[Linux4christians] Welcome

[Michael Hart]

On 11/6/2011 7:22 AM, Lincoln Fessenden wrote:
> I see there have been a barrage of new users signing on to the l4c list as of late and I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome you all and invite you to tell us all a little about yourself and how you use Linux.
>
I'm Mike Hart, I'm currently unemployed, But I hope to be working soon 
as a typographer in a Christian nonprofit. I signed up for the L4C 
because of a search hit on the terms "Church Distro Backend" pointed me 
to a 2005 L4C thread.  In addition to signing up, I've hit the webserver 
several times in an attempt to search for history on discussions about 
Churches using linux for all their  needs.  The list archive doesn't 
seem to have a very good way to search itself. That's not a complaint: 
more of an explanation for the increased activity.

My background with Linux: I switched over to Linux completely between 
about 1999-2006.  I used SUSE versions 6-8 (professional, I needed 
Citrix for work and the SuSE Pro version provided a cheaper way to get a 
license to Citrix.) Mandrake 6.0 up to 10.2 (9.0 was so great, 10.0 was 
a disapointment, and 10.1 a shambles.)    I then used MEPIS from about 
v2003-10-xx to v6, Then PCLinuxOS 0.92 to PCLinux2011.  I've tried an 
uncountable number of distros but tend to prefer KDE centric distros 
that have a unified control panel in them.  I've never fallen in love 
with any red hat or derivative.

However, when my keystone application (BibleTime) moved from linux to 
windows, so did I.  It was also a combination of other things, like 
school, new jobs, etc. which required immediate knowledge of newer 
versions of MS office than I'd had access to at work.  Add to that the 
non-profit mentioned before works in adobe Indesign and Paratext 
(niether have a linux version.)

{Eglesia, Eklezia, Ecclesia} I envision a turnkey  solution that 
installs a server and/or clients that function out of the box in church 
offices... accounting, ministry, and worship all presetup.  Drupal seems 
to be limited to a web kiosk. 'Church' and 'christian' distro's I've 
tested seem geared for a 'Christian home' environment.   I'm talking 
about something like Mythbuntu for Church..  Press one to get a server 
box (email, accounting, etc.), press 2 to get a staff computer, press 3 
to get a worship team computer, 4 for ministry computer, etc.   The 
primary customer is the  mission field, but handing these out in 
seminaries might be a primary also.

If someone knows of something like what I'm looking for, I'd be glad for 
a pointer.

Thanks
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Helpful link for linux:
http://www.distrowatch.org

Helpful link for Christian Books:
http://www.lookhigher.net
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