April 2005 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 17 Apr '05

17 Apr '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A WLUG meeting is booked for this date. No topic has been set. If you're seeing this message, feel free to suggest or offer to present a meeting topic - the MeetingTopics page might be a good place to start.

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WANTED: Cisco admin in Taupo
by Andrew Thrift 14 Apr '05

14 Apr '05

Hi All, We have a new site in Taupo that is connected to TelstraClear Private IP via a Cisco 805 Router on frame relay. As I am going on holiday tomorrow I am unable to go onsite and figure out why the connection is not coming up when the router is as far as I can remember configured properly. Is anyone on this list in Taupo and able to check it out for me, and if so reply off list with your hourly rate. Regards, Andrew Thrift National IT Manager Turbo Investments Group.

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DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office
by Bnonn 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

<http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/39A5FAC6A45E8FB2CC256FDA00319B5C?O…> --- DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office Boards band together to reduce their software licensing costs Stephen Bell, Wellington New Zealand's District Health Boards plan a trial of open source desktop software in an effort to reduce the licensing fees they pay to Microsoft — more than $20 million over three years, according to one estimate. Microsoft licences are a major element of DHBs’ software costs, says Phil Brimacombe, CIO of Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHBs and healthAlliance, the shared services organisation owned by the two boards. While there are some “power users” likely to need the full capabilities of Microsoft Office and related applications, users with less elaborate IT demands may be able to use OpenOffice.org and other open source software at much-reduced cost, Brimacombe says. At a quarterly meeting of DHB CIOs in February, a joint three-part plan to reduce software costs was adopted. First, the DHBs will pilot an open source desktop environment, being put together by Steve Rayner, CIO of Wanganui DHB, to assess how many users it will serve adequately. Rayner plans to support two categories of user: "power users" with Microsoft desktop software, and "regular clinical users" with Novell Enterprise Desktop, OpenOffice.org and GroupWise running on Suse Linux. The pilot will seek to establish how many users there are with basic needs and whether it is possible to meet them with an entirely non-Microsoft environment, Brimacombe says. “The majority of users don’t use Access databases, for example; they wouldn’t use PowerPoint; they’re not advanced users of Excel and they probably only use about 20% of the functions of Word. They may manage quite well with OpenOffice.” There are also open source options for clinical database access clients, “but we don’t know how practical those are”, he says. Brimacombe expects one of the knotty problems will be DHBs’ extensive use of Outlook and Exchange. They will have to find some practical email alternative, he says. Another initiative is to approach suppliers of health software to see if they are willing to develop open source versions of their applications. At least one major provider of clinical systems, Orion, has told the board that it is looking seriously at supporting the open source Mozilla Firefox browser with its its clinical portal, Concerto, as an alternative to Internet Explorer, Brimacombe says. Laboratory software developer Sysmex has also indicated a willingness to explore open source solutions, he says. The third part of the DHBs' plan is to push for stronger representation on the public sector committee negotiating the details of G2006, the next iteration of the New Zealand Government’s bulk licensing agreement with Microsoft. Steve Mayo-Smith, CIO of Auckland DHB, will be the DHB CIO representative on the public sector negotiation group. He says DHBs will collectively have spent over $20 million on Microsoft licences during the three year of the previous agreement, G2003. “In particular the DHBs with a large user population end up with little choice within the G2003 agreement, and feel captured by the structure of that agreement into paying the highest charges, often for products that are not widely needed,” Mayo-Smith says. “The potential cost efficiencies of open source are also attractive to smaller DHBs who do not have the resources of the larger DHBs.” “We’re not expecting any stunning short-term breakthrough,” says Brimacombe, but the joint initiative, alongside individual DHB plans in the open source direction, could go some way to reducing Microsoft expenditure, “which is a big number for the taxpayer”. The push to reduce licensing costs has been building for many months, Brimacombe says; one catalyst came in mid-2004, when Dr Ross Boswell, clinical director of information systems for Counties Manukau and an open source enthusiast, addressed the quarterly CIO meeting. Discussion since then has built up to the point of a formal agreement among the boards. ---

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # General business

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Upgrading from RHEL 2.1 to RHEL 3.0
by Oliver Jones 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

Has anyone upgraded a RHEL 2.1 system to RHEL3 via up2date before? If so any pot holes I should be watchful for? I'm just getting a little sick of how out of date this RHEL2.1 box I administer is. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Re: Linux antivirus
by David 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi Forgot the URL for the site. Had a bit of trouble finding the Linux section myself. So for those of you prepared to risk a trip to an unknown URL. :-) http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_for_linux.html David

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Time for a new PC to run Linux on?
by Craig Box 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi everyone, We're looking at sourcing some second hand (ex lease) PCs to sell at the installfest. While what we have on the day depends on what the supplier has in stock, current prices put a Pentium 3 733 machine with 256mb RAM and 10GB of HDD (plus CD-ROM/sound/network etc) at around $250. We will of course look forward to taking these machines and helping you set Linux up on them. I would like to get an indication of how many people might be interested in taking up an offer like this, so we have an idea of how many PCs to have on hand during the day. Regards, Craig

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Linux antivirus
by David 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi A mention of antivirus on Linux reminded me to take another look at the Avast web site. They had a beta version a year or two ago. It seems to have made the product line up. I haven't used the Linux version yet, but the Windows version works well, and is available free for home use. You have to register but they don't spam you! I have used it for a few years and put other people on to it. You can also try there beta programs and report back on them. Regards David

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ftp on wlug server
by John R. McPherson 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

Does anybody on this list use ftp to hoiho (the wlug server)? If not, we will probably disable the ftp server. John

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Patents
by Lindsay 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

Patents The only way to fight back against these software patent advocates is to think up idea's, get together with friends and supporters and patent all your idea's. That way, when these multinational rat-bags go to patent an idea - you've already done it. Its cheaper to patent things than it is to object to the patents. So why not. Get a good patent lawyer and hoe into it. Linz

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