[WEB4LIB] Re: Thanx and Linux

[James Klock]

>But I bet you I would have just
>as hellish of a time trying to get a librarian to learn Linux... Linux
>workstations, at this point, are just absolutely useless in a public
>library environment.  

Hrm.  I would not couch that statement in such strong terms.  We're
currently exploring a plan to redeploy several of our otherwise outdated
486s as linux workstations, providing basic telnet and web browser
functions only.  It's relatively simple to set the things up so that
Netscape Navigator and xterm are easily launched (hey, there's even X
Windows decoration schemes that make it look and behave sort of like
Windows 9x!).  It's also the ONLY way to run Netscape 4.x on a 486 with any
kind of reasonable performance.  

We won't be able to offer Word or our CD-ROM software from here (actually,
since most of our CD-ROM products are being migrated to web access, most of
the remaining products are 16 bit windows programs, which WINE might be
able to handle...  For that matter, we still have Word 6 hanging around...
Hmmmm...) but for the majority of the services our staff need while at the
public services desks, linux workstations are just perfect.

James