[plug] Choice quote for Jacqueline (another)

[Ben Jensz]

Leon Brooks wrote:

>
>MS Office Out, OpenOffice In
>
>    We at Nomovok Ltd (www.nomovok.com) decided early this Autumn to
>    switch from MS Office to OpenOffice. The decision was fully based
>    on financials as we did not see it meaningful to pay all that
>    money to MS. Now EVERYONE has been running OpenOffice for 2
>    months and will definetely keep doing so in the future.
>    Great product!
>
>Cheers; Leon
>

I'm looking at possible solutions for my work currently.  Situation I'm 
in at the moment is that I have WinXP Pro desktops (mainly) running 
Office XP Pro (all licenced/legal).

But using a Samba server is somewhat lacking in terms of groupware / 
advanced file sharing capabilities and management/control over the 
user's computer, i.e. the less access they have to change things, well.. 
to stuff things up the better.  Cost isn't the biggest factor in the 
scheme of things, streamlining the management of their desktops and the 
usefulness (thats not a word is it? :P) and effectiveness/functionality 
of their desktop environment is what I'm after.  Basically they don't 
really care about the nuts and bolts of it, or the ethics of it.  All 
they really care about is how useful and effective it is to themselves 
and the staff that are utilizing it.  And if its a cheaper solution, 
then thats an added bonus.

Essentially this is what I'm after, even if it involved ditching the MS 
software to a cabinet to collect dust or buying more MS software (which 
I'd personally like to avoid):

- Users turn on a computer and have an interface to login with their own 
usernames and passwords.
- All usernames and passwords are stored centrally to be referenced from 
for login/email/anything else.
- Ability for users to change their own passwords easily and quickly 
without IT staff assistance
- Server managed updates to client systems (even Linux does have 
software that needs to be updated)
- Documents / Other user data and profile information is stored on a 
central server so they can roam to any computer on our network (and so 
that the data is backed up centrally).
- Non-cluttered desktop and menu system that is easy and logical to use.
- Groupware software with ability to share contact lists, calendars, 
tasks lists etc with specific other staff.
- Ability to run some Windows applications for specific areas (such as 
Accounts) through an emulator or even a virtual session of Windows 
(because like I said - we have all legal versions of Windows and Office 
for all of the computers we have currently).

Being able to expire passwords at set dates and have set intervals 
before this date to notify staff either via an on-screen message or via 
email would be fine.

It doesn't have to be cut down to run on slow machines for the client 
side of things, as all of the desktop machines we have now that are in 
use are all 1.4Ghz+ machines with ample memory (most have 512Mb of 
SDRAM).  And aesthetically pleasing things seem to make quite a few of 
the staff happy... like when we got WinXP Pro, a few seemed apprehensive 
at first - until they saw the new Windows included background images 
they could choose from ;o).

Basically I know of a few things already that would probably cover some 
of those areas, but a couple of them have very sparse information 
available on them and/or non-existent documentation on the advanced 
features.  So you have to be a programmer or have prior knowledge of 
that specific technology to understand exactly what is going on.

So if anyone has any specific suggestions/experience I'd certainly 
appreciate your thoughts/comments.

Cheers,


Ben