I am trying to set up an incoming access number and use it in a pinless scenario. I don't actually have it connected to any phone system per se.

Can you do handwritten notes in the Android app?

Very cool, will have to toy around with this.

@DustinB3403 said in US Finally Gets the Beginning of an Open Source Policy:

That's cool, but what happens when one agency refuses to release, the government sues it's self??

Yes, that happens all of the time. That's the job of the executive branch. You see Obama or the DOJ doing that regularly with government agencies that break the law.

@scottalanmiller Thanks. I got it. I overthink everything. 🙂

Interesting. No one else has done that yet, so that's a big step.

For vector design, I use Inkscape. I've designed some logos for people with it and it works really well. I've only used Scribus a couple of times but it seemed fine when I used it.

@scottalanmiller said in Bulgaria Goes Open Source:

@coliver said in Bulgaria Goes Open Source:

I was reading this the other day. A lot of governments have announced some open source initiatives.

Yes, it is definitely snowballing. Germany forged a path and China and India followed along maybe six months ago which those together gave such a range of different approaches and goals lending a huge air of confidence. Now smaller nations less looking to blaze a new trail and more just looking to take a smart path are testing the waters.

Oh, we're also good at backpedaling: LiMux(*) is an epic disaster for a lot of reasons (remember: I'm a big fan and long time user of Linux, BSD and other *NIX, so this isn't about trolling...)

Edit: Was just scanning over the Wikipedia article, looks like the best project ever. In fact, they're trying to get back to Windows. http://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-deploying-linux-was-a-disaster-going-back-to-windows

@IRJ said in Any decent Open Source Speech to Text Products?:

@aaronstuder said in Any decent Open Source Speech to Text Products?:

@IRJ Ah, I use it personally 🙂

How accurate is it?

We used it when I worked at the local high school. It was 90-99% accurate depending on how well the students could enunciate. Although it still did really well with people who tended to mumble.

Proxim always made high quality, no Internet required mesh gear as well.

@Dashrender said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products: Active Directory & Domain Controller:

@thwr said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products: Active Directory & Domain Controller:

@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products: Active Directory & Domain Controller:

@thwr said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products: Active Directory & Domain Controller:

Samba is quite capable of running AD, but what about management options or multi-site environments?

What is the issue with management (the Windows tools should work with it) and what happens with multi-site?

Sorry, didn't see your question because of the formatting. FTFY.

Like I said, the whole topic is just about discussing valid alternatives for the typical SMB / EDU environment. I was aware that Samba 4 got full DC capabilities, at least when it comes to authentication. I did not know about its GPO support and other things like replication between "DC"s or the possibility to use Microsoft's RSAT tools for management.

@coliver (and you) mentioned one can use RSAT for management. That's good and would mean that the Samba4-team is trying hard to get to a high level of compatibility. How to say... looks like a perfect replacement for a real DC.

Back to your question, multi-site (and/or subdomain) is a quite important feature in case you got a branch office, for example.

I've run many branch offices with no local DC. AD authentication is extremely light traffic wise. installing software via GPO could give you problems, or needing a local server for file access might be needed, but and AD in most branch offices isn't. Unless your branch is like 100+ people.

you can put Linux fileservers in branch offices to handle the load locally.

@coliver said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

@coliver said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

@tonyshowoff said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

@scottalanmiller said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

@thwr said in Alternatives for Microsoft server products:

My major concern about using Microsoft software is not about the quality or the price. It's about managing all the licensing, which really is a PITA and nearly impossible to overcome for just a one or two men show.

I am often amazed to find SMBs unwilling to consider the licensing overhead aspects of software choices. It can represent a massive cost. When people talk about the "hidden" costs of open source, they normally mention things that are equal with closed source, but they universally overlook licensing which is the only unique cost between the two and often one of the largest.

"You git what you pay fer" - Every anti-Open Source salesman. Every once in a while I still hear that from regular IT people who shouldn't be in IT. It used to happen more often, about 15 years ago I used to constantly hear "Linux? You get what you pay for!" and of course quotes from Robert Heinlein novels about neoliberals on the Moon.

I heard this from financial VPs at a company I used to work for. Even when I would give a list of open source products that we used.

that's when you come to NTG and ask us to "sell" any open source product that you need, at 20% above the cost of whatever closed source product you are looking at instead. Problem solved.

Haha, oddly enough I did exactly that. Worked like a charm!

Once "highest price means best deal" happens, all logic is out the window and some weird things happen.