Please Help: Non profit organisation- Help Setting Up New Software!

[kylew]

Hi all. I run a non profit organisation and have recently came accross some software which would be of great use. The software is GNU Health. Although i believe this is a software predominantly for Linux, it can be set up on a windows os.

 

The problem....after 3 weeks of trying (no exageration) we cant seem to get the software installed on our system as none of us are computer savvy!

 

If someone would be willing to just advise us on the install or even be willing to install for us via team viewer we would be more than grateful. (Im not sure if im allowed to post the link the the software i am referring to here, but if anyone can help i can give you any info you need):)

 

Thanks All

[Synapse]

Hi,

 

I've found the Linux download, can you direct us to the Windows install instructions, and tell is what version of Windows you are using.

[Armageddon]

Hi I found a windows installer for the software I don't wanna risk your machines so I'll sandbox and try it if it'[s ok i'll provide the link.

[kylew]

Hi Synapse thanks for the reply. I am using windows 7 home edition. The only install instructions i have are here : http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GNU_Health/Installation these give very detailed instructions if using linux but not windows. The website of GNU Health is here: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/health/

[kylew]

That would be great! Thankyou Armageddon!

[Armageddon]

Ok what I downloaded was a installer just offering loads of stuff you dont need . I'll look at the links you provided

[kylew]

I think i came across that one myself Armageddon! It seemed to offer me everything from free pc scans to free smiley emoticons- but not a simple straightforward download for the actual gnu health software!

Thanks for your help

[Armageddon]

Okay I had a good look round and found a alternative to GNU Health that will run on Windows am certain there is a way to emulate a tar.gz package in Windows , but the Alternative software may suit your needs so it may be worth a look http://openmrs.org/about/

[kylew]

Hi Armageddon thankyou for the reply and taking the time to help me with this problem. The alternative oftware you mentioned is one which we have looked at but lacks some of the core features we would like. Really GNU Health is the ideal software. You mentioned about the tar.gz i dont really understand this but in simple terms would we be able to use this software on a windows system?

Thanks

[Armageddon]

Had another good look round and I think the only way to run this on a Windows system is to run virtual box to create a virtual drive then run a Linux system on the virtual drive then compile the GNU Health packages , either that or totally install a Linux system and dual boot with Windows.

[Synapse]

It's not worth the hassle.

 

You'll need an expert to get it installed, and then who will maintain it? It is so off mainstream, if it goes wrong or you need to move it to another machine you will be stuck.

 

If all else fails, you could try creating a USB bootable Linux, and run it from there?

[kylew]

Had another good look round and I think the only way to run this on a Windows system is to run virtual box to create a virtual drive then run a Linux system on the virtual drive then compile the GNU Health packages , either that or totally install a Linux system and dual boot with Windows.

 

Thanks for the reply Armageddon. Ok so how easy/hard would it be for a not so savvy computer user to install and set up? Also what (if any) are the downsides of installing virtual box?

Thanks

[kylew]

It's not worth the hassle.

 

You'll need an expert to get it installed, and then who will maintain it? It is so off mainstream, if it goes wrong or you need to move it to another machine you will be stuck.

 

If all else fails, you could try creating a USB bootable Linux, and run it from there?

 

Hi Synapse thanks for the reply, so how would i go about creating a usb bootable linux?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, if I may add a bit here,

Though I don't know much about the virtual box as mentioned, Windows 7 Professional can run a free virtual environment supplied by Microsoft, you just open the thing and install any pre Windows 7 software into it, it is supposed to be able to handle software created for Windows XP, and earlier.

The only downside of that is that you would have to upgrade the Windows 7 home you have to the professional version, however the upgrade is not too expensive.

[Armageddon]

Hello again running Linux on a Virtual box isn't easy and looking at the info you provided and installing the repositories and packages for a Linux newbie isn't easy either , Linux uses Terminal like the Windows Command Line to run and install everything and even for someone who's used Linux for a while like myself it can be daunting , if you decide on this route I will point you in the direction of a suitable Linux Distro with reasonable support, but personally I think you'd be better looking into a suitable Windows alternative.

[kylew]

Hi, if I may add a bit here,

Though I don't know much about the virtual box as mentioned, Windows 7 Professional can run a free virtual environment supplied by Microsoft, you just open the thing and install any pre Windows 7 software into it, it is supposed to be able to handle software created for Windows XP, and earlier.

The only downside of that is that you would have to upgrade the Windows 7 home you have to the professional version, however the upgrade is not too expensive.

 

Hi Plastic nev thanks for replying. I wasnt aware of that and i will have to take a look at upgraing from windows 7 to professional. It certainly gives me another option :)

[kylew]

Hello again running Linux on a Virtual box isn't easy and looking at the info you provided and installing the repositories and packages for a Linux newbie isn't easy either , Linux uses Terminal like the Windows Command Line to run and install everything and even for someone who's used Linux for a while like myself it can be daunting , if you decide on this route I will point you in the direction of a suitable Linux Distro with reasonable support, but personally I think you'd be better looking into a suitable Windows alternative.

 

Hi Armageddon. Installing linux this way i must admit certainly does sound alittle daunting, and im simply not confident enough that even if i did mange to install linux, i would struggle with installing all the gnu health software. Whilst there is other suitable software out there (oscar mcmaster, openemr) these seem tricky to install also. Its alittle disappointing as gnu health seemed to offer all the features and more. Nevermind, back to the drawing board for now! Thanks for the advice! :)

[kylew]

Just reminded of another open source software: http://worldvista.org/ would this one be any easier to install??

Thanks guys