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Thread: Linux for doing business

  1. #1
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    Linux for doing business

    Hi

    I have tried to use Ubuntu for 3 years. Tried means that I have been using it at work and also at home but always returned to Windows because it doesn't matter how hard you trie - there is allways need for Windows virtual machine to do some certain thing you can't do on Linux. But that is not something I wanted to write about...

    I wanted to know if anyone knows how is Canoncial as Ubuntu main developer using Ubuntu as business desktop? Are they using Linux only? Do they get everything done with LibreOffice considering that a lot of their parters are sending (at least i believe it is so) in Microsoft Office documents. What kind of e-mail solution are they using - mostly calendaring? Thunderbird is main e-mail client in Ubuntu but there are no calendars out of the box. What kind of e-mail server they are using?

    It would be very interesting to know how they are using Ubuntu for doing what they are doing every day
    If someone knows it would be really nice to hear your comments.

  2. #2
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    That would be a very interesting topic for an article, if anyone knows.

    Unfortunately, Canonical has been caught-out in the past using Macs and proprietary software for graphic design. I kinda can't blame them too much for not using Ubuntu for this as the software just isn't good enough, but it's still a shame.
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  3. #3
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    Thread moved to Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    interesting questions.

    a few things though...

    Quote Originally Posted by moribashi View Post
    I wanted to know if anyone knows how is Canoncial as Ubuntu main developer using Ubuntu as business desktop? Are they using Linux only? Do they get everything done with LibreOffice considering that a lot of their parters are sending (at least i believe it is so) in Microsoft Office documents.
    Libre office can read MS office documents. the only thing i can think of is that formating could be off in some cases or some specific excell sheets wouldn't work well. but then again there is export as option in ms office as well.

    What kind of e-mail solution are they using - mostly calendaring? Thunderbird is main e-mail client in Ubuntu but there are no calendars out of the box.
    Thunderbird has plugin for calendar that is kind of unnoficial/official calendar for T. it works quite well so what would be the issue? remember how thunderbird ran out of ideas of what else to add to the client.
    Last edited by mastablasta; March 28th, 2013 at 10:50 AM.
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  5. #5
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    interesting questions.

    a few things though...



    Libre office can read MS office documents. the only thing i can think of is that formating could be off in some cases or some specific excell sheets wouldn't work well. but then again there is export as option in ms office as well.


    Thunderbird has plugin for calendar that is kind of unnoficial/official calendar for T. it works quite well so what would be the issue? remember how thunderbird ran out of ideas of what else to add to the client.
    LibreOffice has major problems with formatting and it is important to send correctly formatted documents while doing business.

    Thunderbird and calendar - in my opinion you can't take seriously some unofficial plugin and deploy it and support it on hundreds or even thousands of desktops.

    Any more information?

  6. #6
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    I don't think you can call Lightning an "unofficial" project at this point.

    Some places are moving to cloud solutions like Google Docs. I'm not a advocate for that because I don't like the idea of storing company documents on a remote server not under my control.
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  7. #7
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    I do not know how big is your business but most of your listed requirements are offered via web/intranet services today. Therefore I think you should check various groupware solutions (IBM Lotus Notes, Zarafa, Novell Groupwise).

  8. #8
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    The software requirements you've described as "business applications" could be made by a teenager in a single weekend. If you were talking about a serious business I think they'd have enough money to hire a couple software engineers for a few weeks to build whatever they need entirely custom.
    Last edited by mharv; March 30th, 2013 at 09:49 AM.

  9. #9
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    Regarding specifically, OOo and Libreoffice...

    I've used first OOo, and then Libreoffice in my consulting practice for roughly eight years, with correspondence exchange with over 1,000 companies. The key to minimizing problems is to set up either OOo or Libreoffice to use Microsoft defaults. You can do this under Tools > Options > Load/Save > General (you will see where you can change defaults for each type of document at the bottom of that page) I currently have the defaults set to the "97/2000/XP/2003" option, but I see, that there are newer Microsoft options available. Your mileage may vary, of course, but, I've never run into compatibility problems with docs, spreadsheets, or presentations (which is all I use) doing this.

    Regarding other business apps I use...

    First, I am Linux only, and have been since 2004. On the business computers, I have only used LTS releases since Dapper. Ubuntu on the desktop, and Xubuntu on my laptop. My domain email is forwarded to Gmail for the archiving feature. I use Thunderbird to read/write email from three accounts, all using IMAP. I use Google calendar which I share with family, and a few master clients. I use Google Drive to store business documents on line as part of an overall strategy to back up my computers and to exchange docs between computers (the other part of the back-up scheme are flash drives kept in a fireproof safe).

    Just my opinion, but, I would expect, that on a larger scale, Canonical wouldn't be too much different than I am in their choice of products. Much more custom written applications certainly, but, a heavy emphasis on open source none-the-less. If they do use Macs, as rumored, that's fine with me too. My wife used a MacBook Pro. Nice machine.
    Last edited by OrangeCrate; March 30th, 2013 at 10:33 AM.

  10. #10
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    Re: Linux for doing business

    Quote Originally Posted by moribashi View Post
    Hi

    I have tried to use Ubuntu for 3 years. Tried means that I have been using it at work and also at home but always returned to Windows because it doesn't matter how hard you trie - there is allways need for Windows virtual machine to do some certain thing you can't do on Linux. But that is not something I wanted to write about...

    I wanted to know if anyone knows how is Canoncial as Ubuntu main developer using Ubuntu as business desktop? Are they using Linux only? Do they get everything done with LibreOffice considering that a lot of their parters are sending (at least i believe it is so) in Microsoft Office documents. What kind of e-mail solution are they using - mostly calendaring? Thunderbird is main e-mail client in Ubuntu but there are no calendars out of the box. What kind of e-mail server they are using?

    It would be very interesting to know how they are using Ubuntu for doing what they are doing every day
    If someone knows it would be really nice to hear your comments.
    I'm always curious what people mean when they talk about "doing business" using Linux. What kind of business are you referring to?

    I'm a lawyer and use Ubuntu exclusively on my desktop. I use Evolution for my e-mail client due to the built-in calendar, and my calendar stays in-sync across my various devices since the Evolution calendar recognizes my entries in google calendar. The lawyer that I collaborate the most with (who maintains her own firm) uses OpenOffice on her Windows computer, so we don't have any issues w/r/t compatibility. I typically send documents to my clients in .pdf format, because I want my clients' input on my documents, but don't want them to edit the documents themselves. [Actually, my pdfs CAN be edited, but most of my clients don't realize that.]

    So, again, what kind of business are you referring to?
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