which linux distro for a non profit

dusty · 11-17-2005, 02:15 PM

i work part time for Seva.org, a non profit, and would like to see their computer situation upgraded - they're currently running micro$oft XP and they are continually having IT issues which causes slow downs (and costs money to have a tech come out). so my question is, which distrobution of linux would be best for a non profit where the users aren't exactly tech savy (do any distro's offer support for free or reduced amounts)?

thanks,
dustin

vmlinuz101 · 11-17-2005, 02:32 PM

Ubuntu - great community support (like all Linux distros) but there's also Canonical, who do their commercial support

jailbait · 11-17-2005, 02:38 PM

"which distrobution of linux would be best for a non profit where the users aren't exactly tech savy (do any distro's offer support for free or reduced amounts)?"

You can download several good Linux distributions for free. But tech support costs money. The better the support the more it costs. The best bargain in tech support is SuSE. Go to a retail store and buy boxed SuSE for about $90. You get an exceptionally good manual and email support for, I think, 30 days. You can install SuSE on as many machines as you want.

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Steve Stites

Cogar · 11-17-2005, 03:49 PM

I agree with the recommendation for SUSE Linux 10.0 for a desktop. (If you need more of an "enterprise" level solution, you could always call Novell and ask for their recommendation.) The retail SUSE 10 is actually closer to $60 the last time I saw it, and their technical phone support will make more sense for users who aren't tech savvy and will not want to do research on the Internet and troubleshoot their own problems. Additionally, the SUSE 10.0 grub setup will allow you to quite easily implement a dual boot situation so the people can get used to the operating system before being committed full time. Good luck in any case.

Lleb_KCir · 11-17-2005, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dusty
i work part time for Seva.org, a non profit, and would like to see their computer situation upgraded - they're currently running micro$oft XP and they are continually having IT issues which causes slow downs (and costs money to have a tech come out). so my question is, which distrobution of linux would be best for a non profit where the users aren't exactly tech savy (do any distro's offer support for free or reduced amounts)?

thanks,
dustin

an addition note about SuSe is they do offer discounted rates to non-proffit groups so again i would sujest SuSe and Novell as a great path to go down.

also if you are tech savy enough, you could, once the systems are up and running, handle the support via ssh through an IPCop firewall and watch 99% of their tech problems go away.

it will take some training on how to use OO and the use of creating pdf files or saving as instead of save so they can turn their text documents into rtf so anyone can read their documentation.

good luck with that.