OS Licensing

[Makaze]

OK, I'll make it short....a friend is starting an internet cafe' business and doesn't know where to start or look or get OS licensing....help?

[soulja]

what type of cafe is it, like distributing OS's or software?.. if so then yes, he will need a license, from each maker of the software

[ctaylor]

Be careful of purchasing licenses online. You may get valid Microsoft software licenses. You may get them at a legitimate price. You may also purchase those licenses from a legitmate and credentialled Microsoft reseller.

BUT, if the person or organization you are purchasing the licenses from is not authorized to sell those licenses to your part of the country the Microsoft lawyers can still come after you and determine that you are using the software without valid licenses and put your friend into the "software piracy" category. One business in a city I used to work in was paid a visit like this by the Microsoft lawyers about 2 years ago and had some legal bills to pay for this kind of violation.

Always ask if the reseller is licensed to sell Microsoft licenses to your part of the country - and get this asurance in writing before completing any order, so your friend can limit his/her liability in the event that something bad happens.

Hope this helps.

[Makaze]

the business is just an internet cafe' to offer those people w/o a computer or internet capability (or just want somewhere quiet to study... this is a University town) to have access to the internet and word processing programs. I just know that she hasn't actually bought the OS's for her PC's yet and didn't know where to point her to do that

[samwichse]

I don't know if this is even on the radar, but this sounds like a job for Linux.

No really, if she wants per-seat support, you can get a contract with someone like RedHat, and if she wants to go cheap and can figure things out, then you could just burn a disk or two and install away, and when the BSA comes knocking, you can tell them to get bent.

There are also some excellent thin-client servers for Linux if she's looking to not outlay for new tech at every terminal. Check those out here:
http://k12ltsp.org/contents.html

Anyhow, with Mozilla/OpenOffice 1.1, you get all the web browsing and paper-writing you could like, without having to hassle with that licensing crap.

Sam

[soulja]

to run a business ya u need a license but watch what u do there, and start selling something illegal besides studys,

[dunbar]

Internet cafe? Linux has a distribution or two oriented for that situation, and is minimal cost, minimal licenses.....

[crouse]

http://zeiberbude.sourceforge.net/

http://cappuccino.tuxfamily.org/

[dunbar]

Whoops - not so much a single distro but more like many packages.

LTSP comes into play, right crouse?

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/forum/ has a thread running which asks about cafe stuff....

[crouse]

K12LTSP is pretty cool too....... not sure if you could attache the caffe stuff on as an addon, or what. I haven't played with that. The K12LTSP is for schools, but it works great in the house too. I have since formatted over and reinstalled something else on that drive, but it did work well.

Having all the same hardware would be a big plus if running a LTSP ......... also, if you want to experiment with LTSP, Knoppix has one on their distro that works. You can have ALOT of computers running from one computer with no hard drive...... kinda freaky....