Re: A modest proposal

["James L. Burke" <jburke@burkepoirier.com>]

Sean /The RIMBoy/ wrote:

> Wow.  How many others in the industry are doing what you are doing?  I
> only ask because this is the first I have heard of a legal office going
> this route.  What made you and your associates come to this
> decision?  (besides the licensing issues and pitfalls you get with MS
> based products)

Sean, not many lawyers I know have even heard of Linux.  On the other
hand the majority of private law firms still use WordPerfect, so
converting to Linux could be relatively painless for many law firms.  (I
know WordPerfect isn't "Open Source," but I couldn't get anyone at the
firm to touch StarOffice - I sure hope OpenOffice is better)

The LTSP website (www.ltsp.org) actually has a story about a firm in
Detroit using Linux/LTSP.  I heard about it from my brother, Jason, who
I introduced to Linux in 1994 (Slackware - 15 hour install).  Until
recently, I hadn't used Linux since 1994, but my brother, who turned
Linux/Perl/etc. into a successful career recently convinced me to give
Linux another try.

The original reason I ask my brother for help was to find an alternative
to "MS Exchange Server."  What we set up was simply Samba, Apache, & IP
Masquerading.  Working with my brother on that got me hooked again and
now, about six months later, he and I have converted all but one
computer in the firm to Linux/LTSP "thin clients."  The last person to
convert is the senior partner and I'll be tackling that task next month
when I get some of these last bugs worked out.

The funny thing is that after all this I still don't have a real good
groupware program.  I'm considering PHPGroupWare, but I keep hoping the
gnome folks will hurry with Evolution.  Any suggestions?

Anyway, I highly recommend LTSP ... everyone works off the same box! One
box to maintain!  The "thin clients" don't even have hard drives!  I'd
be happy to allow anyone in the Metro East area an opportunity to come
see how we are using Linux.  Maybe we'll host Beer & Pizza sometime this
spring ...

Sincerely,

J. Burke
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