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David Bell wrote: > > Perhaps of interest to the foss enthusiasts: > > http://foss.ciac.org.uk/article43.html Interesting, although not that surprised, except perhaps how many CVS groups use Access extensively. Always surprised when end users use Access, because; 1) It sucks (compared say to creating the same application in Microsoft VB proper as was, Access is harder, less flexible, and generally more user unfriendly, although marginally cheaper). 2) It is a very poor choice for a database system, as the default engine (JetDB or whatever it is called this week), accesses the files directly, rather than via a server process (such as MySQL, Oracle, MS-SQL, Postgres .....), which leads to reliability and performance issues, and in severe cases data loss. Perhaps we need to evangelize proper database practices along side deployment of GNU/Linux. Certainly there is work to do here. Evolution is still flaky -- they needed to wait for the users to tell them that?! It is too big, complex, and tries to do too much, with too many processes. The result is it looks like Microsoft Outlook, and it crashes like Microsoft Outlook does as well. Not helped by Ubuntu's release it before it is ready approach. System integration is hard work - especially when the vendor of the system you are trying to integrate with doesn't want you to integrate with their software. The way to kill the system integration work has to be thin client, with a more "big bang" like deployment. So more "just works" out of the box, and the integration work is "make one server work with the Windows systems". If they get some nice functionality "out of the box" they don't have with Windows, even if it is just like "Instant Messaging" set up for everyone logged in at the same time, and the ability to work remotely via VNC (web VNC), they have some sort of "win" over what they had before. Doesn't have to be stuff they couldn't of had with Windows, it just has to be set-up by default, so it is now a "no-brainer". Interesting that having integrated PDF support in OpenOffice is so appreciated. I mean I think not have "Save As PDF" is something I relieved my Met Office users from in 1993 or there about, but I really never found it that useful myself. Maybe it is the ISP mentality, but we take our customers data from any format they provide and convert it into HTML, or other formats native to the browser, precisely to avoid Word, PDF, Flash, SVG, or any other format not likely to be properly supported by the majority of browsers, or that requires third party plugins or other dross (people simply don't install missing plug-ins these days - either paranoia, ignorance, or experience). Maybe these groups are lacking the document sharing, and content management tools they need, and are using PDF as a substitute? Similar to the situation with databases. I know at least one Devon charity pays a lot for a database system that really isn't that sophisticated, and could easily be supplied via the web by someone like Aaron, for less money, and less grief. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html