[nmglug] I'll be at Ubuntu Live

[Todd Richardson]

Congratulations on being asked to present.

I wish I had more to contribute, but Nagios didn't leave just a
wonderful taste in my mouth.  If I had a bit more time to devote to
learning how to configure it, I think it would have been great!

As far as general use of open source software, openoffice.org represents
one of the best practical packages for the masses.  Its written on the
most popular platforms, is sponsored by a big player, and it is software
that can be used by almost any discipline.  Its a very mature project,
and they seem to be doing a lot of good over there. 

I think, in practical terms, systems administrators aren't going to
change the world because we advocate the implementation of open source
software.  Most of us use it in some manner or another.  It is going to
be getting our users (or users in general, neighbors, family, etc.) to
see the value in OSS.  Nagios is very niche in that it appeals to those
managing the network.  When OSS does catch on, it will be because User
Joe 1) Knew about it (which systems admins can influence by word of
mouth and other advocacy,) 2) saw it used and liked what they saw (and
I've seen some impressive desktops on youtube and the like) and 3) Had
little to no problem installing it.  

Issue 3 presents the biggest hurdle.  While its easy to download and
install on a new system, most people just go out and buy their system
with an OS already on it.  On the famous (infamous?) $200 computer from
wal-mart costs were cut by offering a cheap platform with a free OS.
Its selling pretty well, so those users are probably satisfied with
linux... to a degree at least  (either that or they are finding out that
they are upgrade faster than they expected.)  As a matter of survival,
and I've observed this to an extent, installation and support of new
packages should be easy.  Ubuntu's use of a high level package manager
(hooray apt!) is one example of the ease of installation.  In my
opinion, Ubuntu has done everything right on this front.  Now if we
could only get a couple of vendors to ship systems with it.  You know...
save a couple hundred bucks by getting Ubuntu instead of windoze +
bloat.  

I'll admit, I've said what most of us already know, but it feels good to
get it off my chest every once in a while.  Now that I've preached to
the choir, I'll keep my mouth shut for a while.  A change is coming
though.  People talk, around a water cooler, or wherever they gather;
saying that their system seems to be acting funny... that they lost a
bunch of work to a crash or automatic reboot after an update... <insert
other negative micro$oft related comment overheard here>.  As long as we
offer an alternative they will eventually arrive.

*steps down from his soap box.

-Todd Richardson


  


On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 07:21 -0600, DThomas at metrocourt.state.nm.us wrote:
> 
> What a good Friday, I just found out this morning I’ll be presenting
> at this years Ubuntu Live. I’ll be talking about the practical use of
> open source software. I’m very exited about the Ubuntu Live
> presentation. This month I presented at HDI 2008, but that audience
> was manly call center managers, Help Desk technicians, and had few if
> any network administrators in attendance. Ubuntu Live promises to be a
> much more technical group of people including developers of some of
> the software I use with my organization every day. I’ll primarily be
> focusing on nagiosand network monitoring in general and I’d love to
> hear some of your experiences that I could include in my presentation.
> Hope to see you in Portland, Oregon July 21-22, 2008. 
> 
> Now if I only was not sick as a dog....dang flu I thnk. 
> 
> David Thomas
> IT Specialist Manager
> Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courts
> 401 Lomas NW
> Albuquerque, NM 87103
> 
> dthomas at metrocourt.state.nm.us
> 505-841-9807 
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