TuxYou may have heard us banging on from time to time, about going Open – kicking the Microsoft habit, and exploring the friendlier (often also safer) world of Linux-based technologies. Well there’s never been a better time to make the shift
But….
“Don’t I need to be a full-on geek to run Linux?”
“My friend’s brother told me that open source is rubbish because it’s all developed by amateurs”
“But how will I be able to read the Microsoft Word documents that all my colleagues are sending to me?”
“I’ve got half my life on a Windows PC! If I install Linux won’t I lose that?”
“What’s so bad about proprietary software anyway? It’s fair enough that software developers want to make money from their work!”
Well…
- No you don’t need to be a geek to run Linux (some of us are perfectly normal – but we appreciate geeks a lot more since discovering the beauty of Linux desktop applications)
- Open Source software developers tend to be a lot more like all of us – people who want to share and build on each other’s ideas. They think that if other people think of improvements or find bugs in their software, they should be able to get into the code and sort it out. That’s why Open Source software gets better so fast.
- Open Office is an office productivity suite, that does pretty much what Microsoft Office does (including reading MS docs and saving in MS doc format). Because the code is open, localised versions have been created in dozens of languages that MS doesn’t think it’s profitable to work in. For millions of Swahili speakers in East Africa, this has finally allowed meaningful access to software that we have been taking for granted for years.
- The way we tend to install Linux on desktop PCs these days, is by partitioning the hard-drive. This is a perfectly painless procedure, which allows you to keep Windows running in tact in one part of the drive and have Linux running in the other. When you switch on your PC, you simply choose which section you want to boot up in.
- And yes.. we also think it’s fair enough for techies to make a living from their work on software development. (That’s what you pay us for when we build dynamic websites for you, and develop brilliant anti-spam tools). But we think it’s less fair to make gezillions of dollars profit out of licenses which you get locked into renewing, for software whose code is locked away from the people who should be able to localise and fix it.
So you see, at GreenNet we’re now so convinced that Linux is worth the effort, that we’d like to invite you to come in and learn how functional, secure and fun working on a Linux desktop is.
Our full day’s Linux training covers:
- Open source software issues, values, philosophy
- Installation: partitioning your hard drive and installing Linux
- Software Management: getting things working your way on Linux
- Resources and Tools: everyday work on the sunny side of your hard disk
And we carry on being on hand after the training to offer support to keep things up and running.
Costs
The full day course costs £250.00 for groups of up to 5 people.
Half-day refresher and advanced trainings can also be arranged on request.
