Would Puppy be a good choice for a public library?

[GreyShadow]

Userful is spendy..around 1500 for the 1st year for 5 computers and around 500-800 per year there after(as i remember 3 years ago). But everything from software updates to fixing problems are all done for you remotely.

As I said before library staff is not going to fart around booting and rebooting the public computers and/or instructing the general public how to print etc. from that weird "Puppy thing" on the computer.

Also it is easy to say that the library could and or should do this or that in terms of public computing, but the reality is people dont't give a rats @ss what the OS is. They just want to email, go to MySpace, and print out their resumes.

Unless you go and offer some real solutions to your local library ie. give some of your time to helping the computing public, I think you are just flapping your gums

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the info. $1500 for 5 computers (I assume we're talking US dollars here) is quite a lot IMO. I don't expect Windows is a lot more.

Even assuming it's an impeccable product, I'm sure a cheaper and fully satisfactory Linux solution could be found somewhere else. Maybe even one involving Puppy.

Having said that,, I must admit that if the choice was between Userful and Windows, I'd probably choose Userful (no, make that "almost certainly" choose it).

[GreyShadow]

It would be great if someone would like to come to our public library and set up some Linux-Puppy computers.
Any volunteers?

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for your reply. I'd love the opportunity, but a / money would be an issue where travel and accommodation costs were concerned (I'm in the UK), and b / on a personal note, I have an anxiety problem in large cities, particularly ones with skyscrapers. London's very difficult for me for the same reason, one reason (apart from the cost of living, practically nonexistent affordable accommodation etc.) why I don't live there..

I'm intrigued by the fact that volunteers are apparently allowed that level of input (taking care of info management systems) into New York public libraries though. They aren't over here - too many paid jobs at stake, with professionals jealously if understandably guarding their status.

[sunburnt]

Maybe they`re paid well in the UK, I`m guessing the pay here is little to nothing ( public service ).

[GreyShadow]

If I was rich I would give jobs to smart ,nix geeks!

Also just because I live in New York does not mean there are tall buildings around us. Where we live we have many cows, it is sort of a light industrial but mostly milk and hay area. I'm from the Portland Oregon area and it is a lot more built up there than in Upstate New York. It is cheap to live here compared to the west coast except for the taxes, the tax rate seems as high as Scandinavia but with less to show for it!

As a reply to the above...volunteers would be allowed input is it were towards a common goal (public service) and assuming a certain level of skill, it all depends on your relationships: some libraries are open to new ideas. Yes it is too true many "professionals" don't like to challenged by new ideas. There are small town libraries in our area that do not require a library oriented degree and in the grade schools require even less experience, but at least they have quit calling them libraries and now call them 'media centres" what ever the hell that is!

Good luk!

[Colonel Panic]

@Greyshadow; sounds cool. I had a schoolfriend who emigrated to the US and settled in Buffalo, NY State; he works in corporate IT I believe.

And of course Woodstock is there too (man). Aren't the Berkshires (Arlo Guthrie country) in New York State also?

Libraries are hard to get into in the UK without a professional qualification, at least the jobs higher than basic "counter service" jobs. It annoys me somewhat because I've been told I've got an unusual ability for cataloguing (assigning Dewey numbers to books) but I can't work in that field in the UK without a librarian qualification, which I'm unlikely to get.

@sunburnt; in the UK what happened is that the top public service jobs (management, technical professional etc.) tend to be well paid to enable public sector employers to compete with the private sector for good staff, though probably not as well paid as the best private sector jobs.

The bottom end of the public sector has been hived off to private contractors and is much worse; little or no job security, minimum wage etc. The middle band does reasonably well except that "front line" workloads are frequently very heavy; it's not unusual to have community psychiatric nurses with caseloads of 80 or 90 people, for example, instead of the recommended 30.

[sunburnt]

Here in the US the corporate CEOs and industrialists are getting rid of all the jobs that pay more than $20 an hour.
White color jobs are being eliminated, shoving the remaining jobs down into lower paying wage brackets.
Anything that even comes close to a high paying job is given to immigrants who will gladly work for far less.
So more people turn to self employment to survive, but as the real jobs dry up the money for them does too.

Governments are supposed to protect the people from this sort of subversion, but instead the gov. assists it.
A congress women said recently, it`s our duty as law makers to protect our country from enemies foreign and domestic!

[Colonel Panic]

Yep, it's a sad and familiar story. When there's a squeeze, the people at the top (the CEOs etc.) cover their a**es and make everyone below them take the pain. It's why unions were invented - but unions are weaker than they used to be.

BTW, the Berkshires are in Connecticut and Massachusetts,, not New York State. My bad.