[WEB4LIB] Re: K-Meleon 0.5 Availability

[Richard L. Goerwitz III]

Roger Rayborn wrote:

> I think that thanks to Microsoft and their new licensing scheme, we
> are one library that has to look hard at other possibilities.  We are
> looking at Apple with Unix built into their new operating system and
> possibly at Linux.  Microsoft has priced themselves out of our price
> range.

Can you realistically replace your desktops and cluster machines
with machines running Linux or MacOS?  Microsoft is relying on
their monopoly here.  Patrons will want to use the same thing they
are used to using at home.  And it's very expensive and time con-
suming to try to re-educate your entire user population.  People
on your staff will also resent having to do anything differently
than how they're doing it right now.  Except for ones tied to ma-
jor research institutions, most libraries aren't exactly bastions
of forward-looking IT thinking.

If you're going to try to find a way to stop tithing to Microsoft,
try starting slowly, maybe with a small Linux cluster, a bank of
kiosks; maybe offering MacOS machines to people who request them.

The most obvious place to start a revolution, though, is on the
server end.  Your OPAC; your file services; your mail server;
your web server; your remote-access server.  Linux is perfect for
this sort of thing.  Just make sure you have decent help to call
on for the first year or two.  All operating systems need regular
patching an maintenance, and to do that effectively you need to
have trained people around.

-- 

Richard Goerwitz                               richard at Goerwitz.COM
tel: 401 438 8978