
> that will not run under Crossover Office. There don't seem to be
> appropriate Linux alternatives. How easy/cheap is it to set up a
> virtual machine running Windows in order to run this software?
>
> 2. Long term support. I will not be around for ever, maybe a few
> years. Everyone "knows" Windows and it is perceived to be easy to run
> (though far from immune to problems). How easy is it likely to be to
> find a volunteer who will happily continue to maintain a Linux shop
> when I eventually leave?
>
> I'm not expecting this list to answer these questions for me, but they
> are the sort of thing that the Rector is likely to raise. Your
> comments would be welcome.  :-)
>
> Mike
>
> -- 
> Michael Leuty
> Nottingham, UK
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>
Hello Mike

qemu i think is the way to go with regards to running xp in a virtual 
machine, please use the link to see how you'd do it under ubuntu
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=39513

I'm not sure about the help, i suspect you'd need to approach the local 
community.  I manage our church's website and they found me by word of 
mouth.

Cheers
Paul






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