[SLL] Having things Just Work--Law office environment

[Bill Campbell]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008, Erik Ryberg wrote:
>Glenn Stone wrote:
>>On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 11:26:33AM -0700, Bill Campbell wrote:
>>>Linux will only become a better choice for workstations when things Just
>>>Work(tm) without hassle over codecs, drivers, and general
>>>interroperability.  Linux is better today in most respects than Windows,
>>>but it has a long way to go to catch up with Apple for desktop 
>>>applications
>>>for most users.
>>
>
>I got a new secretary at my law office about 6 months ago.  As an 
>experiment I put her on Ubuntu.  She was a Mac user and immediately 
>recognized she was on another system, but she assumed it was Windows!
>
>She navigated it fine, using Open Office and Firefox.  I don't recall 
>her ever asking for assistance with it.
>
...
>I have never seen another law office using linux exclusively, but I 
>think it will start to happen more and more.

My first mission-critical Linux installation was in a small
Seattle law firm in September 1997.  We installed a Caldera
system as a file and print server to various Windows boxen, and
the only time we had a problem was when a janitor unplugged the
server one night requiring a reboot after about 9 months uptime.

The office manager did complain that her productivity was off
about 50% -- because this firm required that she use Word instead
of WordPerfect.

Using Linux in a law firm or general office environment is not
the problem, as OpenOffice.org can handle the majority of the
requirements (I don't know what is a good substitute for
Microsoft Access).  The major places where people start to have
problems is when dealing with multimedia applications, and doing
more esoteric things than one does as the bread and butter of a
law office.

BTW:  I was happily surprised when working as an expert witness
recently in a computer security matter.  The attorney sent me a
WordPerfect document for review which I opened with NeoOffice (the
native Mac Aqua version of OpenOffice.org).  The last time I
tried working with WordPerfect in OO, it didn't have the filters,
requiring the purchase of Sun's commercial StarOffice.

One of my wife's friends, a 60-ish PhD in Psychology, has been
using Linux and OpenOffice now for at least six years, dealing
with lots of M$ documents without problems.  She has had problems
handling digital photos on the Linux system using a USB card
reader, getting confused at times on figuring out device mounting
and unmounting.  She recently bought a Macbook, and likes that a
lot better using iPhoto as it's in the Just Works category.  She
will probably replace her Linux desktop machine with a 20in iMac
when her schedule gets a bit less hectic (which will require some
fiddling on my part to get the postfix/amavisd/clamav and IMAP
server converted over to the iMac).

Glenn's discussion of getting the NASA video is interesting, but
even that amount of interaction would leave many people frustrated
as the feedback is largely computer jargon which makes as little
sense to them as a professional video production person's jargon
would to me.

Things that are easy, challenging, or fascinating to the Linux
geeks who frequent lists like this, are anathema to people who
just want the computer to be a tool they can use to make their
life easier and/or more rewarding.

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676

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live at the expense of everybody else.  -- Frederic Bastiat