Re: [gentoo-user] Putting gentoo to work :)

["b.n." <brullonulla@gmail.com>]

Alexandru Mincu ha scritto:
> First of all let's start with the clients...
> I am a Gnome fan and I think it is better and simpler to use, but them
> if you have windows users that you want to put to use linux, kde might
> be a better option... although this is a matter of taste I would accept
> some suggestions(without killing each other here), bu please take in
> consideration all the things i want to add.
> 
> Things required:
> Email,
> Calendar  sharing,
> IM,
> Office suite,
> other bullshit managers use to put you to work(suggestions accepted here) :)
> Web  browsing,
> A content management system

You should be a bit more clear.
- What is the, let's say, noobness-level of users of the thin clients?
Will they be scared by anything not exactly Windows-like or not?
- What do you mean *exactly* for CMS? A web based CMS, for an internal
blog for example? Is this centralized or maintained by users? Do you
instead need something for mutual information sharing and deposit? (in
this case, I'd advice for a Wiki) Or it is something local, user
specific, to take notes etc.? (in that case, Tomboy or basKet could be
nice apps)
- Do you need connectivity with external Windows machines? MS Exchange
servers?
- Do you need to exchange data with MS Office users?
- IM is fully internal or need interoperability with external apps?
Which ones? Do you need VOIP?

Only thing I can directly advice you is Firefox for web browsing (best
support). For everything else, I don't know. A general advice could be
to keep as much as possible applications belonging to the same desktop.
I'm quite on the KDE side, and I think that Konqueror (the file
manager), K3b and Kopete are truly superior apps that may make the
difference in your case.

> I also think that some eye candy would be gr8 to have ... I tried both
> compiz and beryl, but none were stable for me... it's true i was using
> nvidia's beta driers but anyway. have any of you tried compiz or beryl?
> which one is really stable and ready to use for a company? Is the
> Xgl+(compiz|beryl) variant stable? I for one really liked beryl's
> features but it seems to be more unstable than compiz.

I think compiz and beryl, in their current state, make little sense for
such a corporate network. However I understand they can impress your
boss in letting him think (rightly so, even if for partially wrong
reasons) that you are installing a technically superior solution.

Well, it seems currently Beryl is the one gaining momentum. The recent
Wall plugin seems at the same time very useful and very visually
impressive. If you are sure about going that way, stick to *really*
useful plugins (basically the Exposè-like thing, I don't remember its
name, and the Wall). About stability, I can't say.

> Now for updates .. which profile do you think would better suit a
> company .. should I use hardend gentoo? Is there a version of gentoo
> that keeps things down with the upgrades to stable packages or I should
> keep my own tree and sync only the stuff I want and test into it?

I'd go for the second. Hardened gentoo could be an idea, but I truly
don't know what kind of problems it can have -personally I would put a
tight OpenBSD firewall between the server and the Internet.

In every case, having a test machine where checking *every* package
upgrade extensively should be a must.

m.
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