Hi

Is anybody a salesman around here?

Do you know, have you set up a linux box (probably a laptop) for them?

I'm trying to recommend a linux based application set for a power salesman.

His address book with emails and numbers is his no.1 resource. Then he wants a really agile email client so he can handle his various email boxes. A to-do list type app would also be handy.

Obviously office SW is necessary but that's easy to decide upon.

In fact that's really all, though boot up time has to be fast.

Any other ideas? THis is one side of the enterprise that's forgotten but v. important.

Not a salesman, just a (Linux) laptop user and (mostly Windows) support guy...

Any decent Linux mail client will support multiple mail accounts. The KDE desktop includes calendaring and contact management as well as mail, but I haven't used KDE for a while. For GNOME Evolution is OK, and the forthcoming Evo 2 (which will be part of GNOME 2.8) seems very good indeed, although I haven't spent much time on it yet.

The hard issue is bootup time, and it's one that is starting to attract serious attention but no solutions... The real problem is that ACPI is an awful technology and ACPI suspend/resume functions are usually even less reliable with Linux than with Windows, because ideally we'd just do what Mac users do and just put the laptop to sleep by shutting the lid rather than turning the things on and off all the time.

If Windows isn't the automatic choice, perhaps look at Apple's iBook range. Compact, robust design, reasonable battery life, low maintenance, power management that actually works properly and software that sucks a lot less than Windows. I haven't used OS X seriously but the bundled software may meet requirements and there seems to be a wide variety of third-party power e-mail apps available as well. Unfortunately Linux on Macs is only really for developers that enjoy the challenge.

Hi class_struggle,

no first-hand experience from my side, but I would like to recommend to have a look at Ximian Evolution - to me, this looks like the perfect tool for your power seller.

HTH, Peter

Thanks for your replies. I like your opinions hob.

The way this is turning out, is that the box is going to be dedicated. The idea is that the box is goijng to be exclusively for the getting of new clients, keeping old ones, and allowing the guy to be 100% on the road. The least number of distractions on the laptop, the better.

It looks like fluxbox, and a highly customised kernel. I didn't know that stuff about ACPI, but anyhow, I'm going to see what I can do. Thanks.

Hi class_struggle,

if it is a laptop, you will need ACPI. For synchronisation with the back office, i recommend unison, or rsync. Keep in mind to tunnel this via ssh.

These "good advices" came to my mind last minute. Go ahead and maybe you can tell us what it turned out to be in the "success story" forum?

Good luck!

Peter

Try Windowmaker, business types like the huge icons Plus I use it on an old laptop with Slack 10, and it runs very fast indeed.

And as for email, Ximian Evolution is awesome.

I'm simply an experienced user.

For software, as someone said, Evolution comes to mind, the newer the better. Gnome is good choice anyway: not too heavy, but still feature-full and modern.

As for boot speed, indeed ACPI is tricky. I have a PC where ACPI is working so I'm lucky (down in 1sec., up in 9sec.), but I know many people have problems with ACPI.

But if you're unlucky and ACPI does not permit suspend-to-ram, there's still a solution: suspend-to-disk.
Using swsusp, you're almost sure it will work: it does not rely on ACPI, nor on APM. I have already used it and it is nice, realy. It is not as fast as suspend-to-ram, but on the other hand, there's no power-consuption while suspended to disk.

Yves.

Sorry but whats this ACPI thingy about?

ACPI is for newer x86 computers what APM is for the older ones, but more featurefull in theory, and more buggy in practice. It's basically used to save power.