More Linux at Work

[Derek Neighbors]

> Can I expect problems with his modem?

If it is the built in Dell Modem I do not think it will be supported if he 
purchased the Dell with the Xircom PCMCIA Ethernet/Modem card its 
supported just peachy.

> Ive never installed linux on a laptop before, any particular problems I can 
> expect? I watched the fellow from Redhat install Redhat 7.3 on a Dell laptop 
> at the install fest and there were no problems at all, but he did nothing 
> with the moden, using the nic for internet connectivity.

The Dell Inspiron and Latitude's are both supported very well under 
GNU/Linux.  I have had no problems with my Latitude CPx, I intentionally 
opted for the external(PCMCIA) modem/ethernet to avoid winModem issues.

> Personally I mainly use Suse, currently 8.0 but all our linux servers here are 
> Redhat. Also we are planning on a K12LTSP installation soon so I'm leaning 
> towards either redhat 7.3 or just installing the K12LTSP installation which 
> is based on Redhat 7.3 anyway.  I want him to have OpenOffice and K12LSTP 
> installs that by default. Any recomendations would be appreciated.

Debian GNU/Linux.

> I feel that it is real important to get this to work perfectly as it has been 
> sort of a battle here, first to get permission for me to use linux and then 
> to get it working with some of our proprietaty stuff. This is the next 
> battle, to convince the owner by his own expierience that linux is viable as 
> a desktop for general office users.

In situations where someone still needs some windows applications, you 
might be better suited to look into win4lin.  This allows them to run the 
applications in windows inside GNU\Linux instead of forcing them to 
reboot.

-Derek