I suggest you use SuSE (from Novell), or Centos ( a flavor of RedHat) if you are a new comer to the Linux environment. The reason for the choice of either OpenSuse or Centos is the support for these product and the relative ease with which you can set them up. Both distributions have nice GUI front ends which makes the Microsoft technicians feel at home.

Install Linux as a powerful and robust server

Usually during the initial installation you get to choose the packages you would like to install, and the roll that you server will fulfill. So for those not familiar with the Linux terminology here are a few things to be aware of.

Desktop environments (the graphical user interface, or GUI)

there are a few to choose from, but either Gnome or KDE will probably be the best choice for a new comer. In fact KDE will remind you somewhat of a Microsoft PC.

Web Server

For a web server you will want to install Apache (or Apache2)

Proxy Server

Linux ships with something call Squid which can turn your computer into a powerful Proxy server. A proxy server allows you to control you employees access to the Internet. For reporting on users Internet usage you need to install SARG, which you might have to down load off the Internet since SuSE at least doesn’t ship with it.

File Server

If you will be using Microsoft workstations then you will need to install Samba. Samba uses the same protocols that Microsoft uses to share folders on the network. Samba can also be configured to make your Linux server act like a Microsoft Domain controller.

Mail server

I suggest you install Postfix as the SMTP part of a mail server and either Qpopper or Dovecot for the POP or IMAP side of the mail server functionality. You need a mail server to be able to handle both sending (SMTP) and receiving requests from the mail clients (IMAP, and or POP). Qpopper can handle POP but not IMAP whereas Dovecot can handle both. Qpopper is a lot easier to setup.

If you are interested in learning how to configure these servers please visit http://www.linuxnet.co.za or keep watching this blog for more info.

Don't dispair at the cost of software - go Linux

Running a small business can be quite a challenge. On one hand you need to be professional – ie Website, e-mail, typed documents etc. On the other hand the last thing you want to do is spend a fortune on computers and software.
If you were to buy a PC for $1000, the software alone (Operating system and Office suite) would set you back at least $350 of your total cost – that is a staggering one third!


But what if you could get away with just buying the hardware? You could cut back on your startup costs dramatically

I suggest you consider Open Source – Linux is very easy to install as a “desktop”PC and comes with loads of different programs that will allow you to run your business efficiently.
The bigger the Company the more you save!

Now you can afford a server!
Again – think Linux. For the cost of the hardware you can set up a Proxy Server, File Server, Web Server, Mail Server and Firewall. Work out how much it would cost you to set up a Microsoft server compared to going the Open Source route.

The down side of using Linux as a server:
The skills needed to setup a Linux server will cost you more that the Microsoft equivalent. But still, in my opinion, you will still come out on top. Having said that the more people who use Linux the more the cost of the skills will come down.

The up side of using Linux as a server:
Apart from the fact that there are no licensing fees to worry about, you will get a stable robust server that will keep on running. And generally speaking you can get away with a slower computer to do the same work. Linux, as an operating system is a lot less resource hungry than its counterparts.

Consider this – the majority of web servers are running Linux. There is a reason for that.

Hung up on Microsoft?

You can setup a server that your users won’t even realize they are using a Linux server, they’ll thing it’s a Microsoft server they are connecting to.

Anyway, that’s my oppion. Having started off as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, and then moved into the Linux arena, I would go with Linux.

Project Management’s first phase – The Concept Phase

Project Management Concept Phase the Project Manager and his team must decide whether the project should be taken on or not. To arrive at this decision depends on a number of important factors:

Factors to consider during the Project Management Concept Phase

Is the project in the best interests of the Company? Is this what the Company does, or will the Company be diversifying too much? What does the Company anticipate the break even point of the project to be? What is the Company prepared to spend on the project? What sort of return on investment does the Company hope to achieve? Are there any cash flow problems that need to be taken into consideration? And so on.

Appoint a Project Management Committee

To answer the above questions a Project Manager needs to have broad idea what the project is all about and how it will fit in with the Company’s Mission and Vision statements. A SWOT analysis of the Company will assist in making a decision as to whether the project should go ahead or not. The Project Manager should document his findings and call a meeting with all stake holders to analyze these preliminary findings to decide if the project will go ahead or not. We don’t just blunder forth with a project before doing at least a preliminary analysis of the Company and the Project it wishes to undertake.

If the decision is to go ahead

If all the stake holders are in agreement that the project should go ahead then a Project Management Committee will need to be identified. A Project Management Committee should be setup to administer the Project. Depending on the scale of the Project, the Project Management Committee should consist of at least some of the stakeholders. The Company’s Senior Management should not shirk their responsibility towards the project.

A meeting should be held with all the members of this Committee to determine how often the committee should meet during the Project “Scope and Design” Phase and what penalties if any should be imposed on members who miss these meetings.

Other important ground rules for the “Scope and Design” Phase should be established at this meeting. The Project Manager should chair the meeting and take the lead in making recommendations as to the communication protocols and documentation to be used during the subsequent phases of the Project. These decisions should then be minuted. The minutes should be distributed to all Project Management Committee members as soon as possible.

Project Management Principles Rather Than Rules

Each of these phases are crucial to the success of a project – but to what extent the Project Manager implements each of these phases depends a lot on the project. A Project manager should keep in mind the principles of the Project Management Methodology rather than the “rules” of the Methodology.

Corporate Governance and Project management
As far as corporate governance goes, a company should outline the principles and guidelines that should be applied to each project undertaken by the companies Project Management Team.
In this way, each project will be handled correctly in accordance with a predefined Project Management Methodology, but at the same time allowing the small projects to be handled speedily without the bureaucracy of the larger projects.

Small Projects and Large Projects – apply Project Management Principles

The larger the project the more controls the Project Manager will need to implement. To what extent these controls are to be implemented should be left up to the discretion of the Project Manager.

For this reason it is important that a Project Manager be guided by principles rather than rules.

To give an example:

A project of rolling out 60 or 70 new computers for the sales staff will probably not require the same amount of testing, change control and bureaucracy as would a project to implement a company wide software roll out of a totally new product developed for the unique needs of the company.

Project management is about choosing your projects carefully, assuming that you don’t have a boss who dictates which projects you will take. The reason is that your failure as a project manager could mean the end of your project management career. Of coarse, employing the correct project management “tools and rules” will mean less chance of failure.

I was involved in a project once that was totally do-able from a project point of view, but the project manager broke just about every rule in the book. Our team (responsible for a small part of the project) would arrive at the weekly meeting armed with our own minute taker. The project manager didn’t see the need to take minutes of the meeting so we ended up taking our own minutes. Needless to say, he is no longer a project manager.

Having said that, sometimes you are given a project that is impossible to complete successfully. It might be a “pick up the pieces” type project, where they have sent the original project manager packing, and now you get the job of miracle man!

Sometimes you need to say NO, for you our sake. When the project has failed it will be your neck on the line, as everyone will have forgotten the fact that you were trying to fix the stuff up.

On the other hand, if you can pull it off, it might look good on your resume – but is the risk worth it?

To fail or to fail!

If you are in the unfortunate position of having a boss who is calling the shots, and he’s given you an impossible project, be very careful about telling him the project will fail. When it does fail, you will get the blame anyway, and on top of it, you will have acquired the reputation as someone who deliberately sabotaged the project to prove a point.

Just do the project – just make sure you do it to the best of your ability. When the reason for failure has been analyzed, at least you won’t be the cause of it.

Project Managers should be able to think for themselves

In my opinion a good project manager needs to be able to think “outside the box”. A Project manager should not be bound by rules and regulations, but rather by the principles of Project Management.

Think Outside the Box

All too often a Project Manager will fail as a leader because he, or she, is bound by the rules and regulations of Project Management. “We must do it this way because this is how we manage a project!” they will say.

But is there not a better way to handle this particular project, and yet still be within the framework of the Project Management Methodology principles? A good Project Manager should be the type of Manager that asks such questions.