-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I work in a small law office,(4 lawyers 3 support staff). We are in the process of upgrading our network system, getting our own mail server and setting up remote access for full virtual consul.
Our current IT has proposed an M$ SME Package. Our IT has also just changed hands and we have lost the one very good relationship we had with the trusted owner. We have just been told that our current server is not big or fast enough to run the M$ SME Package. We would prefer just to get a bigger drive. Up to now we have been running Novell 3. It has never let us down. What has let us down (we are advised) was our back up tape drive. However this may not be the case as the problem seems to have been the back up stalling due to some files on the server maybe being corrupt. In any event it seemed like a good idea to up-grade since Novell 3 has not been supported for some time. I made the bold suggestion that now might be a good time to go with a more tailored open source solution so that we do not have inflated hardware costs purely to accommodate an operating system and network that does far more than we need and to head off the inevitable upgrading that comes with M$ that we had happily avoided running our old Novell 3 server. For this we would also need to enter a new trusted relationship with reliable Small Law Firm service/price friendly IT business. What sort of total solution and price should we be thinking about? And continuing service costs? At this stage it is just for a mail server, our ethernet fully cabled network to currently 7 stations, a server that will back end to W2k and XP desktops; ADSL connection; and to our office practice management software AMICUS Attorney and our DOS based accounts program; and run our new DDS-4 20-40 gig Internal tape back up; and did I mention the remote access GUI virtual consul. We really need this to integrate seamlessly and run reliably so we can set up our document database off our server and fully run AMICUS' email and networking features. Eventually I personally would like us to move to a Linux Desktop but time costing billing accounting software for law firms prohibits this for now I believe. I do not think it is M$ Word that is a barrier to moving to Linux or other non M$ desktop as most lawyers now are quite OK with sending and exchanging draft versions of stuff in rtf and Pdf. I would really appreciate your advice. Please reply off list.Thanks. - -- Raena Lea-Shannon -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/S3qUvg1aW2UnfMcRAoUYAJ40wba+1svLQzx9cyzfX9k/s47GcACfQzS7 Ln3TfcTEtjTdy2mzJC2faQM= =XC42 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
