Cooker,
I've been reading what everyone's have been writing
about how to make Mandrake better. Ie. fonts, icons,
how to place graphics and general logical flow of the
whole distribution. I thought is would also be nice to
provide Usability Suggestions from a business point of
view. As well as provide ways to make Mandrake more
accepted in business.
Here goes...
Mandrake should consider breaking up the main
distribution into 4 business directed "Mini"
distributions. The first "Mini" would be a dedicated
email server. If you've ever been in an NT shop or
used Microsoft software you'll notice that Exchange
Server is different than 2000 server or even NT
server. Exchange Server is just software that could be
loaded on any of their platforms. But, I'm willing to
bet through usability studies Microsoft as realized
users feel more comfortable purchasing a CD that is
dedicated to only running an email server. Non Linux
people do not understand that once you've purchased a
quality disrto that's all you need. Instead if
fighting this mentality work with it. Offer a version
of Mandrake that works as a direct drop in for
exchange server and that is all it does. I thing I'm
like most users and would prefer a X user interface. I
suggest Xfce because it's surprisingly stable as well
as fast. Create a GUI interface similar to Mandrake
control center that only deals with the day to day
email tasks an admin encounters. Like adding/removing
users, creating email lists, etc. Because you are not
dealing with the end user not providing the source on
your website is ok. In fact most users wound not even
want the "Mini" distro because it would not have games
or other fun stuff. Just include the source in the
box.
The second "Mini" disrto would be a Samba file server
with raid capabilities. This is an area I really
believe Mandrake can provide a better product than
what is currently out there. I think the name is
fairly explanatory but here is a description anyway.
The Samba File and Print Server would be a platform
users could save files to as well as take files from.
It would be the way to allow all computers on a
network to "talk" to each other. Raid capabilities
would have to be an option since this is where most of
the cooperate information would be held. The added
benefit of creating a "Mini" File Server would be that
Mandrake would have a platform that is standardized
and ready to accept Oracle, SAP, open, database types.
Third would be a Print server. Having a stand alone
print server might sound like overkill but I have been
in environments that are tree killing factories 5000+
printings is not uncommon. Plus at my current work it
always seams like the print servers mess up the most.
Fourth, Backup server. I couldn't decide if this
should be it's own server or part of the File server.
I guess it could be either. Unfortunately I'm not very
familiar with Linux backup schemes so I can't really
speak about the capibilities of applications currently
available. Currently we use Veritas and I hate it.
Fifth, Business user and Admin "Mini". I could be
wrong here but I feel for the general business user
Mandrake is too much. What would be better would be a
business directed desktop that Has one of the best of
everything. (Ie. One cd burner, one editor, one
spreadsheet application) The reason for this and I
know from experience general users do not like change.
If they become accustomed to one way of performing a
process and change will cause them to piss and moan. I
remember one person in particular that argued with me
for 15 minutes that his outdated version of EZ CD
Creator (One of the best windows applications) was
better than the newer more updated version I was
providing him with. Also, Care should be taken to
provide a BUSINESS oriented desktop. I know Mandrake
is trying to retain it's own identity but I can
already hear my CEO complaining that his computer is
to childish and because of that he wants windows back.
Please could more people add in here as to what
applications business would require. I'm thinking what
ever programs work with MS Office extensions .doc most
importantly. A PDF viewer and if it's available
creator. Remember this would be for a business
enviornment. You cannot simply tell a user that .doc
or .pdf files are bad (which they are) you need to
find a way to work with what are considered industry
standard. finally, An admin account that has full
access to all servers from a single computer. Is VNC a
viable solution? The Administrator account would have
the ability to change all aspects of any server. I'm
not sure if this should just be root on all boxes on
the network and just have a password for logging on to
the servers or have a dedicated account that is the
only one that can change server aspects. Again this is
something I'll need more feedback on so let me know or
preferably just post to cooker directly
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I know this is a huge list of demands. Hopefully they
won't get rejected because I am truly trying to give
Mandrake feedback from a business perspective.
Shad
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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