64-bits vs 32-bits

[mkmurray]

I guess I don't see a need to train local people to do things differently. The unwritten rule already is that the first thing to do is to ask somebody locally, preferably the best available local expert.

There may be some parts of the world where it would be a lot easier to find a Windows guru than a Linux expert. Despite the obvious cost benefit, my personal thoughts are that Linux is probably not as widely used in some of the developing parts of the world as one might think. I imagine you still find Microsoft has infilitrated there. I may be wrong, but I think the widespread use of Linux is often slightly overestimated.

However, without any study or hard evidence of some sort, it really would be hard to say whether it is easier to find a local Windows expert or a Linux expert throughout different locations of the world.

[rmrichesjr]

Maybe my sources are biased, but my observation seems to indicate Linux has much greater usage (on a percentage basis) in developing parts of the world than it does in the US. Not that the UK is exactly a "developing" nation, but for one example, I have heard from people in the UK who say a large fraction of households in their neighborhoods use Linux as their primary system at home.

[thedqs]

Maybe my sources are biased, but my observation seems to indicate Linux has much greater usage (on a percentage basis) in developing parts of the world than it does in the US. Not that the UK is exactly a "developing" nation, but for one example, I have heard from people in the UK who say a large fraction of households in their neighborhoods use Linux as their primary system at home.

From my die-hard Linux buddies who promote Linux is the best thing since the wheel, they say about less then 2% of personal computers currently owned by home users has Linux as the primary operating system. This number is just what they have acquired from researching the topic themselves.

[mkmurray]

Not that the UK is exactly a "developing" nation, but for one example, I have heard from people in the UK who say a large fraction of households in their neighborhoods use Linux as their primary system at home.

Yeah, the UK is not a "developing" nation at all. It is technologically advanced and most definitely not a Third World country. Countries like this are in a competely different situation from what I was mentioning. I imagine it would be somewhat trivial to find a local Linux guru in a First World country (and maybe even in a Second World country, but I don't know; it's debatable). I just think that Third World countries may be where the problem lies. I just don't think there would be a large following of Linux users in those areas, despite the perfect fit Linux would be to those areas of the world.

Here's a link to a map showing the break up of First, Second, and Third World countries that I am referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Worl ... _third.gif

[russellhltn]

The unwritten rule already is that the first thing to do is to ask somebody locally, preferably the best available local expert.

The rule is to ask the Stake Clerk or STS. If you go and change operating systems, they'll expect some training on this new system. They may or may not have any experience with Linux.

[russellhltn]

I imagine it would be somewhat trivial to find a local Linux guru in a First World country

If home penetration is only 2%, I'd suggest it's less then trivial to find one. Often on the clerk's list I've seen people thrust into the "computer tech" role who is not a tech by their own admission, but they do know how to change a memory simm and know a few more commands then the rest of the leadership so they get drafted into the role.

Some areas are saturated with technical people - some aren't. It might be easy to find a Linux person in a high-tech area, but much harder to find one where there is little high tech activity and the church is spread out. It might be interesting to compare this forums' membership distribution against church membership distribution and see what areas are underrepresented.

[The_Earl]

The rule is to ask the Stake Clerk or STS. If you go and change operating systems, they'll expect some training on this new system. They may or may not have any experience with Linux.

What functions of the OS do the Clerks and STS's use? Really, I would think that most of the function of the machine comes from the software load. If the software is Java, then it should run with only a few visual changes at most.

The only thing that I would have trouble with is printing. I have been known to cat PostScript files directly to a network device rather than properly set up printing on Linux (Unix) boxes. Newer distro's are much better at this, and it seems to me that HQ tries to keep the hardware pretty standard, and relatively smart.

I use linux every day, and prefer it for a lot of tasks, but if the STS asked me to help him troubleshoot a printing problem, I would give him a blank stare and point him to Google .

[russellhltn]

What functions of the OS do the Clerks and STS's use?

Whatever needs to be done to get the machine operational again after it broke or someone else mucked it up. And yes, some of the problems posted have been printing problem. Particularly slow printing issues.

[thedqs]

And even though you might know never to do "rm -rf /" as root the current setup seems to have everyone log in with root privileges and I fear what a naive clerk might do with all that power.

My favorite quote, "Linux is great, like C is great, useful, powerful and can blow your leg off."

[srweight]

The rule is to ask the Stake Clerk or STS. If you go and change operating systems, they'll expect some training on this new system. They may or may not have any experience with Linux.

I am from an underdeveloped part of the world I guess (North Ogden UT) but I have no interest in Linux. It may become the industry standard and then I will move over but for now I will stay with my windows box.
I have a friend in Texas that lives and breaths OS2 - He really loves it and usings it everyday. I don't see these as reasons to move to OS2. I am sure that there are Mac users that would love to see the whole thing more to that. Those of us that are not greatly trained on computers (I have only been using them since the mid 70s) might find Linux and OS2 or the Mac OS as more than we are interested in learning on top of just tryiing to do a good job as STS.

Now 64 vs 32 is more interesting.