Yes, like Red Hat or SUSE - either of which can provide a stable, supported, and safe OS specifically targeting the medical industry.

https://www.redhat.com/en/solutions/healthcare
https://www.suse.com/sector/healthcare/

AND specifically designed and driven for medical optical application.

In a previous life, I worked for a multi-state hospital system that decided to get into local medical practice management. The very first practice they acquired was using some doctor/patient management system written, as near as we could tell, by a bunch of guys working in a garage. We were never able to get decent documentation for the software but, worst of all, it turned out that the backup procedures had been left for someone in the office to do... and that, apparently, nobody had been doing the backups, or doing them incorrectly, because it appeared that the only successful backup that the office staff had done might have been one they did under the supervision of the authors of the management system. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. (We did get a backup taken, though, and some written procedures for the staff to follow.)

Does he have any idea what software he intends to run? The vendor may be partnered with an integrator that has built turn-key systems running that software before... someone who can provide support if/when things go bump.

Thanks everyone for your continued input.

I've sent my doctor acquaintance a link to this thread along with the recommendation that he join LinuxQuestions in order to communicate directly with all of you.

--------

Some clarification is in order:

- I'm not a consultant.

- No one is paying me.

- I'm one of my doctor's patients.

- I'm merely a self-taught PC hobbyist who was asked for some casual advice on approaching his first DIY build.

- The full scope of his PC ambitions is unknown to me, likely because he's currently unsure himself.

- He mentioned accessing medical documents on his prospective DIY PC, hence this thread on his behalf.

--------

Today he informed me that "the clinic" is an all-Windows shop, thus He'll be using Windows as well.

I've asked him to email me a detailed list including:

- The OS version to be employed.

- The names and version numbers of the applications he already runs and those he intends to run.

- What his computing aims are.

I await his reply.

As mentioned, if you get all the licenses for all the Windows components involved, from the base installation, through all the upgrades to today's current state with the latest patches, and print them out and actually read the resulting 2-inch thick bundle you find that Windows use specifically, and Microsoft product use in general, is in direct violation of HIPAA. There's no ambiguity about it. It gets worse as you add in unnecessary packages like M$ Office. Fortunately for him HIPAA is "just another regulation" which the medical community has actually been free to continue to ignore in practice and chuckle about in the context of Windows deployments.

An added benefit of using Windows is that he'll be spending time and/or money rebuilding the system often. Some doctors I knew had to do that at least weekly until they migrated away from Windows at their clinic. That is an unavoidable part of the TCO.

Related to migration, proprietary formats from the proprietary programs raise the migration and exit costs. That also has to be considered as part of the TCO. DICOM is fortunately a standard but the question is of how well the programs actually support it and other open standards. I'd be really curious to know how well, or even if, those programs in question run in WINE. If they do run well, and there is at least a chance of that, he could save himself the expense and headache of Windows.

Furthermore, as mentioned before, specifying trademarks and brands such as Windows or Microsoft in a tender in most contexts is prohibited pretty much globally, even the US. "Open Source" fortunately is neither a brand nor, due to one judge, a trademark so in theory it could be specified but it would be still be safest to spell out the requirements.

Lastly, basically all ransomware is Windows-only these days, and that too is part of the TCO. But fortunately, like HIPAA it is established practice to just roll with it. Ransomware and other malware can be mitigated somewhat if he keeps the data for his Windows boxes on a well backed up, central NAS for his shop. The key there is that the NAS runs GNU/Linux or FreeBSD and has OpenZFS RAIDZ or better so that frequent snapshots can be used. Trying to run Windows on the NAS itself will only increase the maintenance costs and while also making it completely vulnerable to the same malware, thus eliminating any potential for savings.

One is either part of the problem or part of the solution. :/

1 members found this post helpful.

You say he has a Windows only environment, and is not technically savvy....why encourage them to join a Linux forum??
To address these points:
Then why act as a consultant if you're not, and not being paid to? Unless you're a personal friend of his, you are putting yourself in a bad situation, because (by his own admission), he wants to access medical documents. Again, this is FAR to nebulous...'access' how? What?? Because "medical records" can be anything from bills, insurance submissions, X-Rays/imaging, diagnostic charts, etc. In short, anything related to a patient. And if this PC is compromised and he gets sued for HIPPA violations...do you honestly think that you won't be a scapegoat??
So if he'll be using Windows, why encourage them to join a Linux forum? This is now reading as the doctor in question wants a home PC...and honestly, why go through all this for a basic Windows system?? Get a high-end gaming PC (mainly for the graphics, in case viewing medical images comes into play), and be done. They ship with a good enough amount of RAM, typically all SSD/NVME these days, etc., along with Windows.

Re HIPAA: It now seems pertinent to mention that I'm in Canada.

The Difference Between Canada's PHIPA & HIPAA | Compliancy Group
https://compliancy-group.com/the-dif...ipa-and-hipaa/

The selection of DICOM readers etc in Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon's Software Manager / the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS' repos, forms part of the reason why I posted this thread.

I'm of the view that exploring Open Source and open file format options is the first thing any home computer user should do when searching for software solutions.

You've made some very helpful points and arguments re Open Source vs MS Windows, arguments whose essence I concur with.

After all, my doctor acquaintance won't have an IT dept. at home to manage the vagaries of Windows 10 / 11 and thus would soon find himself swamped.

The use of a NAS box is what I had in mind when I saw that the Asus ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI's feature set includes both 10Gb/s Aquantia and 2.5Gb/s Intel Ethernet ports, along with many other useful attributes like WiFi 6e (likely an Intel AX210) and Thunderbolt 4.

As soon as I receive a detailed list of the applications he is or will be dealing with, I'll see which platforms they support and then research their WINE compatibly as well as hunt for any possible GNU/Linux substitutes and how well they might perform.

At worst, I'm going to recommend that he dual-boot with each OS and its boot-loader installed onto its own drive with the UEFI's boot menu being used to boot between them.

Any unavoidable Windows apps can thus be segregated from a lower maintenance and arguably more secure Internet-facing GNU/Linus OS.

BTW, In aid of dual-booting, today I learned that Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon's gparted 1.3.1's 'check' function can also check for and repair minor file system errors on NTFS volumes.

This thread is not specifically about Linux. It's primarily about attracting advice, pro or con, regarding the feasibility of using Open Source software in realizing my doctor acquaintance's currently ill-defined computing goals which includes using medical documents in some capacity.

My doctor is unlikely to do anything untoward that would result in ill repute and a possible threat to his medical license. Thus I've nothing to be concerned about during the duration of my stay at the Palliative Care Unit that currently forms part of his practice.

--

A personal observation:

Most folks have been inculcated to prioritize the acquisition of mammon above all else thereby hueing their evaluation of near anything. There is a reason for this. A debt-based money system primarily serves as a tool of control, not as a path of personal advancement.

--

I advised him to join this forum both in order to establish a direct and more efficient means of interacting with the in-depth advice this thread has attracted thus far, and because IMHO, LinuxQuestions' combined wealth of user-contributed insight and info make it a treasure trove for anyone who wants to learn more about computers regardless of their current IT skill level.

You, and perhaps others, think I'm acting as a consultant. I am not. This can be determined by tenor and content of my posts. Helping others with planning a computer build is something I'm sure we've all done once in a while.

Re gaming machines:

I have an aversion to a non-ECC RAM-supporting, unstable toy lit up like a wh***house during Mardi Gras.

Tools > toys, hence the PC parts list I posted earlier.

One persistent encounter with silent file corruption a few years back, along with Ratheon Company PEN tester Artem Dinaburg's revelation about 'Bitsquatting', made me finally understand the need for ECC RAM, in spite of the opposing Internet lore.

A Ratheon Company PEN tester named Artem Dinaburg explains ECC RAM's role in combating Bitsquatting:

dinaburg.org
http://dinaburg.org/bitsquatting.html
https://archive.ph/YfYS7

Dual booting has several disadvantages. One is running Windows on bare metal, which is high maintenance whereas a virtual machine would allow you to save versions of the OS. See the next paragraph. Another reason is the complexity and likelihood it will break the other operating systems. A third is the difficulty in setting it up.

So, if it is absolutely necessary to use Windows and WINE cannot be used, I would highly recommend trying a virtual machine first with Windows as the guest and GNU/Linux as the host. VirtualBox and Qemu are two good choices. A very, very big advantage is that you can have the VM take a snapshot when you have it set up the way you need it and then again at each upgrade. Then each and every time you fire it up to run the legacy application(s) you would have a clean, presumably virus-free system if you start from the saved snapshots.

I never said "ill repute", or anything about his intentions or the quality of his practice. What I DID say was if there was any sort of problem (typically HIPPA these days), they'll do any/everything to get out of it, or to mitigate the liability. While HE may be your friend, his malpractice insurance company is NOT...and if they see even a HINT that they can pawn off something on you, they'll do it. Because they'll ask, "Where did you get the system that was compromised?"...and it'll be "My friend xxx set it up for me".

And again, "accessing medical records" is far to nebulous in this context.
Indeed, and until very late in this thread it certainly read as if you were acting as such, which is why you received the advice you did.
This is fairly ironic; you say you come here as it's a 'treasure trove' for those who want to learn, because of the depth of knowledge. Then ignore that as 'internet lore'?? Not sure why you claim all gaming systems use non-ECC RAM, but even if so...so what?? Your reference was from an experiment done twelve years ago, and if you want to look for vulnerabilities in things, ECC RAM is going to be WAY down on the list of attack vectors.

Again, looking at medical images needs something that can handle high graphics. Unsure as to how something like this:
https://www.newegg.com/asus-ga15dk-d...82E16883221675

...is an 'unstable toy' with:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Processor (32M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz) with ROG B550 board & chipset
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 (Base: 1500MHz, Boost: 1755MHz, TDP: 220W), GPU Ports: 1x HDMI, 3x DP, 1x DVI
• 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200 MHz RAM, Windows 10 Home, Gigabit Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
• 700W PSU
• Gigabit ethernet (wired) with 802.11ac wifi and bluetooth 5
• 7.1 surround sound

Asus, with 1 year warranty. Or can you build a comparable system for less, when that graphics card alone is about $700?

MIJ-VI - When I at my present work, as a kind of GP, log into our Citrix desktop I'm offered 3 virtual machines of whom only one is of relevance to me. Our journaling system is quite similar to a word processor, but more detailed.
Many employees are offered a small new Thinkpad with Intel i5 processor if they want to be able to login to the system from home, where I myself politely said no (prefer a phone call).
After having done MR or CT imagery people regularly will present a DVD to their GP where the DVD will include a small (Windows) image viewer.
IT support is now to a great extent done by remote login, where the IT folks want Windows Pro!
The ratio of radiologist / IT staff is 1:1 in environments interpreting and describing 3D MR and CT scans (after the little I have seen).
Palliative care is to a great extent perhaps most about "the big picture", general medicine and good two-way communication and will IMHO not need a "supercomputer" as the lowest common denominator might be a laptop?
I'm not young and not an oncologist, but this is just what I think! - great thread, BTW

I did not read every post in this thread. Halfway through the initial post I was already starting to get a little scared. I was thinking how I might phrase a response so as not to offend. And then, TenTenths beat me to it in post #12

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...5/#post6399663

That post is 100% correct IMHO. And I am a decades long proponent of Linux, and building your own computers.

"Danger Will Robinson. Danger! Danger!"

You have admitted you don't know what you are doing regarding this (no offense intended, I'm just repeating what you have already said). You have also mentioned that your doctor friend isn't necessarily knowledgeable about this either - he doesn't seem able to articulate exactly what he wants from what I can gather. Both of your intentions are good. But I'm afraid that the outcome might not be. You might approach your doctor friend and ask him if you had a sick friend, would he recommend they come see him as the professional and pay for an office visit, or should they just Google it and take care of it on their own? I can probably guess what his response might be. And it's kind of the same thing for the computer system he wants.

Run away!

The discs with the medical imaging have data and if they are in the standard DICOM format, then the bundled Windows-only viewer is not needed and a better one can be used instead. Data encoded in open standards like DICOM are independent of both software and operating systems.

That sounds less like actual support than embedded resellers, not to mention clear violation of the PHIPA, HIPAA, or relevant regulations: again, read the thick bundle of cumulative licensing for all the Windows components passed through from a fresh installation on up to the most recent patches.

One of the larger expenses in such a shop would be the insurance. So another point to bring up is that insurance companies used to say right out that they offer discounted premiums for shops which avoid Windows. From what I recall, NT was named explicitly. They have almost certainly changed the phrasing on that over years what with m$ having virtually become a sacred cow, but the bottom line on malware and, in particular, ransomware has only made that option more and more economically attractive to them, so it will likely still be available though under different naming.

In particular, I'm concerned about that non-journal, FAT32, ESP partition which I suspect would make a dandy conduit for Windows malware to infect a GNU/Linux OS bootloader.

This would be especially so for pre-'Secure' Boot-era UEFI machines. It's why I partition GPT drives thusly, in preparation for a Linux Mint install:

- 1MB bios_grub
- swap (equal in size to the PC's max. RAM capacity + 1GB)
- snapshots (a 40GB ext4 partition for use with Timeshift)
- /
- /home
- an unformated 20% of an SSD for overprovisioning, taking into account the 7% that's already imposed by the SSD's manufacturer.

--

'Good call on running Windows from within a virtual machine.

I've read that VirtualBox is easier to use but QEMU delivers better performance. IME, QEMU is more difficult to install. But, once I learn how, I could write a step by step guide.

As well, VMware seems to be popular. Many of its components can be found in Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon's Software Manager. And of course:

Red Hat and VMware Expand Relationship to Accelerate Open and Interoperable Virtualization
https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/vmware

The use of virtual machines would also form another compelling reason to go with the 16-core, 128 GB of ECC RAM / AM4 / X570 build in my parts list.

IMHO, the AM5 / X670 / DDR5 stuff is still too new and underdeveloped to match the stability to be found in the older platform which now benefits from mature PCB, UEFI, firmware and driver support. 'Not to mention years worth of related forum threads with solutions to any problems.