Deploying Linux on the Desktop
Looking at real world requirements and implementations, this book gives Administrators and their Management the tools necessary to implement and understand a Corporate Desktop using Linux.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Deploying Linux on the Desktop
Chapter 11: An Investigative Approach
Overview
It took many years of research to discover all the applications outlined in the previous chapters. Mainly, once deciding what to research, it took time to find all the possible options to solve the problem of how to implement the application in question. It many not sound difficult, but there are currently at least 14,000 possible open-source projects and countless for fee products out there for Linux, while only at most 6,000 packages are shipped with any Linux distribution. In some cases Linux tools grew to overwhelm for-fee products. For example, Red Hat 3.0.3 shipped with a for fee version of X while now Red Hat ships with an open-source version of the software.
With all these open-source projects, there is quite a bit of research to perform for each application, so the big question is where to start. To overcome this hindrance and the numerous packages, a process was devised to organize each possible solution to the integration problem.
11.1 The Process
11.1.1 Gather Requirements
As outlined in Chapter 1, review your requirements for the application in question. If you know which part of the application is unused, is a nice thing to have, a not heavily used portion, and is a must have, then you can adequately create criteria for gathering information about and judging possible solutions.
11.1.2 Start the Search
Starting your search can be a harrowing experience at times, so start the search review of your Linux distribution for packages that may already fit your...
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