Ubuntu @ Work

[teejay17]

Ubuntu @ Work
Hi folks, I'm starting this thread to gather information together in one place for anyone interested in trying and/or using (K)Ubuntu at work. This thread can cover any facet of using Ubuntu at work—no limitations.
Some themes to explore:
KDE and/or Gnome in a work environment
Dual booting issues
Peripherals (printers, etc.)
Limitations
What coworkers think; perceptions in the work place
Office suites
ProductivityThese bullets are very general and can go off in any direction—and that's a good thing! There aren't any concrete rules. Also, if there are other aspects to add, by all means please include them.
Thanks in Advance,
Tee Jay

[qalimas]

I use Kubuntu at work. I work as a student co-op technician for the K-12 school board in our Parish. I do not dual boot, and have no printer or anything attached to worry about. I have no limitations, other than the inability to catch a virus when I scan an infected hard drive from a teacher's computer. The students here are my age or so, and when they pass by the awe at my computer, and make comments about it, mostly good, expect for a couple of die-hard Windows people. I use KOffice and OpenOffice. KOffice for my personal stuff, and for documenting everything I do, and OpenOffice when I need compatibility with MS Office and teachers' documents. I'm very productive, as I no longer have to worry about keeping an updated (insert malware type) scanner.

I use K3B for all my burning needs, such as drivers for when I redo a computer with Windows on it. I keep Quanta installed in case I get bored or want to tinker in some PHP. A few games such as lbreakout2 are installed ;)

I have no real need for music codecs or accelerated video, as I can not listen to music, and the video is just onboard Intel.

I have zero issues with the computer =)

[Dragonbite]

I would love to be able to use Ubuntu (or any Linux) here at work, but unfortunately before the other IT guy and I started here they had just inked the deal that started converting us into a Microsoft shop ](*,) (all Windows machines, ASP.NET intranet, MS SQL Server, MS Access, Crystal Reports, Adobe Acrobat).

The ironic is that both of us would rather move the office to BSD or Linux but we came in just a little too late. Of course that doesn't mean it's going to stop us ;)

Too bad they had a vendor come in and set up something in Linux that failed miserably and so the officers have this pre-conceived notion that "Linux sucks" and refuse to listen [-( (so far).

Vista, though, may help us. . .

[beercz]

I would love to be able to use Ubuntu (or any Linux) here at work, but unfortunately before the other IT guy and I started here they had just inked the deal that started converting us into a Microsoft shop ](*,) (all Windows machines, ASP.NET intranet, MS SQL Server, MS Access, Crystal Reports, Adobe Acrobat).

The ironic is that both of us would rather move the office to BSD or Linux but we came in just a little too late. Of course that doesn't mean it's going to stop us ;)

Too bad they had a vendor come in and set up something in Linux that failed miserably and so the officers have this pre-conceived notion that "Linux sucks" and refuse to listen [-( (so far).

Vista, though, may help us. . .
Good luck!!!!

I use linux at work on my desktop (ubuntu) and have a few debian servers dotted about.

Trying to introduce others to ubuntu, but at work it's quite difficult - we use a lot of specialist windows applications that simply aren't available in linux. We are a construction design civil engineering company.

[parker13]

I work as a developer on Solaris, but I use Ubuntu every day on my desktop.

My company only issues Windows XP, so I shrunk the partition on my laptop and installed Ubuntu. Don't tell my IT department!

[teejay17]

I work as a developer on Solaris, but I use Ubuntu every day on my desktop.

My company only issues Windows XP, so I shrunk the partition on my laptop and installed Ubuntu. Don't tell my IT department!
Yeah, I'm considering doing that, but I want to ask other users about preferences and what I should be aware of first.
You wouldn't get in trouble with your IT dept. for installing Ubuntu, would you?

[parker13]

Yeah, I'm considering doing that, but I want to ask other users about preferences and what I should be aware of first.
You wouldn't get in trouble with your IT dept. for installing Ubuntu, would you?

Sure I would - they image Windows XP onto the machines and do clean install if anything goes wrong. The fact that I have Ubuntu dual booting breaks this procedure. Luckily I managed to repartition it without wiping the disk or I would have had to go to IT with my tail between my legs!

[roderikk]

I also installed ubuntu on the place I do my internship. However, and this is just a small thing but it nearly made me trip, it is one of those cheap worklplace pc's with an integrated sis video card. Ubuntu put the driver automatically at vesa which really produced very slow results when either scrolling or dragging/moving windows.
Now if you go into your xorg.conf and change the driver in the devices section from vesa to sis (when you have a sis card of course) you might (at least I did) notice a considerable speed increase in graphics handling, especially when scrolling or moving windows. (make sure the sis drivers are installed though!).

Anyway, other than that I am very pleased with my ubuntu installation there, it works perfectly with printing (besides the bugs in the printing system (no multiple pages per side and stuff)). Good luck with your queste!

[teejay17]

Well the machine I use at work is an IBM/ Lenovo Thinkpad, T60 model. I've done my research and I know this particular model is well suited for Linux in general. Also, I've tried both 6.06 and 6.10 Live CDs, and they both worked great.
The reason I haven't done an install yet is because I'm not sure which version to install: 6.06, 6.10 or even 7.04 that's coming up shortly. Also, say I installed Ubuntu on a partition, and then, later on, wanted to remove it so as to install a newer version (or because I have to exchange my laptop for another model, etc. etc. How does one remove Ubuntu from the hard disk in such a circumstance?

[teejay17]

The reason I haven't done an install yet is because I'm not sure which version to install: 6.06, 6.10 or even 7.04 that's coming up shortly. Also, say I installed Ubuntu on a partition, and then, later on, wanted to remove it so as to install a newer version (or because I have to exchange my laptop for another model, etc. etc. How does one remove Ubuntu from the hard disk in such a circumstance?
On top of that, I'm also interested in knowing which desktop environment is better suited for office use; would it be Gnome or KDE. I know the core of either is pretty much the same, and they have basically all the same software to download, but which environment is better to work in for so many hours per day? Also, which is more efficient?