> Of course, getting companies to send their employees to software > training classes can be like pulling teeth, especially in the current > market -- why is it always the training budget that is first to be cut > when money is tight? because too many companies (sometimes justifiably so) have the impression that 'training' is sort of a paid vacation. of course, I've met people at training classes, that justify this belief. :) especially when you get to the bottom-end users (secretaries and the like); the user desire to actually *learn* anything is very low. at my last job, I had users who outright told me that they didn't want to learn how to use their computer better. at my current job, I've seen cases where users outright refused to help the sysadmin troubleshoot a problem, when he asked them to try things a different way for a few days. I think Linux can benefit these users quite a bit as well... you give them a simple desktop (a 'kindergarten interface' as someone called it), with a few fat icons for the tools they need to do their job, and a taskbar. that's it. no customizing tools, no tools they don't need, not even a local HDD for them to screw up. (NFS-mount stuff, or do remote X displays). Linux offers much more customizability for things like that, than Windows does (at least it's easier to do so, and much cheaper). this goes along with what someone was saying about the future of computing trending towards appliances... this makes your terminal/workstation into an appliance. if a user needs more flexibility; then we give them a more functional desktop environment. Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700