What part of the SouthEast? I'm just outside of Atlanta, GA.
My office is in Jackson, MS. We cover all of Mississippi.
I'm looking out for ways to bring linux into the schools, but my boss won't let me discuss it with the customers because he's afraid it will leave them with the impression that I don't have full confidence in the other software we install and support.
Oh, he doesn't want them to know the truth. :)
That's not how he likes to phrase it. ;) He said something to the effect that he doesn't want me to give the impression that I have less than complete confidence in the products we sell them.
I've already had one customer ask if I can produce a working demo of a linux solution that would work in the TechPrep labs they have. I'm not sure if anyone on the list is familiar with labs such as Computer Discovery, Career Discovery, TechPrep, Technology Applications, etc., but if anyone knows how to implement these in whole or in part using SuSe, I've got at least one school who'd like to see it.
Not familiar here, can you describe these labs/apps?
I'll have to see if I can get the boss to let me have a copy of the State Dept. requirements in order to provide a meaningful description. These labs generally have a Win2K3 file server, a teacher station (WinXP), and student stations (WinXP). Some schools have been using Novell instead of Win on the server. I haven't seen any Deep Black Magic involved in these labs. Users have roaming profiles managed from the server, which the teacher can manage remotely from the teacher station. As far as software goes, different labs use software such as Microtype, MS Office (or Works), Career Futures, etc. Some software is run from the server, and some on the local workstations. Since Novell seems to work as well as Win on the server, I'm assuming that there are few, if any, reasons why a linux server wouldn't be viable. The schools in this state have been hammered by virii and worms as long as I've been involved, and it causes unending headaches for them, which they gladly send my way. This alone has some of them keen on alternative ideas. I've been quietly testing knoppix CDs out on various computers and found that most of the workstations out there are fine with it. I tried a suse 9.1 live eval CD in one of the Gateway file servers we've been rolling out, and it came up more or less without incident, but I did notice a few non-standard messages being reported during the boot process. Does anyone know if it dumps details of the process to a spot I can retrieve from? -Rob