Hello everyone,
I'd like to share a 'Success with Linux' story happening to my friends (and
me, of course) for some years now. Why sharing now, not earlier? Because we
put in the last puzzle piece this week, we got rid of the last MS-Windows
based computer.
The Story:
==========
My friends run a small hotel business (50 beds) in the Harz mountains,
Germany. Before I came into play (around 2001) they had little knowledge of
computers and their computer installations were a funny -- no, a crude --
pile of hardware and software left over by different "solution" providers.
Original Setup:
---------------
* A 500MHz dual processor machine with MS Windows NT, not used for anything
but providing access to their internal telephone system. RS232/Ethernet
converter. This was a leftover from "Deutsche Telekom" (mind those guys!),
from which the telephone system and this machine were leased.
* A 350MHz machine with MS-Windows 98 with a hotel room accommodation
software running in the DOS shell. This software came with the telephone
system, too, but was for some reason unable to run with MS-Windows NT. The
machine was bought from a local computer store which faded away some time
later.
The installation was far from running smooth and fine, but somehow they
manage to be productive with it. So why change? Like it usually is with
that kind of unexperienced users: They got more and more problems with
their computer hardware and software crumbling under their hands.
Cleaning up the mess:
---------------------
That was when I came into play. They asked me why they experience so much
problems. "You aren't computer experts, but you run a conglomerate which
needs experts to run. Clean up your computer system." was my answer. They
agreed and we made a list of tasks they want to do with their computers:
* managing their hotel's accommodations
* writing letters
* receiving and sending emails
* designing menu cards and flyers
Further, we found out a file server would be nice as they were planning to
add a computer in the office rooms. To save money, I proposed to use the
350MHz machine as the file server and to save nerves, I decided to put
Linux on it (changing the dual processor machine was a "taboo").
This server was running SuSE6.4/Samba for some years, got upgraded two times
and is now a Athlon1800 with 1GB RAM, running SuSE10.2, Samba and LTSP (see
below).
We bought a new computer for the reception desk and installed MS-Windows 98.
At this time I didn't manage to replace MS-Windows with Linux on the client
computers because of Micrografx Designer, which they used to design their
menus and which couldn't run on MS-Windows NT either, and the hotel
accomodation software, which couldn't run in Linux' dosemu.
Adding Value: Internet router
-------------
As my friends lived in an apartment of their hotel at that time, they asked
me how to get a stable internet access from their home. They had a home PC
(with MS-Windows 98) and bought an ISDN card, but they often got problems
connecting. I found out they only had 2 ISDN phone lines (4 data channels)
for the whole hotel. While adequate for the original setup (1 outgoing call
and 1 incoming call for the reception, 2 guest calls, internet used only
for downloading email), for longer internet connections this was a
bottleneck.
As it was impossible to get DSL at this offsite location in 2002, I
suggested to share one ISDN channel for both places where internet access
was needed -- reception and apartment. So we put up a router from an old
486DX computer w/o hard disk using the fli4l Linux distribution. It
worked -- made connection problems more unlikely -- but more important to
me: The fli4l router protected the network from a lot of misconfigurations
possible with MS-Windows 98, like opening shares to everyone even to the
internet.
Adding Value: Cash register
-------------
Another value was added when we installed a new cash register system for the
hotel restaurant. My friend asked me a while before 2001 about such a
software because of the DM->Euro money conversion. After investigating a
while, I found out that all PC cash registers in the market were expensive
and didn't fit all our needs. So I decided to make my own.
<shameless advertising>
This Linux based cash register is now available as a commercial product
(with hardware) and (lacking hardware and some features) GPL'ed software.
Ask me if you are interested in selling or using it.
</shameless advertising>
Unfortunately I haven't had it ready by 2001, but fortunately money
conversion wasn't so much trouble in Germany -- so they could use their old
cash register for a while. We finally installed the first version in 2004,
when there old cash register was broken by some drinks occasionally put
into. The software was updated from time to time and is running smooth for
~30 month now.
To limit price, noise and heat, we have used an old fanless(!) Pentium-166
desktop computer from an ebay auction (5€+shipping, (new) keyboard and
(new) mouse included). This computer *could* run the cash register
software, but I favoured another approach:
Adding Value: Terminal server
-------------
Instead of running the cash register directly on the old Pentium-166
computer, I made this computer boot from network (through a rom-o-matic
boot floppy) and installed LTSP on our Linux server. This was upgraded to a
Athlon-1200, 512MB a while ago, so it could act as a terminal server
easily.
The cash desk was working fine as expected in that terminal server setup,
much faster than it had on the P166 itself.
And adding another value: We won't need another UPS for the cash desk, as
all the data is calculated and stored on the terminal server only. The cash
desk may black out (which happens often because of the frequent
thunderstorms in the Harz mountains) but nothing bad happens...
Getting rid of weird old software:
----------------------------------
In 2005, the reception computer was replaced by a new one with MS-Windows
XP. They bought it without asking me first, wondering why their loved
Micrografx Designer won't run on it. I explained, and they said the program
was nice, but not essential.
Whoa. That was painless! Now what about the hotel accomodation program (a
DOS application, remember)? Again after some years, dosemu-1.4 can run it!
So last week I decided to get rid of the last piece of weird old software:
MS-Windows XP. I got another "terminal" from ebay (nearly the same price),
hooked it up, configured the terminal server (Now running SuSE10.2),
stopped Samba and enabled some more logins.
Got any Problems?
-----------------
I was a little nervous how the receptionists (the landlady and a clerk)
would react to the KDE3.5 desktop of SuSE10.2, but it was all positive. I
phoned in the next day just to check if they got any problems with the new
computer. The clerk (which had no Linux knowledge and wasn't present at the
training session) was at the phone:
Clerk: "Well, no. Wait, yes! I can't find a certain office document file..."
Me: "Oh! Click on the house symbol, then 'Extras', then 'Find files', put an
asterisk behind the first few letters of the filename. If you have
problems, I can check through the internet..."
Clerk: "No, it had found it."
Me: "Something else?"
Clerk: "No, no problems."
BTW: They didn't call me since today because of computer problems, which
they had done before about two times a month.
Ahhhh, sweet taste of success...
Hope the story wasn't too long or boring. If you found any spelling or
grammar mistakes, you are allowed to correct or distribute them. ^^;
Kind regards
Jan
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