[CS-FSLUG] Churches Using GNU/Linux

[Don Parris]

I appreciate the responses.  This is actually quite helpful.  I'm in
contact with a fellow in England, who is from the former Yugoslavia,
and is _very_ eager to advocate Linux within his church.  He's
apparently doing some sort of speech & demo.  Anyway, he just sent an
e-mail today asking for examples of other churches deploying Linux. 
So the timeliness is uncanny.  I have been eager to discover other
churches using Linux, and how they use it.

It would be good if we could highlight some of these deployments in a
decent article.  I've got to write another article about migration
strategies for churches (religious groups).  The benefits of knowing
about other churches' deployments should be fairly obvious.
<> Knowing that other churches use Linux in a serious deployment is
helpful for advocacy purposes.

<> Knowing how churches have deployed Linux is helpful for developing
migration strategies.  As we share information, we can help each other
understand what obstacles have to be overcome.  When I announced the
fact that CHADDB is now moving forward in one forum, a guy responded
effectively that our project would not match the quality of their
church management software, even though it's overpriced (presumably
because CHADDB is FOSS).

So the idea that FOSS = poor quality is an issue that needs to be
addressed.  Other issues need to be addressed as well.

Don


On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 10:59:43 -0700, mcumings at cobalt.local.net
<mcumings at cobalt.local.net> wrote:
> Hi Don,
> 
> Name        : Somerset Christian Church
> Size        : @160
> Denomination: None
> Location    : Beverton, Oregon, USA
> How used    : This will take more than one line.  See below! ;)
> 
> Okay, so I'm using my church as a testbed for a fairly complicated
> software deployment.  I am trying to reconcile the primary forces
> driving my architecture:
> 
>         - Cost to install and maintain
>         - Software application availability
>         - Supportability over time
> 
> Out of this I have created the following:
> 
>         - A single server
>         - Multiple thin-client user stations
>           (See www.igel.com for thin client details.  My
>            evaluaton of 9+ vendors showed them to be clear
>            leaders.)
> 
> The server has the following primary functions:
> 
>         - Web server (Apache 2)
>         - Web cache (Squid)
>         - Email (postfix)
>         - DHCP
>         - Thin client environment
> 
> The way I laid things out are as follows.  The server is a fairly
> high power box (AMD64 + 1.5GB RAM, 2x73GB SATA (Linux SW Raid 1)
> running Gentoo Linux.  The trick was in how to provide the Windows
> application support to the user base.  My original intent was to
> swap out M$ products with open source / free equivalents, but there
> are quite a few cases where the users had very specific requirements
> that could not be met.  Because of this I chose to with a mixed
> environment.  One of the server's applications is VMWare which in
> turn runs Windows Server 2003 (Terminal Server).  WS2K3 fills in
> the applicaiton gaps while still allowing for stable runtime,
> internet servicing, and remote management best provided by a *nix
> OS.  With a gigabit network between the server and the thin
> clients I should be able to easily drive the expected number of
> thin client seats (5).
> 
> I have yet to deploy this infrastructure (I'm waiting on some
> security hardware to be fabricated), but based on the performance
> I've seen in my lab (i.e., my home!) it seems to run great!  The
> nice thing about it is that upgrades will be very cheap for
> roughly the next 10-15 years.  Initial deployment was only $300-ish
> USD more expensive than deploying Full PCs + Windows to each
> station and un-beefing the server.
> 
> I feel like I'm breaking new ground here but as Solomon said,
> there's nothing new under the sun! ;)
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 02:47:37AM -0400, Don Parris wrote:
> > Does anyone know of any churches using GNU/Linux in any scenario?  I'm
> > especially interested in desktop use, but any scenario will work.  I'm
> > mainly looking for each church's:
> > <>name
> > <>size
> > <>denomination/structure
> > <>location (city, state, country)
> > <>how used
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Don
> 



-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!