Additional comments for Irish48 (and LarryA)

Ubuntu 7.10 is available for PowerPC Macs. It requires a Power5 chip so older PPC Macs won't work with this. Last weekend we had a user group meeting in St Paul where they where working on setting up an Mac to dual boot.

With respect to other people needing to use Linux, no they don't need to use Linux for you to interact with them. If you need to share files you just need to make sure that you are using compatabile file formats.

My non-profit with 30 workstations will be most likely moving to Ubuntu/Xubuntu in the next couple of years since we will not likely have the hardware resources to migrate to Vista. The hardware we DO have is all donated, and are approx 750 MHz-1 GHz systems with 256M RAM and 10-20 Gb hard drives. They *barely* can run Windows XP Pro, but would be quite suitable for Linux. I have played with several distros of Linux over the last 10 years or so. I was a Redhat fan early on, then moved to Mandrake (now Mandriva), then SuSE, and now Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
There are several reasons I like Ubuntu, but probably foremost is that it recognized my wireless network cards out-of-the-box. I also liked that I could run a LiveCD version to see if it worked with my hardware before I was commited to installing it, and I could then install it from the LiveCD (*very* easy installation!). I'm also testing the server version on another system (Ubuntu comes in normal user or full LAMP server versions). We presently use ClarkConnect Community Version 4.2 (also open-source at http://www.clarkconnect.com) on an old system as our dedicated internet gateway/firewall/SPAM filter for our MS Small Business Server 2003. Another thing I like about Ubuntu is that there is a newsletter/tutorial on using various versions of Ubuntu and the applications included with the CD called Full Circle Magazine (http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org)
OpenOffice is one of the applications included, and it is more than capable for the sort of office work we do (we run a food bank, do job counselling, offer limited emergency funds, and do some limited job-related computer training). My main concern is our client/volunteer database that is currently running on Access 2003, but our database designer thinks it will migrate to MySQL without too much fuss. I've passed documents back and forth easily with OpenOffice and Office 2003 easily, and there is an add-on for OpenOffice so that it can save in the newer Office 2007 formats as well. My grandkids seem to be able to easily move from Ubuntu/OpenOffice/Firefox to Windows Vista/Office 2003/IE7 and back, so I think that's a pretty good endorsement that my office workers could do so too.
One of the options I may keep open also is the possibility of setting up thinclients on the workstations, since we might have a better chance of investing in the hardware for a server suitable to handle the workload. The educational version of Ubuntu (Edubuntu) comes with server software on the CD with the ability to quickly set up a computer lab using thinclients, so I shouldn't think it'd be too much of a stretch to set up the full Ubuntu that way as well.
At any rate, we are weighing our possibilities, and Ubuntu looks very promising. Now that Parallels is also being offered for virtual setups in Linux on the Ubuntu web site (http://www.ubuntu.com), it looks even MORE promising.

Best regards,
Phil Heberer
Northside Inter-Church Agency SysAdmin

Regarding LiveCD: I was at the Southern California Linux Expo this weekend, and many distros (also including Solaris and Free BSD) are now available to test (and then, optionally, to install) on bootable CDs.

There is a new version of Ubuntu due out in 6 days, I have been running the beta on my workstations and have found no significant problems.

Currently there are also rumours circulating about a Sun / Ubuntu partnership. I am not sure what I think of this yet. Ubuntu has been doing so much right that I would not want the momentum to be upset by a large corporate stakeholder. On the other hand maybe with some help from Sun, Ubuntu will really start to get the heads turning at Microsoft.

A quick note to those in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. There will be an Installfest and Ubuntu release party this Saturday, April 26, 2008.

More information can be found at the PenguinsUnbound website.

I think 'easy' is a matter of opinion - I have set up a few machines to auth via A/D and now it's easy since I've done it a handful of times.

Newer versions have likewise-open included which should simplify basic A/D functionality, but won't handle things like automatic user creation, etc.

FYI we currently have about 25 employees using Ubuntu 7.10 and the number increases each week. Our senior centers are beginning to use Ubuntu on public computers as well.

-n8

I love the Ubuntus and have used them for years. On the desktop, I prefer Xubuntu because it has everything you need and no extra fluff. Plus its very snappy, even on older equipment.

We also run a major hosting operating and it all runs under Ubuntu server. We like to see how many days we can go without rebooting. It was up to 900-something one day and then the host moved some stuff around. Bottom line is we don't ever reboot.

hi,
first of all thank u to one and all because this really very beautiful environment.