Hello all,

A friend of mine has turned to me for advice in setting up the technical side of his business. He wants to open a small mortgage business from his home and plans to start operations within a couple months. (As business grows he'll move into an office and expand)

His requirements:
-Half dozen desktop/laptop machines in the office at any one time.
-A server to handle users, storage, mail, etc.
-Wireless network for convenient employee access (his statement).
-Remote access when traveling.
-Security, stability, ease of use, etc.

As with any mortgage company there's going to be paperwork. He wants to be able to receive/scan everything in electronic format for archival.

My first suggestion to him was wait until Vista is released before making any major hardware purchases. I've always been more comfortable with Windows and SBS 2003 is what I run at my job. Also, I'm not exactly sure of the various software he'll be using and it's compatibility in another OS, I'll have to look into that.

Anyway, I'll get to the point. What would your recommendations be as in distro, applications, deployment, hardware, etc. Be general or specific, it doesn't matter, I can always clarify on points later in the thread.

I look forward to hearing from everyone. I appreciate your time.

Steve

Sound like any of the various flavors of Linux will work just fine for everything. You might want to check out the free 100% binary compatible versions of RHEL 4 like CentOS or Scientific Linux, Wireless support is somewhat limited with RHEL 4 and the clones, but this is easily overcome with ndiswrapper.

Linux would work for any server set up he is looking for. And for Electronic document storage have a look at alfresco. http://www.alfresco.com/. It would be right up his street for storing documents in electronic format and, as it is browser based, in theory able to be accessed anywhere.

You can look on Suse or ubuntu or PCLinuxOS who have excellent wireless capabilities.

search on sourceforge.net for Document Management Systems.
owl wins me.

Intranet mail, wiki, forum... you name it, you can get it in linux.

The beauty of linux in hardware is wonderful.
No need of a great hardware.
You can turn an ordinaty C into a powerful intranet server.

Please dont waste tour money hardware and software where you can get them cheap and best with linux.

Second CentOS - stable and well supported

I think that first your friend should decide how exactly he is going to use the computer (apart from the scan part of <Quote>receive/scan everything in electonic form<UnQuote>). As you yourself said, first <Quote>Also, I'm not exactly sure of the various software he'll be using and it's compatibility in another OS, I'll have to look into that.<UnQuote>


I think his vision is a multimedia (as in multiple media) storage and retrival system.

In my view, the application will decide the platform and server and hardware specs. Is your friend going to be scanning large drawings and lauyouts? If so, a simple A4 scanner may not do.

End

I'll add my .02

For scanning use sane-be sure and check the hcl so that you get one that works
For faxing use hylafax-send and rec'v
For remote access use openvpn-runs as a service-very nice and secure
Wireless really doesn't have much to do with the server but be sure and use access points powerful enough to cover his "convenient access"
For mail I prefer using postfix with tequila to set up the mail domain
Get familiar with webmin if not already. It will easily handle samba for share, user adds, passwords etc. and is great for the non admin type who wants ease and convenience. It's accessed via a web browser
Groupware calendaring and document imaging I haven't used but sourceforge and some google searching will turn up several.
As far as proprietary apps try crossover office (commercial). Every proprietary app that I wanted to use worked with it.
Use open office for the office suite.
If you have an app that absolutely has to have windows get the free version of vmware server and use that on your linux box to install windows.

As someone who does what you are proposing for a living I can't imagine why you would want a new business to go to the expense of something like vista. Most if not all of what vista provides that a business will use is available as open source. Additionally buying 3rd party apps to meet the growing needs is not going to be inexpensive as most open source apps are not designed to run on windows.

I personally like sles 10 for the server because many of the setups can be done through it's yast application. I've heard lots of good things about centos as well but I've never used it.

just my .02 worth

To help you further what does he use for loan origination software?
Also does he use that for his contact management system, or does he use something else?

rs

Who's going to setup and run all this stuff? Most clerical kind of workers are pretty familiar with Microsoft Office suite for productivity and collaboration, and there are tons and tons of consultants who could setup such an office with Wintel. Not so many that are familiar with Linux, and especially with fringe applications like document scanning, etc.

If your friend is going to need a consultant to set this stuff up and train the workers how to use it, he's better off finding the right consultant first and having that person tell him what hardware and software to use. The last thing he wants is to have technology getting in the way of his business. You better get it setup right the first time and having all the employees knowing how to use the system, than having things drag on and on and still be trying to get various pieces working weeks after going "live".