Does Linux provides everything what Windows OS provides?

I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
in Linux what Windows provides? (is there any packeage in Linux
equivalent to MS office - word/excel/powerPoint)?. This small office
contains 5 employees, we need 5 PC's and one Server, If I load Fedora
on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH Linux
9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?, also we need Web server
and Mail server (we already have web hosting from third party, they
says we can read e-mail from web), we want to install some e-mail
client on each employee machine, but mainly we have lot of internal
docs, which we would like to keep on internal web server, for easy
access to every employee. Please suggest me how can we configure this
samll office with Linux (no windows). Appreciated, please advice me.
Can I download Fedora and RH 9.0 from RH?.

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:19:42 -0700, tvnaid wrote:

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,

If you already have the required number of computers why buy new ones?

> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
> in Linux what Windows provides?

No. You do not get any vulnerability to email-borne viruses. You do not
get any vulnerability to spyware/adware delivered through Internet
Exploder. Your Internetworked systems are not vulnerable to the massive
wave of Windows worms.

> (is there any packeage in Linux
> equivalent to MS office - word/excel/powerPoint)?.

http://www.openoffice.org

> This small office
> contains 5 employees, we need 5 PC's and one Server, If I load Fedora
> on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH Linux
> 9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?,

No!! Fedora Core is merely alpha or beta quality software and is hardly
fit for production use. Red Hat Linux 9 is completely unsupported by Red
Hat and has not been supported for a year less 9 days.

If you want Red Hat then get a currently supported version of Red Hat.
Better yet and for less expense buy Novell's SuSE Linux.

> also we need Web server
> and Mail server (we already have web hosting from third party, they
> says we can read e-mail from web), we want to install some e-mail
> client on each employee machine,

Almost all Linux distributions contain the necessary software.

> but mainly we have lot of internal
> docs, which we would like to keep on internal web server, for easy
> access to every employee. Please suggest me how can we configure this
> samll office with Linux (no windows). Appreciated, please advice me.

Your best option is to hire, on a contract basis, a competent Linux
consultant to set up the network and provide the hand holding you will
require. You would be exposed to the same expense even if you chose the
Microsfot "solution".

> Can I download Fedora and RH 9.0 from RH?.

Waste of bandwidth.

Linux is probably a better option for office computers than Windows.

Reasons (from a Windows to Linux convert and IMHO):

1) Practically immune to spyware/malware/viruses/worms. These are a
MAJOR problem for Windows PCs, just about every one I've come across at
college are infected. Even with a dedicated IT team.

2) More stable than Windows.

3) Versatile and highly configurable desktops. I was impressed at how
much I can configure my desktop in Linux.

4) Virtual desktops. No cluttered windows, just switch between work,
web browsing, etc. VDs.

5) More secure than Windows. Even if a hacker breaks into your network,
they can only do limited damage without root access.

Lots of Linux distributions around. I suggest speaking to a Linux
consultant as Dave said and asking them to show you a few.

The two major weaknesses of Linux, poor games compatibility and issues
with newer hardware, aren't relevant for office computers which
(generally) don't play games and have less cutting edge specs than
gaming machines.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
> in Linux what Windows provides?

No. You don't get all the viruses. ;-)

> (is there any packeage in Linux
> equivalent to MS office - word/excel/powerPoint)?. This small office
> contains 5 employees, we need 5 PC's and one Server,

OpenOffice is a good package, that works well with MS Office files. It's
also available on Mac, Windows and other Unix systems.

> If I load Fedora
> on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH Linux
> 9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?, also we need Web server
> and Mail server (we already have web hosting from third party, they
> says we can read e-mail from web), we want to install some e-mail
> client on each employee machine, but mainly we have lot of internal
> docs, which we would like to keep on internal web server, for easy
> access to every employee. Please suggest me how can we configure this
> samll office with Linux (no windows). Appreciated, please advice me.

I think you'll find all you need, in most distros.

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:19:42 -0700, tvnaidu wrote:

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
> in Linux what Windows provides? (is there any packeage in Linux
> equivalent to MS office - word/excel/powerPoint)?. This small office
> contains 5 employees, we need 5 PC's and one Server, If I load Fedora
> on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH Linux
> 9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?, also we need Web server
> and Mail server (we already have web hosting from third party, they
> says we can read e-mail from web), we want to install some e-mail
> client on each employee machine, but mainly we have lot of internal
> docs, which we would like to keep on internal web server, for easy
> access to every employee. Please suggest me how can we configure this
> samll office with Linux (no windows). Appreciated, please advice me.
> Can I download Fedora and RH 9.0 from RH?.

Put Fedora Core 3 on all 6 machines. RH 9.0 is the ancestor of Fedora
Core, it's obsolete. FC3 has everything that RH9 had and more, but more
importantly it's current.

Open Office is very nice, it can do pretty much everything that MS Office
can do. Evolution is a great mail client, it can do everything that
Outlook can do except give your machine a virus. Users who are familiar
with Outlook won't have any problem with Evolution. FC3 comes with Firefox
for web browsing and Pan for news groups. Gpdf is a good PDF reader. You
can also download and install Acrobat 7. FC3 comes with Apache which is
the industry standard web server. It also comes with mail servers and
database servers. You will want to download and install webmin from
http://www.webmin.com. The Redhat configuration tools are good for
somethings but webmin is better, especially for doing things like setting
up servers.

((E-Mail Removed)) scribbled:

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
> in Linux what Windows provides?

.... yes. but you better get a Linux consultant
to come in and do the installs and the training.

if you dont, you will fail. you MUST get someone
in that understands Linux, the applications that
run under it, and understands how to train people
to use it.

there's a strong paradigm shift involved, and if
it's not done properly, the transition will fail.

--
<< http://michaeljtobler.homelinux.com (Modern English - Someone's Calling) >>
Packages should build-depend on what they should build-depend.
-- Santiago Vila on debian-devel

> If I load Fedora
> on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH
Linux
> 9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?

You should give Slackware a try. Like somebody said before, Fedora
isn't the best for production machines, it's software is to bleeding
edge (X and Gnome froze up on me a couple times using it). Slackware
is rock solid stable, you can't blow it away with M80's. You basically
install, and then let it go untill the next release comes out, then
upgrade then, and then let it go untill the next release comes out, and
so on. KDE is a good Desktop enviornment (unless you have been living
off the shell for the past year, like I have, then XFCE all the way!)
to use.

Sure, Slackware isn't intended for the Linux newbie, but there is so
much documentation and help avaliable for Slackware. There are IRC
channels (#slackware on irc.oftc.net, ##slackware on irc.freenode.net),
there is a book (http://www.slackware.com/book), and there is the
alt.os.linux.slackware group on google groups, and more.

> also we need a Web server
> and a Mail server

Slackware does that. Slackware has Apache 1.3, you can put MySQL and
PHP and OpenSSL into it. I've never set up mail servers, but servers
like popa3d and sendmail and (I think) posfix is included in Slackware.

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get
everything
> in Linux what Windows provides?
Like many others said, no you don't get hacked 24/7/365, and you arn't
wasting time with viruses and worms and what not.

If you ask anybody who's been using Linux for over a year or two,
they'll probably say either "Hey I remember Slackware it was awsome,"
or "Yea I use Slackware, and always will." I'm the "Yea I use
Slackware, and always will."

http://www.slackware.com
http://www.userlocal.com
http://www.linuxforums.org
http://www.linuxquestions.org

There are some good sites. And #slackware on irc.oftc.net is a really
nice place to get help with slackware if you need it, ##slackware on
irc.freenode.net works to.

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:19:42 -0700, tvnaidu wrote:

> I am thinking of buying Linux machines instead of Windows machines,
> this way we can get it for cheap, my question is, Do we get everything
> in Linux what Windows provides? (is there any packeage in Linux
> equivalent to MS office - word/excel/powerPoint)?. This small office
> contains 5 employees, we need 5 PC's and one Server, If I load Fedora
> on all 5 machines (each one for each employee) and one server (RH Linux
> 9.0 server), will it be OK for small office?, also we need Web server
> and Mail server (we already have web hosting from third party, they
> says we can read e-mail from web), we want to install some e-mail
> client on each employee machine, but mainly we have lot of internal
> docs, which we would like to keep on internal web server, for easy
> access to every employee. Please suggest me how can we configure this
> samll office with Linux (no windows). Appreciated, please advice me.
> Can I download Fedora and RH 9.0 from RH?.

OpenOffice is available and provides most MS Office functionality -
version 2.0 is supposed to include the database software. I use AbiWord
because it's smaller, faster and works better on some complex formatting
than OO does. I use Gnumeric for spreadsheet because it's smaller/faster.
IMHO the PowerPoint equivalent in OO is much easier to use. All the
programs import the MS file formates (and will export them too. Yes, you
can download free. It's fairly easy to set up e-mail and Apache web server.
www.tldp.org has howto's to accomplish most linux tasks.

Agreeing with everyone, you might want to download one or more Live CD's.
They have names like Knoppix and Ubuntu and Mepis and Conectiva.

If your computer supports booting off a CD-ROM, you can use a Live CD to see
how you like Linux, without installing it and with zero risk and zero chance
of data loss (short of you doing something really stupid).

Ubuntu and Mepis are spinoffs of Debian, my personal favorite distribution.

You can find a Live CD listing (including at least two non-Linux ones for
variations on BSD) at

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

Some of the listings are a bit obsolete, though.
--
Carl Fink (E-Mail Removed)
If you attempt to fix something that isn't broken, it will be.
-Bruce Tognazzini

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:46:35 -0500, Dave Uhring wrote:
> No!! Fedora Core is merely alpha or beta quality software and is hardly
> fit for production use. Red Hat Linux 9 is completely unsupported by Red
> Hat and has not been supported for a year less 9 days.
>
> If you want Red Hat then get a currently supported version of Red Hat.
> Better yet and for less expense buy Novell's SuSE Linux.

Why pay at all when there's ubuntu. My home network is about the size
of the company OT mentions. Read about my setup at:
http://rolfas.net/?page_id=314

It's (almost) installed exclusively from the Ubuntu repositories. The
"almost" is a couple of php-applications I have installed.

> Your best option is to hire, on a contract basis, a competent Linux
> consultant to set up the network and provide the hand holding you will
> require. You would be exposed to the same expense even if you chose the
> Microsfot "solution".

I agree. For a single client you can just install and learn as you go,
but for a business critical environment it is wise to have a paid hand
to assist you and do the work you're supposed to do instead.

>> Can I download Fedora and RH 9.0 from RH?.
>
> Waste of bandwidth.

Agreed.

--
Rolf Arne Schulze
Trans-atlantic weightloss challenge: http://tawlc.net/
Min Weblog: http://rolfas.net/