Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 13:13:05 -0500 (EST) From: Dave Hummel <HUMMDN36@BUFFALOSTATE.EDU> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: freebsd/linux in an office environment Message-ID: <01IV4GC7NNKM9JD8J9@BUFFALOSTATE.EDU>
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I'm writing a paper for a class whose topic is going to revolve around using FreeBSD/Linux workstations instead of NT. There is no doubt that FreeBSD/Linux excel as servers, but there seems to be some doubt about using them as workstations due to lack of expertise of users and availabilty of user software including wordprocessors, spreadsheets, accounting packages and whatever else a 'typical' business (including a University) may have to use. This is more than a paper topic, I think it's an important issue. The free unices are getting great publicity as servers. Many people seem to be fed up with MS, and right now seems to be the time to promote the unices as a viable workstation option. My problem is that I don't have the resources to try out commercial software that would fit the bill. If anyone has experience with a UNIX type office setup (for instance, a lan with only X terminals or PC's running X), could you please share a tidbit or two of wisdom concerning: 1) Just how good are the commerical Office Suites for UNIX compared to their Windows counterparts? How does the price compare? 2) How much software is available for UNIX compared to Windows? What isn't available? 3) Is such a setup viable for a large business or university? By viable I guess I mean: Is it possible to set up a UNIX network for 'typical users' that has all the functionality of an NT network? For instance, it seems to me that at my school the typical user uses Netscape, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access. (The one thing that is used here that could not be handled in a UNIX-only network is Visual Basic.) Looking at the situation here, I would estimate the a UNIX solution would maintain most of our current functionality with the exception of Visual Basic and possibly Powerpoint (which is not used very much). I really don't know what type of software is used in most office environments. 4) Where can I find more information? Thank you for your time, Dave To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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