New forum for business related topics

[yonkman]

I am a contract developer/consultant and am currently running Kubuntu 5.1

It took me about a month to get up and going after a SERIOUS business setback with my XPPRo laptop machine.

I am 95% switched over and am debating going 100% (wiping the laptop and dedicating it to Kubuntu)

Here is my question/hope:

I think a new forum should be added to hold topics specific to business users who are using the distro as winblows replacemnet and to better their business overall.

There are many day-to-day business questions that arise that are sometimes very time consuming to get answers to in searching the forums. time is money$$$$

I think a centralized resource that can focus these questions would be very helpful.

Thoughts?

[curuxz]

Intresting you should mention this, its exacty what im working on. Should be ready in a couple of weeks.

The site im making is an online resource for small-medium business and the best way to implement open source into your business model. For obvious reasons ubuntu will be the recommended distro. If you like ill pm you with the link when its opens :)

[yonkman]

That would be great.

[poofyhairguy]

There are many day-to-day business questions that arise that are sometimes very time consuming to get answers to in searching the forums. time is money$$$$


I have to admit to you that I don't see such a forum exisiting here.

A few reasons why:

First of all, these forums exists to help Ubuntu users in their problems (ALL kinds of Ubuntu users), not just ex-Windows users. An official forum (outside of here) made just for that task would be better for such users.

Secondly, I personally would stand in the way of such a forum because I would be scared of the demands of the users in such a forum. Ubuntu is not a business. Its a community. It works ok in a business setting, but that is not the goal. It was not made to replace Windows.

I fear that such a forum would be full of users who would demand a higher level of service than this forum can provide. Every single person on here who helps others are not paid- they are volunteers. No one is paid- not even staff like me. Therefore people help each other out of the good of their hearts.

I can see the posts in the forum already "I need this answer NOW!" and "How do you all expect to compete with Windows with this level of service?" and "Why isn't this forum given a priority over the other forums- isn't business more important?" All of this is conflicts we do not want here.

You are correct time is money in a business setting. And Ubuntu DOES provide a way to pay currently to get the best support possible. But that system comes from Ubuntu itself- not the forums.

Finally, we here are a community that exists to help each other. We are not trying to take over the world (well....all of us aren't). So this particular forum is not tuned to business needs- we are not market driven. Its not a good fit.

With that said- its ok if the forums are used in that way in their current form. Ask questions regarding Ubuntu in the business that you need answered in the appropriate places and search and find the answers you need. Just know that unlike many places in the world (and many industries) business is not the top priority. It has to come second to community.

So a user who needs help getting a game to play might get more help then you who needs to have your question answered to move forward in your business day. That will happen even with a new forum. All a new forum would do is futher divide the limited resources we already have.

If a business forum could come without business-level expectations then I would support the idea. Yet it seems the two go hand in hand- business often believe their business (aka what they need to do) is more important than anything else almost (you said you self- the "time is money" mentality)....and that does not jive with what our community stands for.

But I think a forum (elsewhere on the net) made just for that purpose is a good idea. Something like "ubuntubusinessforums.com" or something would be a neat addition to the greater Ubuntu community. Maybe even a place like that could work out a system to provide pay-for service.

But that is not our intention, now or in the future.

[xequence]

No one is paid- not even staff like me.

I get payed.

I can see the posts in the forum already "I need this answer NOW!" and "How do you all expect to compete with Windows with this level of service?" and "Why isn't this forum given a priority over the other forums- isn't business more important?" All of this is conflicts we do not want here.

I think they mean more of... Something like this:

Business Dude 1: "What kind of *insert business program here* did you have the best luck on with using for *insert business task here*?
Business Dude 2: I had always used *insert business program here* but ive heard good things about *insert another business program here*. Id recomend both of those.

[majikstreet]

hmm... who pays you? I could use some money....

Canocial (or however you spell it) offers paid support I believe. Businesses that need support should use that...

[curuxz]

Well im not realy building a support forum, more of a site (yea there will BE a forum) but mainly a repo of upto date business packages, and a colated set of howtos/advice files to help point other people in small business in the right direction such as how to setup groupware systems (that are seperate to ubuntu) to link into your email and pim clients or what the best accounts package is. That kinda stuff :)

I think it would be usefull since over the past few years i have spent lots of time searching and testing apps that are not very good to find a few gems and i get asking frequently whats the best for such and such or can this be replaced etc... I realy think its time to make a site like this.

BTW xequence was right, we are talking about something more like that! :)

[az]

I could not dissagee more.

I have to admit to you that I don't see such a forum exisiting here.

A few reasons why:

First of all, these forums exists to help Ubuntu users in their problems (ALL kinds of Ubuntu users), not just ex-Windows users. An official forum (outside of here) made just for that task would be better for such users..

It is a reality that Ubuntu does not require Anti-malware software to run properly. I reckon that malware is one of the issues that caused the original poster grief to begin with. This is a theme that comes up in a lot of forum threads.

It is a reality that a lot of Ubuntu users have used Windows in the past.

The original poster never asked for a windows-bashing forum, but a migration forum. That is a great idea.


Secondly, I personally would stand in the way of such a forum because I would be scared of the demands of the users in such a forum. Ubuntu is not a business. Its a community. It works ok in a business setting, but that is not the goal. It was not made to replace Windows..

No one seems to be asking for a pay-for-service section. How about free support for business-specific software, just like there is a sound-and-video section.


I fear that such a forum would be full of users who would demand a higher level of service than this forum can provide. Every single person on here who helps others are not paid- they are volunteers. No one is paid- not even staff like me. Therefore people help each other out of the good of their hearts..

I want to help people to migrate their workstations to ubuntu with all *my* heart. I want to do it for free!




I can see the posts in the forum already "I need this answer NOW!" and "How do you all expect to compete with Windows with this level of service?" and "Why isn't this forum given a priority over the other forums- isn't business more important?" All of this is conflicts we do not want here..

Many many users already do that. Some bump their threads every hour. No one is suggesting that a business section would have to have a higher priority. It would simply attract more people to it who have similar interests.

Just like some users only really post to the server section and some only in the programming section. What is different about a business/migration section?

Migration is a very important aspect of the future of FLOSS.


You are correct time is money in a business setting. And Ubuntu DOES provide a way to pay currently to get the best support possible. But that system comes from Ubuntu itself- not the forums..

Actually it comes from the ubuntu marketplace, not just Canonical.


Finally, we here are a community that exists to help each other. We are not trying to take over the world (well....all of us aren't). So this particular forum is not tuned to business needs- we are not market driven. Its not a good fit..

Are market is to cater to whomever uses Ubuntu.


Just know that unlike many places in the world (and many industries) business is not the top priority. It has to come second to community..

Bullcrap. They are two completely different things. And actually, for Canonical, being sustainable (making a profit) is a top priority. For a lot of those who contribute to the FLOSS community, that is a priority. Many of the more vocal voices who speak in favor of Free-Libre software in business are the same people who make debian such a very good example of free-libre software. Bruce Perens, Ian Murdock, Brandon Robinson....




So a user who needs help getting a game to play might get more help then you who needs to have your question answered to move forward in your business day. That will happen even with a new forum. All a new forum would do is futher divide the limited resources we already have..

Actually, that is why someone with a business-migration question should not have to post to the desktop-support section. It is actually a better use of the ressources.



If a business forum could come without business-level expectations then I would support the idea. Yet it seems the two go hand in hand- business often believe their business (aka what they need to do) is more important than anything else almost (you said you self- the "time is money" mentality)....and that does not jive with what our community stands for..

It is often more important for the thing to work, than to spend the day talking about the problem, actually. Are you saying some bugs should not be addressed?





But I think a forum (elsewhere on the net) made just for that purpose is a good idea. Something like "ubuntubusinessforums.com" or something would be a neat addition to the greater Ubuntu community. Maybe even a place like that could work out a system to provide pay-for service..

But that is not our intention, now or in the future.

It does not have to be. There is no reason a free migration section could be. At least there is no reason such a section should not be considered along with the many other requests for a specialised section.

[az]

Well im not realy building a support forum, more of a site (yea there will BE a forum) but mainly a repo of upto date business packages, and a colated set of howtos/advice files to help point other people in small business in the right direction such as how to setup groupware systems (that are seperate to ubuntu) to link into your email and pim clients or what the best accounts package is. That kinda stuff :)

I think it would be usefull since over the past few years i have spent lots of time searching and testing apps that are not very good to find a few gems and i get asking frequently whats the best for such and such or can this be replaced etc... I realy think its time to make a site like this.

BTW xequence was right, we are talking about something more like that! :)
There was a BOF (Birds of a Feather) group about Migration tools (from proprietary software to FLOSS) at UBZ. You would have to look on the wiki about that. Perhaps you can sync with the team that is working on that.

[curuxz]

Ill defo try and get hold of existing information and partnerships with projects working on the same kind of thing, or similar!

Should be open in a couple of weeks (maybe a bit sooner if i get a free day) then Ill open the doors and see if we get people intrested and look for content...

Opensource in general has some massive potential for business, big compaines seem to be way ahead of the small and medium ones in implemention tho (excluding small IT comapines which tend to catch on fastest). This I belive is totaly unfair since its the smaller ones (like my own very very small business) that need the savings and advantages more, and just because small business cant aford big budget consultants does not mean they should be shut out of the opensource world.

Just trying to spread what knowlege I have and gather a pool of like minded people to help each other out, but more for commerical activities as opposed to this forum which is more general and desktop orientated (for good reasons)

[yonkman]

Wow!

Well, I really was proposing just another grouping not a "support-center".

The thing is I can't just "reinstall" when things go wrong or just install another distro on my machine. It needs to be reliable and stable.

I spent a LOT of time trying to get suse10.0 and fedora 4 and cent os to work as my BUSINESS desktop but couldn't.

as you know, I am here because this configuration is working very well now.

There are ENOUGH challenges for a small business today I thought it might help.

ie. WHat do you use for accounting?. How do you handle 2003 Excel docs? What timesheet program works best with project manager. etc....

and of course a place to find kindred spirits of those who face off against "the Man" everyday.

All of my clients are on Win or Nov networks. ALL have windows desktops/productivity software. I don't want to convert them, but I need to be able to work with them.

A place for helping each other is community.

[curuxz]

Well the area of small business support is such a wide one and often far more mission critical than the standard desktop that I felt creating a new site would be needed for it. Currently im planning opening the site on the first of Feb (01/02/06). But if you realy need to ask anything specific please just pm me :)

Btw if your a ubuntu user i recomend you download a knoppix live disk. That way if something goes wrong you should be able to boot of that, still get on the net to ask for help and be able to mount and fix your ubuntu system without the risk of having to reinstall.

Those 2 distros together have made it possible for me to almost never have to reinstall linux, unless im playing with a new distro! ;)

[nocturn]

time is money$$$$

I'm sorry, but I could not resist responding.

time = money is the biggest logical fallacy I have ever heard.

This would mean that money = time, so if you have a billion dollars you could extend your life or buy free time, which you cannot.

This would also mean that unemployed people could just exchange 4 hours of their time for a fixed amount of cash, which they clearly cannot.

[curuxz]

This would mean that money = time, so if you have a billion dollars you could extend your life or buy free time, which you cannot.

Well rich people tend to live longer, better medical technology, food, living conditions.


This would also mean that unemployed people could just exchange 4 hours of their time for a fixed amount of cash, which they clearly cannot.

Like by getting a job ;)

To some extent i agree but the phrase is correct, if you have time you should be using to make something. Time wasted is time that should be spent productively. Thats what my project is about, an opensource productivity centre. :)

[nocturn]

To some extent i agree but the phrase is correct, if you have time you should be using to make something. Time wasted is time that should be spent productively. Thats what my project is about, an opensource productivity centre. :)

Productivity is not the same as money, you can paint a work of art but remain poor (like Van Gogh).

There is no relation between time and money in the way the pharse lets to believe. It's a yuppie expression which is very misleading.

[nocturn]

I'm not averse to a new forum where Ubuntu in business related questions can go (like what to use for a POS solution on Ubuntu), but not one where business users can go for general support (like on Evolution) that gets a priority over end-user questions

That said, a business section with topics like Inventory management, payroll systems, Groupware etc. may be usefull to group questions about such topics.

[nocturn]

Wow!

Well, I really was proposing just another grouping not a "support-center".

The thing is I can't just "reinstall" when things go wrong or just install another distro on my machine. It needs to be reliable and stable.

I spent a LOT of time trying to get suse10.0 and fedora 4 and cent os to work as my BUSINESS desktop but couldn't.

as you know, I am here because this configuration is working very well now.

There are ENOUGH challenges for a small business today I thought it might help.

ie. WHat do you use for accounting?. How do you handle 2003 Excel docs? What timesheet program works best with project manager. etc....

and of course a place to find kindred spirits of those who face off against "the Man" everyday.

All of my clients are on Win or Nov networks. ALL have windows desktops/productivity software. I don't want to convert them, but I need to be able to work with them.

A place for helping each other is community.


I think a lot of people misunderstood your question because of the 'time is money' remark.

It made me think that you wanted a seperate place where you could be helped quicker then other, reading furter led me to believe this was not your intent.

So, I support this new structure and I would like to welcome you to our community.

[Gowator]

I'm not averse to a new forum where Ubuntu in business related questions can go (like what to use for a POS solution on Ubuntu), but not one where business users can go for general support (like on Evolution) that gets a priority over end-user questions

That said, a business section with topics like Inventory management, payroll systems, Groupware etc. may be usefull to group questions about such topics.
Actually POS is an area I was looking into last week and didn't get as far as I would have liked.
So many of the posts here have echoed some papers I have beebn writing so closely its spooky....

Firstly Small companies IMHO have more to gain than corporate multinationals from OpenSource... what they are missing is the skill sets and time to implement it.
IBM/Novell are not about to start looking for consultancy in companies of 5-10 people yet it is these companies which stand to gain the most.

Time is money is time is .... whatever... the point is a business has different goals ... if you are working for a company even on a low hourly rate it doesn't take long to make it financially viable to rip out the (Wifi/etc) card and replace it ...instead of messing in the depths of ndiswrapper if its only for 5 PC's!

There is no way the Ubuntu forums are going to provide business support.. as someone criticised earlier "some people already bump posts every few hours" which shows the complete unsuitability of the forum as any sort of support in business... the fact that after an hour there are probably 30 pages of posts in the last hour ...

However the discussion of POS, evolution and LDAP migration to use a few buzzwords is somewhat more interesting to those supporting small businesses or the small businesses themselves and the interrelationships on groupware etc are only realyl interesting in this context.

I for one would be interested to discuss these!

[nocturn]

Firstly Small companies IMHO have more to gain than corporate multinationals from OpenSource... what they are missing is the skill sets and time to implement it.
IBM/Novell are not about to start looking for consultancy in companies of 5-10 people yet it is these companies which stand to gain the most.

[quote]
Time is money is time is .... whatever... the point is a business has different goals ... if you are working for a company even on a low hourly rate it doesn't take long to make it financially viable to rip out the (Wifi/etc) card and replace it ...instead of messing in the depths of ndiswrapper if its only for 5 PC's!


It depends on how busy you are at that moment. If you are working for a small company and it is a slow period, you may have the time to spend 5 hours searching for something. They hours are paid for anyway and getting that card would add to the hourly cost.

For some medium sized businesses, it could be cheaper to have a dedicated Linux/support person and pay him monthly then to get external support once a month (a windows reinstall also takes time and costs money).


There is no way the Ubuntu forums are going to provide business support.. as someone criticised earlier "some people already bump posts every few hours" which shows the complete unsuitability of the forum as any sort of support in business... the fact that after an hour there are probably 30 pages of posts in the last hour ...


This forum is not intended to do so. We are not the end-user support for any company.

If you use Linux in your organization, you should either have in-house support of buy support externally. That said, someone doing the internal support may fall back to the forums to find stuff (you never know everything).

[az]

I think in this context, "Time is money" refers to the fact that a lot of people enjoy stting back and hacking away at a problem while others don't have the luxury of being able to spend a lot of time solving problems.

Ubuntu is more than a hobby to a lot of people and pretending that the forums are just for non-lucrative, non-entertainment purposes is wrong. The forums provide free support, which does not mean that they have to exclude any group.

Anyone should be able to ask a question. No one ever suggested that one section should get more attention than another. This already happens naturally, though.

Is it wrong that some users gravitate to the server forum or the programming forum and do not contribute much elsewhere? Why would this be different in a business-migration section?

[nocturn]

Ubuntu is more than a hobby to a lot of people and pretending that the forums are just for non-lucrative, non-entertainment purposes is wrong. The forums provide free support, which does not mean that they have to exclude any group.


That is also the case for me. I run Ubuntu to do graphical development and webdesign for our store. Everything in the store runs on Linux and we sell Linux pre-installed laptops.
At my day-job, I also admin a critical webserver running on SuSE.

Yet, the forums are not a substitute for commercial support where you can get contracts guaranteeing a response time (like from Sun).
You are free to ask the question, whatever the purpose is, but everyone is equally free to provide an answer at the point in time that is convenient for them.


Is it wrong that some users gravitate to the server forum or the programming forum and do not contribute much elsewhere? Why would this be different in a business-migration section?

Off course not, I often hang around the server forum too since I run multiple Linux servers.
I'm just saying that you can also not complain when your answer in any section are not answered or not answered in x amount of hours. Answers will not appear quicker because a question is business critical.

[timczer]

I think this is a good idea. I have been in the process of setting up a server and web site for a company project for training materials. I have had to post and search for many different subjects in this pursuit to learn how to do many of these things. I have noted that many of the people responding are those who have done these things in a business setting and use them in their own business pursuits or jobs. Many of us in these environments must deal with the interaction of our opensource software and the bigger business world that is dominated by Windows software (Office, being the most obvious). These are challenges that to be discussed with people in similar situations in a more specific area would be beneficial (at least to me it would). Someone pulling together the tutorials that apply to these "business" settings would be great (in the same vein as the Ubuntu Documentation Storage Facility now does).

As for the "time is money" saying, this derives from how one in business evaluates an investment. The time-value of money is an important variable in looking at return on investment. Simply, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow (due to inflation, your ability to invest that dollar and earn interest,etc.). So, anything that that delays my ability to earn a dollar today costs me time, which means I lose the inherent value of that money during the lost time, therefore the "time is money" saying. It isn't a mathematical formula that has a reciprocal property, it is shorthand for the time-value paridigm of investment evaluation.

[az]

I'm just saying that you can also not complain when your answer in any section are not answered or not answered in x amount of hours. Answers will not appear quicker because a question is business critical.

I agree. But I really don't think the "time is money" comment was meant to imply that. I think it refers to what is known as the "total cost of ownership" (a title that in of itself refers to software as property). If you save three hundred dollars by not having to buy the software, but it takes one person a whole week's work getting it installed, that is not a good investment.

This is a very very big topic. This is one of the big points that FLOSS needs to tackle to gain marketshare.

More marketshare means more vendor support and so on and so on.

[curuxz]

The principal behind the site I am setting up is not that business should get express help over end users but that business users could use a totaly seperate arena to discuss their IT and Ubuntu issues. For instance...

Business users tend to prefer the stable versions of packages, and not be intrested in the kind of stuff that looks cool then crases. This is what I mean by mission critical systems, they need to just work. While ubuntu is great for that there are times when solutions given or products recomended are betas or stop-gap messures. While this is great for desktop users in a business world this can be a pain.

Desktop users love choice, they like exploring and testing the choices, Business users in general want to be told ie Ms Office compatible replacement IS open office. If that makes sense, im not saying its definitive or another would be wrong it would just be nice if some likeminded people got together and said this is what we think is the best for the business enviroment at the moment. So that business users can login, and know exactly what to look for and know its been tested in their situations.

While Ill endevour to make a site where technical support is availble the main purpose is for:
Knowlege base of systems, programs and files usefull to business.
Forum for discussing Opensystems in the workplace
Ideas for expanding linux (and more specificaly ubuntu) into a larger market
Ideas for making opensource more commercaily viable for small businesses
Help for building office replacements out of opensource, such as groupware to PIM intergration and providing a collected howto on setting up all the systems an office needs not just getting a load of independant applications and then wondering how to move data between them.

I LOVE THIS SITE, i think it has the BEST community forum i have ever found. I would never think that the way it works should be changed or that commercail/business members should get priority. I do think this forum however is mainly for the linux gurus' and the linux converts and that business users have so much to gain from open source and Ubuntu with its ease of use but need a platform to build on that.

Hence starting the open business site next month, I will try and form a site which does not prefrence bussiness but simply talolrs its solutions to ones that business users would need, since their demands are often diffrent from the end users.

As they said time is money, this does not refer to being helped faster, it refers to a desire to work more efficienctly with smarter applications and a smarter, ubuntu based desktop system.

[Gowator]

[QUOTE=Gowator]
Firstly Small companies IMHO have more to gain than corporate multinationals from OpenSource... what they are missing is the skill sets and time to implement it.
IBM/Novell are not about to start looking for consultancy in companies of 5-10 people yet it is these companies which stand to gain the most.



It depends on how busy you are at that moment. If you are working for a small company and it is a slow period, you may have the time to spend 5 hours searching for something. They hours are paid for anyway and getting that card would add to the hourly cost.

For some medium sized businesses, it could be cheaper to have a dedicated Linux/support person and pay him monthly then to get external support once a month (a windows reinstall also takes time and costs money).



This forum is not intended to do so. We are not the end-user support for any company.

If you use Linux in your organization, you should either have in-house support of buy support externally. That said, someone doing the internal support may fall back to the forums to find stuff (you never know everything).

Either you didn't actually read what I wrote or you have problems with English. If its the latter what language do you prefer?
If its the former perhaps try reading before agreeing with someone who agrees with you.

[curuxz]

[QUOTE=nocturn]
agreeing with someone who agrees with you.


Would you rather they disagree with someone who agrees with them ;) lol

Yea im confused.

[macgyver2]

I think it's an interesting suggestion, yonkman, but don't hold your breath. The forums won't even implement an area for Edubuntu-related threads...

[yonkman]

My choice of migrating to Linux was a business decision, not really a personal one.

Although the "Time=Money" phrase is WELL overused, I think the proponents in this tread have explained it aptly.

I work by billable hours. If I am not working on a billable event, I don't make money. (my wife says that is not an option!). Ilost ~1-2 weeks of billable time the last 3 months with my Win problems.

I have sat on the sidelines for a long time, before making the switch for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I have been (and am still) swimming in a sea of MS.

I also was doing CF and ASP dev primarily with MSSQL backend.

With MYSQL 5 and PHP5 I saw a great alternative. I am now primarily doing developemnt in those technologies.

HOWEVER, I am developing and supporting MS specific technologies because the need exists and I am in business to help people with their technology problems.

I really think there are A LOT of people like myself that are ready to come off the fence and provide a huge push for OpenSource in the business environment.

Hence, the suggestion for a business section in this forum.

Believe me, if it wasn't for this forum I probably would still be working in my $2k laptop sitting next to me idle right now. (I have to find time to wipe and rebuild the XPPro on that)

I am not a true tech geek but do know my way around a system and it was somewhat challenging for me to get everything right. I know a lot of people who would have given up the migration a lot sooner.

Demanding answers by bumping questions is just plain rude. Some people are just raised that way.

I will also take this moment to thank the moderators on this forum and all forums for doing an invaluable service.

Also thanks to all who offered their opinions (good or bad) on this and all my other posts.

[Gowator]

Demanding answers by bumping questions is just plain rude. Some people are just raised that way.


then what would you suggest people do if the question hasn't been answered in a week or a month? Most of the questions I have ever asked have gone a month without a single reply when I haven't bumped them...and I fail to see what is rude about a question on the 50th page of unanswered posts being bumped...
or should I just apologise for asking the qquestion int he first place?

[az]

Everything is a matter of interpretation, isn't it?

Yonkman never mentioned bumping posts in the name of "time is money". Others said that. That's the point.

And it *is* rude to bump a post every few minutes and complain about a lack of response. Some people do that.

Most don't.

You can bump a post without demanding a response and being rude.

[benplaut]

A bussiness (enterprise would be a better name, IMO) forum would be hard to govern, and alot of questions would go there instead of there proper forums (similar to the beginner's forum).

The Windows Migration forum is a good idea, but i think the Beginner's forum fits the bill well in many cases.

[az]

but i think the Beginner's forum fits the bill well in many cases.

I agree. However, there is not consensus as to what an absolute beginner is. Some of the topics there are pretty technical. Someone who does not know the difference between a hard drive and a computer case may not always feel comfortable posting there.

Perhaps a subforum in the absolute beginner section? Or a series of subforums? A home for posts like this:

"Hi, I'm a teacher and all I know about Edubuntu is that it's free and the screen is black with a blinking cursor. Please help."

"I have heard that I can install Ubuntu instead of Windows here at work. Am I allowed to do that?"

The point is it takes a certain level of knowledge to even know where to post. And maybe there are areas that some are more keen to offer help to.

[Gowator]

A bussiness (enterprise would be a better name, IMO) forum would be hard to govern, and alot of questions would go there instead of there proper forums (similar to the beginner's forum).

The Windows Migration forum is a good idea, but i think the Beginner's forum fits the bill well in many cases.
I don't think this is the point (IMHO)
A business forum would IMVHO contain items like LDAP or such which could be classaed as migration but also much more networking in environments like VPN's or ICA clients etc. because these are largely the main stumbling blocks for businesses after they accept OpenOffice is OpenOffice ... though they may be interested in converting 1000 or 100,000 documents etc.

Many issues for buisnesses are just different not more noobie or less, indeed gaming is probably as leading edge! Business users need to discuss stability whereas gamers want to discuss speed (usually)

[Bone Down]

well if my vote counts any I would love to see such a forum as this.

I myself just recently switched to linux on my laptop as a day to day operating environment, mostly for my day job and my side business.

a place were a group of people with common questions and quests for answers to what program best suits this situation within ubuntu (linux) as a whole would be very nice.

myself I currently use:
Evolution for work (replaced outlook 2003)
Thunderbird: from win to lin
I am now using OOo which has replaced MS Office 2003.
I will be looking soon for accounting software.

I am currently having problems with LDAP within Evolution and to date I have not found a solution to the problem via google or the ubuntu forums, but in a business migration section I might find others having the same problem.

From my researching this problem I see that most are using other email clients not in a business environment, in a (business and/or enterprise or whatever it would be called), forum I might have better luck finding others with the same problem.

[curuxz]

From the point of view of the project I'm setting up (for 1st Feb 2006) Is more down the route of LDAP, SAMBA, GroupWare>>>Kontact>>>PIM intergration. Those kinds of topics that deal with using powerfull networking systems and business systems, cheeply in small and medium business.

That said there will be elements of migration, and ofcorse something to try and help those new and new user businesses comming over to linux.

I would also try my best to work in several other ideas maybe making help for chairitable, non-profit and possibly even educational orginisations on the site. If anyone has any ideas please pm me asap and ill try and include them for launch :)

[nursegirl]

Hey Curuxz, it's Feb 3! Have you started launched the site, yet?

[curuxz]

Nah im afraid not, its been one of *those* weeks with my work load going through the roof. Im afraid at this rate its still about a week away. Sorry :( just how things go sometimes.