Yes, there is a project devoted to these ends, but at the moment the name escapes me. If it's not posted before I rememeber, I'll post it. Personally, I've setup Linux servers for a few small businesses but, I will admit, they can do only limited maintenance. They depend on me for the rest. My previous employer used a product from "Apex" called "Team Internet" which was a prepackaged Linux server with a Web front end for setup and maintenance. At the time they bought it, about 2 years ago, it sold for $2,200, a far cry from the $80 I charged one of my last small businesses for the i486 Linux server I sold them. Seth "Fred H. Olson" wrote: > > On one of the mailing lists that I manage which has lots of > non techy subscribers there is currently a discussion of ways to get > more universal use of email by group members. (Many of the subscribers > are members of various local groups of people that work closely together.) > There has been discussion of Webtv (an endorsement from a user), > talk of "email appliances" (various dedicated devices for email only), > encouraging people to use the same software even the same hardware, > forming tech support subgtoups etc etc. (There has been aversion to > Microsoft expressed.) > > I got to thinking that a Linux based turnkey email system that would run > on most any hardware (486's or better?) would be an ideal thing to > suggest. Has anyone ever set up such a thing? To be worth doing it would > have to be fairly polished, otherwise various gotcha's, awkward aspects > etc would defeat the intent to be a turnkey systems for novices. Of course > there are likely to be some ISP dependent parts but maybe they could be > minimized. > > To elaborate a bit more on my idea... There are "restricted" shells; I > guess what I have in mind would limit options severely to reduce problems > but I'd be inclined to have ways that people who knew / learned enough > could remove the restrictions incrementally if they were so inclined but > done in such a way that they would be very unlikely to do so > unintentionally. > > Has a project to develop something like the in the Open Source movement > been attempted? If not, any thoughts on what software would be suitable? > Thoughts on tradeoffs of doing something with Netscape versus a non > Xwindows mailer only (or with Lynx) etc etc? > > Fred who is still a Linux novice but learning some and is discussing > with a fellow novice collaborating with a small group of other novices by > email to support each other in the learning process. Inquiries welcome. -- Seth Bernsen Software Engineer United Defense Phone: 612-572-4993 Fax: 612-572-4858 http://www.udlp.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org