On Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:07, Ken McAllister wrote: > Chris Hellyar wrote: > > Just to put the cat among the parrots... > > (Penguins, surely?) > > > I'm likely to start something ugly here, but OpenOffice on linux with > > (for eg) a P166 and 32Mb of ram is just not a good advert for OSS. > > Windows 98 and Office 97 will piss all over it for performance and > > usability. Especially in the environment the advertiser is in. > > > > . . . I know that if you use a 4 bit pallet and > > Scungey Bob's window manager it will run on a single transistor stuffed > > into a can of coke. I'm talking reality, not what an enthusiast is > > prepared to call usable. > > Ken McAllister says: This is the hardware.
Ok, this is what I'd do:- > Pentium I, 133 Mhz, 64 Mb, no HD, no floppy, no CD Rustle up a floppy for this one and use it as a LTSP terminal > Pentium I, 133 Mhz, 32 Mb If the Internet is going to be made available, I'd use this one as a firewall with the IPCop distro. > Pentium II, 233 Mhz, 64 Mb > Pentium II, 233 Mhz, 64 Mb (that makes two) These two set up as LTSP terminals > Pentium III, speed not noted, no Ram Possibly nbg, check on that and if stuffed re-cycle it away via Molten Media. Otherwise give it some RAM - 128 Mb min and use it as a staff machine, networked to the one below. > Pentium III, 550 Mhz, 128 Mb Use this as a server to the other machines, and install the entire KDE kit, there are a couple of really quite good kid programs now:- http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/ktuberling/ is great fun for small people. While this one is not KDE it's both pretty and pretty good. ( Nice printouts of the children's pictures ) http://users.powernet.co.uk/kienzle/stickers/ http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=linux+children+stickers.&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta= yields lots more. > Scanner and assorted printers Umm... Like to know more about these, before offering an opinion. > Alison would like two machines running an office suite, for the staff, Koffice is now, imho, ok for this type of situation, It does DTP stuff quite well using the FrameMaker paradigm. No VB macros of course, but its _a lot_ less of a memory hog and thus much faster for given amount of memory than OOo. Import and export of MSWord files is satisfactory / hairy depending on your point of view. You currently need to take care to set up the printer fonts by hand. Black mark imho. No database interface, therefore no mail-out list possible. If these lacks are unacceptable then it's OOo. http://www.koffice.org/kword/screenshots.phtml Gives a good indication of what Kword can do. I wrote http://berty.dyndns.org/KdeApps.pdf which is available via my very slow cable line. Dratted Telstra-clear have throttled back the outging rate to a mere dribble, and I have a case of severe nasal dislocation because then have changed the terms of the service without telling me. > and three games machines, less urgent, for children under 5. It would > be nice but not necessary for the staff machines to be connected. No problems. > I expect that the staff would like to use the Web too. Firewall!!!! > They have no money, being in the middle of expanding and doubling their > floor space, but in a place like Spreydon it is surprising what people > will dip into their pockets for. I am sure that helpers would not be > out-of-pocket. It is important that the software is legitimate. > To repeat the ad. and phone number:"Preschool have a need of licensed > copies of Windows 98 and Microsoft Office software. We have been given > 5 computers for children and staff but lack the software. Can you > help? Please contact Alison on 338 5468" Has anybody contacted Alison yet? I'm hesitant to 'phone myself because I dont want to contribute to inundating her with phone calls. -- C. S.
