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#1 2007-03-15 13:53:18

FUBAR
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From: Belgium
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Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

I'm looking for cool stuff to show on an upcoming Linux fare. I wanted to give a Xen presentation, but unfortunately I won't have the adequate hardware. Since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has been released yesterday, it's clear I should show it. I also have a replacement for Microsoft's Exchange server I'm going to show.

But what else, from a corporate point of view, is worth showing?

Last edited by FUBAR (2007-03-15 13:53:41)


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#2 2007-03-15 15:06:42

cactus
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

zimbra is cool.
NomachineNX is cool (you can use freenx too).
evolution-mail is very outlook like. Corps love it.
Maybe show beryl for candy...


"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
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#3 2007-03-15 15:59:10

skymt
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Registered: 2006-11-27
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Ruby on Rails. Show them how you can prototype a functional CMS in under 5 minutes.

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#4 2007-03-15 15:59:11

lilsirecho
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Don't leave out Larch!


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#5 2007-03-15 16:02:38

cactus
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

skymt wrote:

Ruby on Rails. Show them how you can prototype a functional CMS in under 5 minutes.

No offense, but how many corps really care about implementation things like this?
Business tends to look at the end result, instead of implementation.
In just about any managerial meeting (except maybe the engineers that are to implement) at a high level in a company, and they talk about what results they want..not really which tools they use to get there.
Showing finished products, is more 'business' oriented then showing them development tools.

If he is targetting a different audience..like web developers..then sure.. show they ruby on rails.


"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
"t̥͍͎̪̪͗a̴̻̩͈͚ͨc̠o̩̙͈ͫͅs͙͎̙͊ ͔͇̫̜t͎̳̀a̜̞̗ͩc̗͍͚o̲̯̿s̖̣̤̙͌ ̖̜̈ț̰̫͓ạ̪͖̳c̲͎͕̰̯̃̈o͉ͅs̪ͪ ̜̻̖̜͕" -- -̖͚̫̙̓-̺̠͇ͤ̃ ̜̪̜ͯZ͔̗̭̞ͪA̝͈̙͖̩L͉̠̺͓G̙̞̦͖O̳̗͍

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#6 2007-03-15 16:12:28

rhfrommn
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From: Minnesota
Registered: 2005-01-13
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

I agree with Cactus' point.  It highly depends on your audience.  If it is "business" corporate types then showing how it can work just as well (or better) as Windows for end users, but is cheaper and easier to manage is the way to go.  If it is for techies or programmers doing the nuts-and-bolts stuff will go over way better. 

Also, customizing what you show your audience to what apps or functionality they use their computers for most will pay big dividends, if you're able to do that.  For example, if they really care about MS Word and Excel showing Open Office would be way more useful than demonstrating Xen.  Think of it as a sales presentation - concentrate on the stuff the customer cares about.  If they don't care about it they won't buy no matter how cool what you're selling is.

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#7 2007-03-15 17:22:23

MillTek
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Registered: 2005-01-30
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Assuming your audience are corporate execs and bean counters you could talk about something like Ruby on Rails from a cost savings point of view. They'll grasp that.   OpenOffice is probably the best sales point right now. From what I gather the newest versions of MS Word and MS excel work so differently from the older versions that large users are looking at having to retrain their employees to use them.  This is a major pain in the ass for corporations. Add to that the fact that the switch to OO from the older version of Word and Excel is absolutely painless and they should really appreciate it.  The Excel issue alone is stalling sales of the entire Vista OS because a lot of corporations have very complex spreadsheets that they really don't want to have to mess with. Sure the new Excel will read them but will an employee be able to modify them with training?  The answer apparently is no!

Here is just one example of a post I found that shows the problem;

http://community.salesforce.com/sforce/ … sage.id=48

What do you think?

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#8 2007-03-15 21:20:49

Stalwart
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Set up working server. It will be best demo


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#9 2007-03-16 07:14:08

deficite
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From: Augusta, GA
Registered: 2005-06-02
Posts: 693

Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Write a bash script that prints out money.

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#10 2007-03-16 10:32:06

FUBAR
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From: Belgium
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

The stuff I'm going to show will be supported by us. I'm a system engineer, I don't program apart from scripts now and then. They have to be Linux solutions that are a viable alternative to (usually) more expensive solutions from big names.

The Exchange-alternative I was talking about is Zarafa. It's a very nice solution and is supposed to be a lot cheaper than Exchange.

Last edited by FUBAR (2007-03-17 22:44:43)


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#11 2007-03-17 22:54:22

FUBAR
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From: Belgium
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

What I've planned so far:

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 running Zarafa
- SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 running
  * Evolution connected to Zarafa.
  * If VMware allows me, I'll also show the 3D desktop eye candy
  * OpenOffice with a few "typical" Microsoft documents (don't know which ones yet)
  * Wine running a typical Windows application

Sorry guys, but no Arch simply because Red Hat & SuSE are the only distributions supported by major hardware and software vendors (not my choice).

I think showing desktops with "concrete" applications will have a bigger impact on visitors than simply putting a headless server running god knows how many l33t services. Linux sys admins will obviously look right through that, but at least they'll realize we're offering Linux solutions aswell. smile


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#12 2007-03-18 16:42:00

deficite
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From: Augusta, GA
Registered: 2005-06-02
Posts: 693

Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

I didn't know about Zarafa until now. Pretty neat. It looks like you are going to have a good presentation.

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#13 2007-05-24 13:06:43

FUBAR
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From: Belgium
Registered: 2004-12-08
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

symonds wrote:

I think as said by some others it is the finished product or rather the presentation that matters the most to any corporate house. So it is not a matter of extreme importance what software was taken help of when doing the project. Being a company owner myself I would like to stick to the Windows and the associated programs as these are the software which my employees find easy to work with. So why should I go for a new up gradation?

Because you might save a bunch of money on licenses using either completely free software. And if you need support you could go for an "enterprise ready" distribution which will cost you money, but comes with a ton of applications you don't get (for free) with Microsoft. Obviously, it all comes down to what you need application wise and what you have system administrator wise. If your employees can't or won't admin Linux boxes, you better stay with Microsoft. Or get better employees. wink


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#14 2007-05-24 14:02:36

lloeki
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From: France
Registered: 2007-02-20
Posts: 456
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

suggestion, in this order, show how you can:
- do the same as with microsoft (e.g OOo feature-wise, you have spreadsheet, wordproc, etc... with same features and similar interface (so they're not lost), show them that basic operations they do everyday (like usb keys, mailing, etc...) work just the same) while slightly highlighting microsoft inconsistencies.
- remain compatible (e.g OOo share .doc|.xls|.ppt docs)
- do more than previously (e.g OOo export to pdf (without acrobat))
- save costs (license, maintenance, software/hardware renewal, energy, show with evidence how vista requires thrice as fast hardware for zero added benefit)
- be perennial (openness of data formats, vendor freedom)

be advised that people fear change, if you show them too much, they'll be scared out of it.
plant the seed, but don't wet it too much, else it'll die.
then, it highly depends on the audience.

Last edited by lloeki (2007-05-24 14:09:27)


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#15 2007-05-26 20:25:38

FUBAR
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From: Belgium
Registered: 2004-12-08
Posts: 1,029
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Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

Lloeki, although you make very good points, they're mostly for Linux on desktops. The fare was mostly about servers. Anyway, it was a pretty good success. I got the chance to promote Linux and some cool new technologies and I also met interesting new people like Dag Wieers. That guy is so motivated it's almost insane. big_smile


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#16 2007-05-26 22:45:46

lloeki
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From: France
Registered: 2007-02-20
Posts: 456
Website

Re: Linux fare - How to impress people with Linux

well, in fact I explained it with desktop examples, but this works for servers as well (I use this strategy there too). some win sysadmins really need to be explaiend what real server administration is, and tat's the only way to make them understand how command line is not a regression for servers...

anyway, glad it was a success smile

Last edited by lloeki (2007-05-26 22:47:19)


To know recursion, you must first know recursion.

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