Unexpected success story

Michael ODonnell michael.odonnell at comcast.net
Mon Aug 2 09:38:01 EDT 2004


I was in Sarasota FLA last week to meet with the
attorney who's handling my recently deceased father's
estate.  The meeting was winding down and we were
getting chatty and I mentioned in passing that I was
an OS developer, which was met with blank stares from
the three others (the venerable principal attorney,
an attorney-pup and their overworked paralegal who was
the real workhorse) in the room.  I tried to explain
what an OS is but the stares remained blank and time
was getting short so I figured it'd be best to just
change the subject and wrap things up by mentioning
some examples of operating systems: Windows, MacOS
and Linux.

Incredibly, when I mentioned Linux they all three
flashed looks of recognition and the Big Guy said,
"Oh, Linux!  we use that...  er, I think we do,
right?"  and then he glanced at the paralegal for
confirmation.  She said yup, they'd been using it for
(get this!)  eight years and wouldn't even think of
going back to Windows since "it crashed at least
once a day while Linux basically never has a problem".

Now, we on this list know Linux has its share of
warts, but it certainly seems to be the solution
for that particular office.  The Big Guy was
apologetic for not knowing the technical details
until I reminded him that users weren't supposed to
HAVE to know the !@#$!  details and that if Linux
solved their business problems well enough that he
was allowed to remain unconcerned about the details,
they'd apparently chosen well.

I'd have quizzed them about their setup but was
already late for another appointment.  They did say
that they'd had a number of different people in a
support role over the years but they apparently had
a configuration that didn't need much tinkering.
They said the one office holdout was some part-time
accountant who insisted on some Windows accounting
package because it was all she knew and refused to
switch and they held her in enough regard that they
preserved her accounting system over in some corner.
They said they were always appying gentle pressure
for her to switch, though...               ;->
 



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