With all the MS problems/virus as well as Exchange problems I have been having, I am keen to try a Linux option at our high school. I have RH 9 Web server that performs great, no downtime. I have spoken with our board chair who is also on my side.
For workstations and server what OS and Apps should I use? We need 'Office', 'Corel', 'Internet', 'E-mail', 'Publisher'.
Is this really all you need in terms of applications? I run a network for a primary school, and we are so reliant on win32 software that there is very little chance of pushing linux to the desktop at the moment :/
We need 'Office', 'Corel', 'Internet', 'E-mail', 'Publisher'.
My opinions: Office: OpenOffice.org, latest version. Its the 'office suite' style thing. I personally think that abiword and gnumeric are better programs than the OOo equivalent, however they aren't presented in an 'office' package. Corel: Whats corel do? Corel draw? I'm not sure, but there might be a linux version already? Or it might run under wine. Internet / Email: Mozilla / Mozilla Mail. You could run Mozilla Firebird / Mozilla Thunderbird when they come out, but until they stabalise Mozilla 'Seamonkey' is the best all-rounded application. Publisher: This is about the trickiest point you'll have, I think. I dont use publisher very much, nor do I know of any replacements. Does OOo have one?
I want to put a small network together to show the staff.
In terms of setting a network up, I'd recommend using LDAP for centralised authentication, although its a fairly steep learning curve. This allows you to have a central directory of users and groups, and means you dont need to have passwords set on all machines. I also use LDAP for controlling web proxy access (I have a squid ldap_auth module which checks for the presence of a particular attribute in the users ldap entry, if it exists they can use the proxy, if it doesn't they cant). Things to look for : nss_ldap, pam_ldap and the flat-files to ldap Migration Tools (www.padl.com) I'd recommend Cyrus as a mail server (imapd/popd) however it can be a real pain to set up, courier on the other hand "just works". Your MTA (sendmail etc) will probably depend on the distro you use. I like exim. Others dont :) Interestingly, one of the projects some of the LUG members have been involved in is targetted at setting up a drop-in replacement for SBS style servers, using open protocols and standards and Open Source software under linux. We've not gotten past the planning stage yet, but we're in the process of ramping up work again. If you're interested in helping out or talking about it, I think there is a wiki page at www.wlug.org.nz/LinuxServer Daniel