On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 Abhishek Daga wrote :

At the risk of stating the obvious, I'd like to add my 2 dinars. A major roadblock to adoption of linux in small offices is that accounting applications currently dependent on DOS (yes still people use them, and they work great) and Win platforms need to be run. No way those people are going to adopt to any experimental software.

So, the mission began. Taking 1 office at a time: (In my verbose narration I will mark the "points to ponder" within %% and %%)

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I tried doing the same. Foxpro based apps on Linux using Freedos. All worked fine in the experimental phase. But the moment we went to real usage (Full data entry and report generation), we hit a major road block. We found that there was no way to control the memory allotted to the DOS / Foxpro application. There were forms with more than 6-7 screens and towards the 5, 6 screen the foxpro would collapse, due to lack of memory (buffers or whatever). Tried a couple of tweaks, did not work out.

I sure agree with you, to take Linux on desktops of every SME, we need to resolve just 4 major issues. (1) Foxpro Apps working (I know some major Pharma cos using Foxpro, Clipper apps. The world's best hotel s/w costing above a crore is on Foxpro-Dos. Thats the ground reality). (2) Get Tally on Linux. (3) Get printers to work. (4) Get linux to work on P-II, Celeron 333 with 64 MB RAM with X.

I believe if these 4 issues are addressed, it will be must easier to get Linux in a large number of Small offices. And trust me we are talking of very large numbers. Figures could actually scare M$.

regards, Vai