[K12OSN] Help Desk

[Wesley J Breytenbach]

Good Day to everyone on the K12OS Mailing List!

My name is Wesley Breytenbach, I'm from Cape Town South Africa and I
work for The Shuttleworth Foundation. I have been left in charge of
setting up a Help Desk to answer questions on Linux, Distros,
Installations, Technical Support, Networking and so on and so on (and
not forgetting SLUG {Schools Linux Users Group} of which I'm a Founder
and Committee Member}).

Staying with the spirit of Open Source and Linux {and all things good} I
would like to ask if you could suggest some Linux programs for a Help
Desk. Something that can be customized (for ALL the various needs, as
mentioned above, and more) and freely distributed.

These two requirements are crucial because of SLUG. Schools Linux User
Group has been established for just over a year now. We all ready have
people in many various countries wanting to adopt the concept of SLUG in
which volunteers go to disadvantage schools and install a thin client
network of 20 computers and 1 Super Server. We are currently running
Fedora K12 in 32 schools and plan on doing 80 schools by the end of Feb
2005 (no small task).

So as you can see we will be receiving a large number a phone calls from
schools for telephonic support, especial seen that more than 90% of the
pupils and teachers have neva had ANY computer exposer (yep not evn
M$...Thank Goodness ;)

I don't have any Help Desk experience nor have any knowledge of a Help
Desk program for Linux. So any help in these areas would be greatly
appreciated. Even if its just a little encouragement :)

The Greatest of Thanks (to all who help)

Your Fellow Linux Lover
Wesley Breytenbach
South Africa
Cape Town