First week without Windows

It has now been just over a week since I set up my Windowless system.
What are the issues? Well none really.
I have copied over all my data from my old system. A mixture of putting the old Hard Disks (one for Win XP and one for my old Ubuntu setup) and copying the data across. No problem. Other than that I brought across other data on a USB memory stick. Again no problem.
Ok I still have to import my old emails from Outlook. Just a 3.5 GB file to port across first. Evolution seems to do the job OK. I have imported calendar entries that have been sent to me. email set up was easy.
I have used Banshee to import some music. I am not mad with this, I still prefer to play from CD on my separates system but I have brought some files across. Can I sync with my Creative Xen, Well no. It doesn't like ogg files and I haven't found a way of converting them to mp3 to port across. Is it a big issue? Not really for me.
I have tried to connect my Blackberry. At the moment it is not having it. Is that a real problem for me? Well it should be but I have been very lazy about syncing my Windows and my Blackberry so why should it now be a problem. On the other hand maybe I shall see if I can swap the blackberry for an Android phone.
I have put my personal Accountz program on. Only problem were of my own making in making a mess of copying the old data from backup.
What is really good?
I have set up a number of users on this machine. It is nice to be able to log on to one account whilst remaining logged to the first account. For example, I was logged on to my personal account and playing some music through Banshee. I logged on to my work account without logging off the personal account and the music kept on playing. When I logged off the business account I simply logged back on to my personal account and carried on working from where I have left off.
After one week my impression? Great. Should have done it sooner.

Our organisation gains Ubuntu recognition

One part of our organisation has now received notice from Ubuntu that we are listed on their marketplace pages.
Please visit the Ubuntu site (http://webapps.ubuntu.com/marketplace/) to see our listing under Linux Computing UK.
At the time of posting the marketplace page has not been updated but come back later to find us.

Accounts systems

Are you an accounts user? Are you locked into Sage? Are you paying high levels of support? Are you looking for accounts packages on non-windows platforms?
We have recently been investigating alternatives to the Sage Accounts programs. Not the we have anything against Sage as such. As a business system it does the business. The support desk in UK based and they have a lot going for them.
But what alternatives are there? Well, there is TAS books but that is now part of the Sage empire and we suspect product convergence over time. There is quick books but we know of no business using that system.
We have however recently investigated two particular alternatives.
The first, Accountz, is based on an installed program which runs on Windows, Linux and Mac systems. We have tested this out in the single user version. We tried to test to destruction. We created the data on an Ubuntu Linux system. We then copied the files across the network onto a Windows 2003 server mapped drive. We then installed to product onto a Vista computer and were able to access the data on either the Vista or Ubuntu system. It worked! This makes it very interesting from a Linux point of view - a topic we will return to in another blog.
The second, Kashflow, is a web based accounts system. There are no programs to use, simply use your favourite web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera) and you are away. The data is stored on the companies London based web server and mirrored to a backup server. Because of this the program is available on both Windows and Linux platforms, which makes it equally interesting to us as Linux users.
Both systems have a respectable UK installed user base.
For further details of this visit our website www.hillierconsultants.com or phone (UK only) 01268 548636 or email sales at our office.