Personally it gives me great pleasure to write against Microsoft or any other companies who are interested only to make profits at the cost of poor people like us who would love to use the fastest computer with a better interface. Today a copy of Windows costs us a whopping 6000 bucks. Affordable? Well a copy of Red Hat Linux would cost you the same.
But then still the question still remains why linux.? As you look at it. a open source model is never a profitable venture. The source as well as the program distributed free. but also sold. Question does it moot profits for the company.
Corporations like microsoft want their software to be pirated so that people would get glued to their software. then they come out with certification programs so that the next generation of people use their product and also make money on the same. Users paying more that what they require. An office suite costs a whopping Rs. 16000 to use but think do you really use all the features of the program. If no then what cost are you paying to use the product. Not to forget the nonsense upgrades that you have to provide so that the thing works fine on your desktop. still you are paying. well things do move the ridiculous way.
As you look at the Microsoft Saga I still see my old Pentium 100 and the 166 mmx rotting away in the corner due to absence of proper software’s that would run perfectly on it. Luckily I still own a copy of Windows 95 which is installed on the same. And some games left on it … No resale value for my friend which was my best companion for 2 to 3 years till the trail blazing Pentium came along. that’s what Intel says.
DOS changed to WFW(windows 3.1)
WFW to Windows 95
Windows 95 to Windows 98, ME, 2000 XP and now we await the next release… where is this gonna stop. am I gonna still continue paying so that these people keep on doing improvements over the mistakes or the things that they missed out in the earlier versions. Serves me right over depending upon them for using a critical interpreter cause machines cannot understand our language…
Sorry the lines were gonna be to show off affordable computing…
Well computing with linux came through a friend of mine who liked to experiment. For me it was a difficult task as there was no manuals. and the first installation was like hell. but still after installation I was amazed. But due to an unavailable display driver I had to leave the same in half. luckily my reading habit did not stop.
Here I present before you some of the affordable ways to use linux and why to use linux.
For small companies and for people who do not want to invest a lot of money into their computing requirements I could suggest linux as the best available… not because its free but because a load of applications also come free for you to use…
A simple workaround would be this way.
Operating system: Red Hat 6 or 7 or 8… Avaliable at the nearest store Rs. 6000.
Office suite: Open office available at https://openoffice.org
Accounting application: SQLledger available at https://sourceforge.net
Instant Messenger: GAIM available at https://sourgeforge.net
Outlook style Messaging / scheduling application: Evolution available at https://ximian.com
Linux Terminal Server: https://ltsp.org
Antivirus: https://openantivirus.org
File and print services: https://samba.org
Mailing service: https://sendmail.org along with milter at https://milter.org
Mailing System: Cyrus Imap at https://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/
Intranet / CMS: Tiki CMS available at https://sourceforge.net
Web Proxy: SQUID avaliable at https://squid-cache.org
Some of the goodies are already found on redhat cd so that you don’t have to download the same…Rest you can download. there are a hot load of them… go ahead and seek…
All these applications for free not a single paise charged… All you would require is a modest pc with a little bit of tweaking to install and get it up and running…
As for admins like me. who work in an enterprise there are loads of problems where we require a work around… A typical office would look with a Mail Server in the Corner, a File server catching dust with all the goodies packed in like a DAT Drive a CD rom server, and lots of PC’s to administer …. With varieties of problems… AND NOT TO FORGET THOSE VIRUSES WHO COME IN DUE TO LOOPHOLES OR DUE TO NON UPDATE OF THE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE…
Yes. the biggest problem I suffer is sorting out problems with every users desktop…. His files lying in every folder. his documents stored on the desktop where he can find it immediately or his idea of renaming all the icons his own way…. This problems would evidently remain. But last that remains is throwing pc’s away when they become really outplaced like my old friend. Backing up all the users data, scheduling backup intervals and cost of hardware required in every users machine would evidently eat up your funds and call for a heavy budget…
Build a Terminal Server like UNIX works. The client Computers would have Boot Roms to boot directly into the server. All you require is a heavy duty server a Pentium 3 or Pentium 4 with a good hard disk and lots of ram. The terminals could be a Pentium 100 and above with boot roms or bootable floppies which would boot directly to the server.
Advantages:
Cost Savings.: The major cost would be of the server. The terminals are very low cost. You could cut down hard disks on every terminal. No software required on the terminals to make it work. Old PCs can also work so no need for buying expensive hardware to use as terminals. An old Pentium 100 can be easily purchased for less than 5000 bucks.
Administration issues.: A major hassle being solved is administering the machine and the space. The user is allocated space on the server to work so no more space administration issues. also the maximum problem that a user could have is a connectivity problem not to forget some hardware related problem that might happen. Also backups could be taken very easily as the users data is located on the server itself. Centralised administration and data control.
Viruses: None cause . there are a very few in the linux environment and windows based ones cannot infect … cuts down the administrators work to half….
Disadvantages:
As this is a Client Server model a very risky model. If the server pops off or some administration issue all the users could be affected. Backup servers could be maintained to encounter this problem or usage of RAID could mete down this issue.
As for other disadvantages there aren’t any.
The only thing that remains is support for any problem that you encounter. but I am afraid that is something that you have to live with… When everything is free you don’t expect much of support isn’t it… Else there are always support groups to live with….
I could write more but I am losing track every minute I am writing this… I wanted this to be more detailed but my work does not permit enough free time to free my mind…
AAHH finally … There’s some one calling again. might be a user who is crying over a lost mail or a lost file or the silliest of the problems they could encounter. so here’s me signing off… and please spare me the criticisim cause all I love is growth or development of the communitiy.
Its what you can give back and not what you gain from it…
Bye for now….
