Theoretically a FOSS Internet Cafe sounds attractive. But when you start doing it you encounter a lot of problems. So if there is a venue to put the theory in to practice then all this problems can be sorted out. I've been trying to help Cafe owners for free to have this setup but get frustrated along the way.
Here are some of the problems I encountered: 1. Drivers for built-in video cards (e.g. VIA) to handle 3D like GoogleEarth. This is not a heavy 3D app. I ended up suggesting to buy a cheap NVIDIA agp video card. It works but I'm not convince since you need to shell out cash. 2. Flash plugin is not installed by default on Firefox. Well you may say it is easy to install but put yourself coming from a windows world where everything is as easy as point and click. 3. No yahoo messenger-like functionality. Kopete or Pidgin is good for single user but not for multi-user. The hassle of adding accounts before you can login. Installing gspca for the camera to work. 4. Cafe timer. Is there something that really works smooth and easy? 5. Games games games. Yeah StarCraft works but it's online gaming era. _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
