Adrian (and the others)
I am definitely not one of the converted and I read this group. I am a reasonably competent ICT teacher/coordinator (I don't mind fiddling with various 'behind the scenes' elements, I've written the odd bit of software etc) but I am intimidated by Linux.
If you written software, you'll love Linux. Its developing environment is excellent. Any language, for free :)
I have it installed on a separate drive that I purchased just for that purpose and it works - I've not done anything with it yet. I am worried that everything will be more difficult to do on Linux than on Windows even if Linux does it better!
I'd like to use Linux (Navaho?) for our email/web proxy in September but I don't believe that anyone can actually deliver and support so will
Whats the harm in trying what you would normally do in windows, in linux. Well at least the less important things, such as dialing up to the net, reading email etc. Just like with windows, your confidence will grow as you get the small things to work. probably
plump for back office/exchange server on our existing NT server.
Web proxy, well follow the install instructions, and squid (www.squid-cache.org) is quite easy to configure. It is very reliable. As for a mail server, qmail is used by thousands is ISPs, and "big" domains.
Can anyone deliver the promise of making it work ? (obviously I'd pay for this) Do SuSe / Navaho offer this service ?
Well at least theres no harm in giving it a try, if you cant get it to work then you can fall back on you windows system. And you'll have learnt enough to give it a better try next time. Theres plenty of help out there, linux software has excellent documentation. And surely thats what this list is all about, asking others for help, who have got the stuff to work.