[Nottingham] Using Linux in the Church Office, part two

[Michael Leuty]

I've had my talk with the Rector and found it encouraging. He would be
happy for the Church Office to become a 100% Linux shop, provided that
things can be set up properly.

The situation at present is that people inside the office are for the
most part happy with FOSS and Linux. Everyone is using Firefox &
Thunderbird, most people are using OOo, one person is using openSUSE.
However, some people outside the office are less happy. I think this
may be because in the early days office staff were unwittingly sending
out files in ODT rather than DOC format (due to lack of training, mea
culpa!), which gave the impression that Linux and OOo are incompatible
and inferior. The Rector told me that during a recent committee
meeting, when someone said "I think they use Linux at the University",
the atmosphere changed perceptibly. Linux moved from being an inferior
option promoted by that idiot Leuty to "something the University
uses".

Unfortunately I hear from a friend at the University of Nottingham
that Linux isn't used very much there. Perhaps the person who made the
comment meant Trent University? I should be grateful for information
from people on this list about the extent to which Linux is used at UN
and NTU, and indeed in any other organisation or business here in
Nottingham. I heard that the Council were considering running Linux
desktops, but I don't know what happened to that project. I want to be
able to reinforce the idea of Linux being reputable and reliable by
pointing to local users (whom our committees will have heard of)
rather than opinions from experts (whom they won't).

The Rector's second point was that the committee want to obtain
commercial support for the office network and software (rather than
relying on one individual who can't always respond quickly). Can the
list suggest sources of appropriate support for a small office
environment running Linux on the desktop?

Many thanks,

Mike

-- 
Michael Leuty
Nottingham, UK