Install Linux in an Internet cafe

[dickinsd]

Ok I support an Internet cafe in south wales, the cafe is a complete Windows zone.

I have been trying to gently encourage the owner to install Linux on at least some of the machines.

Any sales lines?

I have argued about licence costs, but as he pointed out, he has already paid for the licences.

His biggest concern is that his users only use MS office, Windows media player and IE, and would not want to learn how to use anything else.

My responce:

firefox is superior to IE anyway
you can install open office
there are music players for linux

He said that he heard that you can't get popup blockers for firefox, and no one likes using open office because of the way it reformats word documents, and they look completely different. no comment about the music.

I told him that firefox has a popup blocker built in, I then grabbed my Ubuntu live CD, booted up and asked him to go to a site with loads of popups - guess what none of them popped up ...

Office - I couldn't argue with - I agree with him on that.

Currently he has XP on all machines (mix of Home & Pro) MS office on maybe 3 or 4) and open office on the rest of them, apparently when things get busy he has to ask people that are on the machines with MS Office on, to move to another machine if they are not using office, because some body has just come in the cafe and is refusing to use open office.

As the machines are in the public domain, he is not willing to have dodgy software installed.

So all I got left is the security, but he thinks that the Windows XP guest account is secure enough, apparently he has never had a problem caused by downloads etc that caused any problems.

I think he has just been lucky.

Am I fighting an uphill battle here - can you suggest some more points I can put to him?

Personnaly I think it is the owner that does not want to learn anything new ...

Dave

[the_profiler]

and get something like this one?

http://openkiosk.sourceforge.net/

[dickinsd]

looks good, currently the setup he chose is very basic and trusting, someone comes in, he sits them at a PC, no login, nothing

Will forward the link to him.

great.

Dave

[cscheng]

Installing Linux is bad idea. If I were the owner of the Internet cafe, I would satisfy the customer needs, instead of my own. Even when that's more expensive, you'll attract more customers on long term base. If you use Linux, you'll scare your customers away.

[kosmosik]

Originally Posted by dickinsd

Ok I support an Internet cafe in south wales, the cafe is a complete Windows zone. I have been trying to gently encourage the owner to install Linux on at least some of the machines. Any sales lines?

It costs nothing (OK maybe some work) to install it on few machines and make them dualboot so the customer could choose which OS he wants to run...

Originally Posted by dickinsd

I have argued about licence costs, but as he pointed out, he has already paid for the licences. His biggest concern is that his users only use MS office, Windows media player and IE, and would not want to learn how to use anything else.

and he is right - these are his customers they pay him to get what they want - if they want MS Office than they should get MS Office - or else they will go to other Internet Cafe...

Originally Posted by dickinsd

firefox is superior to IE anyway
you can install open office

you can install FF and OpenOffice.org on the same Windows machines...
As for FF it is mostly about security - you can point him to CERT documents discouraging use of MSIE.

Originally Posted by dickinsd

He said that he heard that you can't get popup blockers for firefox, and no one likes using open office because of the way it reformats word documents, and they look completely different. no comment about the music.

despite of absurd with popups he is right with OOo - OOo is not fully compatible with MS Office.

well in this case I can't suggest you anything but just adding these apps to consumers choice and let them choose - maybe in next two years something is going to change. but not right now - Cafe as I've said has customers and they dictate on what they wish to use - not you. if you are running a company and you have your staff you can force staff to use what you like them to use, with Cafe you are forced to use what customers want to use - simple like that.

[the_profiler]

obviously, it depends on where you're goin to deploy a Linux cafe.. well.. there are already lotsa Linux communities out there... just like in my university..

well.. yes... maybe it's great to have it in dual boot... nevertheless, beware of those wind0ze viruses on that windoze partition!

having Linux doesn't mean scaring your customers away.. it depends on situations, it's like.. for instance, you have 3/13 running Linux.. the thing here is the amount of time that you can devote to teach a layman to use Linux.. besides.. the famous grandmothertest who doesn't know any OS.. introduce her to Linux first will make her to just use Wind0ze with ease in case she already knows how to use Linux and is new to Wind0ze..

in cases when a customer is rushing.. obviously you would point one to the wind0ze.. but not if one only wants the basic usage such as internet browsing, office applications, chat.. i'd rather expose them to Linux.. it all depends on one's confidence, bravery and patience to handle these kinds of situations... if not.. then it seems that the qoute "only intellectuals use *nix machines"" is definitely true...

I use one.

[AJB2K3]

Look at it this way
XP licences costs = newone for all software?
Linux - non found yet.
Stability - XP (puh thats a joke)
linux well i wish i knew how to set it up.
internet Fire fox is the best on lin or win,
Well i pick MS office but ive got 2 coms with it so im not gunna attemp to run it
Cut to the chase unfortunatly Cafe will have to use it cus i dowt there member will be botherd to look for something linux put in a different menu.

[jimispier]

Anyone thought of Codeweavers Crossover for the MS office delima? Then all that you would have to deal with is the cost of the office software and not the OS..

Just a thought..

[cool_cave]

what about web pages that need ActiveX, many Yahoo Games refuse to work in a correct way on a linux machine, the same goes for some Java chat rooms, the same goes for some web forums that use invision Power board "formatting and tags do not work in a correct way",
and the list goes on.
so, for an Internet cafe .. Linux is a bad thing to have IMHO

[Shadow Skill]

I have to agree with Cool here, despite the reduced costs the potential problems could cost the guy a few customers. I wouldn't put Linux on the machines the customers would be using, what I would do is use Linux to build a firewall or a router for him. At this point it would probably be best to just use Linux as a network master machine for the cafe.

Off topic when the hell is OO 2.0 coming out? I kind of need an office suite thanks to school and the fact that I may need to open Excel documents for my dad if he has a problem, but this whole not opening password protected word documents just kills me. Anyone else here notice that OO can't open abiword documents, surprisingly enough Abiword won't open swx files [at least ones with passwords.] regardless of whether I am using the Linux client or the windows client. It's a bit depressing to have these interoperability problems with these programs when you are working in a multi OS environment.

What about a dual-boot setup on one or two machines? It seems that would be useful to both Linux and Windows users.

This way, he won't lose Windows customers and maybe gain a few Linux customers.
It seems to me that this would be a killer selling point.

The idea of expanding at little or no cost for the possible gain in customer base would encourage me to dual boot at least half of my machines.

Just a thought.

[the_profiler]

Originally Posted by cool_cave

what about web pages that need ActiveX, many Yahoo Games refuse to work in a correct way on a linux machine, the same goes for some Java chat rooms, the same goes for some web forums that use invision Power board "formatting and tags do not work in a correct way",
and the list goes on.
so, for an Internet cafe .. Linux is a bad thing to have IMHO

bad thing? maybe not.. but because of bad programmers not writing standard compliant codes/tags.. just like at webpages, styles, etc.

[shinacalypse]

Hi!
I saw this thread on internet cafe on Linux and i've been having issues trying to install the openkoisk client
on FC4. I keep getting "applet cant be loaded" errors when after installing and configuring it on the client machines. So it doesnt start and the nodeview (server) cant communicate with the clients. Nodeview runs on an FC4 machine as well, that runs fine.The login screen came up only once, and after that, I never saw it again. Kicker then starts to hang up.
I wonder if anyone has any experience or best practice tips on using OpenKiosk.
I really want to be able to launch a cyber cafe with a total linux setup. lots of cybercafe guys in Nigeria want the alternative as Windoze is giving them issue, its getting harder to use pirated software which has been the norm previously.

Or is there any Linux based cybercafe admin software out there that works, and works with FC4, especially?
I'd love to hear it.

[Omega Blue]

Originally Posted by cool_cave

what about web pages that need ActiveX, many Yahoo Games refuse to work in a correct way on a linux machine, the same goes for some Java chat rooms, the same goes for some web forums that use invision Power board "formatting and tags do not work in a correct way",
and the list goes on.

None of these work on a properly hardened Windows machine anyway.

Who says the browser on them has to be MSIE?

[ezzetabi]

You can also use Office in Linux via Wine.