[101764] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Changing minds!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anthony E. Greene)
Sun Nov 29 08:40:12 1998
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 14:31:50 +0100
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
From: "Anthony E. Greene" <agreene@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9811291013380.630-100000@alpha.computers.org
>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
At 10:19 1998-11-29 +0100, Iztok Polanic wrote:
>I work at a computer company and I want to setup a linux on one of the
>computers. I want to change the minds of the people at the company so that
>they will start using linux. And the question is: Is there a page on which
>I can see for what all I can use Linux, because we already have a print
>server and we don't need httpd because we don't have direct line to
>internet?
I like Linux, but if nothing is broken, what are you trying to fix?
Computers are tools that are supposed to make it easier to solve problems
or do other useful work. If you'd like to use Linux at your company you
have to find something that either does not work as well as it might or is
not being done at all because you don't have the tools and/or resources to
do it. Once you identify such a need, then evaluate how Linux could be used
as part of the solution.
You might find a web server useful on a closed network for distributing
static or slowly-changing documents such as policy letters, directories and
organizational charts, helpdesk info, etc. A key thing to remember is that
the documents do not have to be HTML. If your organization has a standard
office suite then it's default document formats can be used on the web
server. HTML is the default document format on the public Internet because
all browsers can read it. If all of your users have a specific word
processor, then you can use that format to distribute documents on your
intranet.
Another service that may be useful is local discussion groups (newsgroups).
Linux can also provide dialup PPP services. I'd only do this for a small
number of users though. There are better tools for managing large numbers
of dialups.
Another reason I use Linux is to discourage casual email snoops. I run my
mail client on a Win95 box with the data files stored on a Linux box in a
directory with 700 permissions so no one can read them but me and root
(who's also me).
Linux is great for creating custom solutions based on open standards. One
thing I created is a document database that's fed via email. My office
receives short standardized messages via email that had always been
manually printed and filed. I set my mail client to forward the messages to
a Linux box where I set up a sendmail alias that feeds a perl script. The
perl script prints the message and then parses and inserts it into a
PostgreSQL database. The database is available using a browser on our
intranet. We'd always wanted a database like this, but no one wanted to
dedicate the resources it would take to maintain it. The email messages
were required for other reasons anyway, so using them to automatically
populate the database eliminates the most time-consuming element of
maintaining a database. Customized solutions like this are part of what
makes Linux a great platform.
I have another application that allows users to make requests and check the
status of their request via email or the Web. For this, I adapted an Open
Source package I found and used perl and Majordomo to add some features
that I needed.
My next project is a set of FAQs related to the procedures my office uses
with respect to users requests. The information is updated only
occasionally and would satisfy over 75% of the requests for information we
receive. I can make it available on the intranet and be able to more
accurately answer the majority of the questions we receive. I've found that
I like getting FAQs from a web site more than talking to someone on the
phone who may or may not know what they're talking about.
I found it useful to set up a script that gathers a few statistics each
week and emails them to our staff, including the boss. I included uptime
and a summary of the mail and httpd logs. With this weekly reminder of the
stability of Linux and the fact that it's doing real work, I haven't had
any problems with Linux being accepted.
Another script I set up extracts information from the "user request"
application described above, summarizes it, and emails the summary to the
boss in the format he uses for a periodic report. It saves him the time &
effort of browsing through user email or a manually updated MS Access
database to extract the information and type it into a report. This is a
tangible benefit that helped convince the boss that this 'freeware' stuff
is really useful. Of course I created the script to get just that reaction.
If you can find something that needs to be done, chances are you can use
Linux as part of the solution.
Tony
--
Anthony E. Greene <agreene@pobox.com>
Homepage & PGPKey: <http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/>
--
PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES!
http://www.redhat.com http://archive.redhat.com
To unsubscribe: mail redhat-list-request@redhat.com with
"unsubscribe" as the Subject.
