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Bringing a Linux box to Work - Part 1
Let me give you a little background. I have been using Linux at home for about 5 years. I work for an independent software vendor that makes proprietary Windows-based software. I find having to use Windows at work very frustrating. Many basic Windows applications don't do half of what there OSS counterparts do. This, combined with the fact that my 3ghz P4 with 1GB RAM runs at a snails pace, has led me to get make a change.
A few days ago, I began using Parallels at home and have been able to migrate one of my machine's tasks over to a virtual environment. As a result, I have a spare machine that needs a job. My idea is simple. I am going to take this machine to work with me tomorrow and attempt to use it in our Microsoft environment. This series of articles will document my successes and my failures.
Day 0 – Preparation My boss probably wouldn't like it if i spent 3-4 hours installing Linux and updating packages, so I am in the process of doing that as I write this portion of the article. I intend to get the new Linux box as prepared as possible. This way, I shouldn't have to tinker very much in the morning.
The first thing I did was identify the applications that I use most often and then select a Linux counterpart.
Summary I know that I will not be able to completely stop using Windows. I do a lot of bug testing on our custom applications, as well as a little bit of VB6/VB.NET programming. Unfortunately, these tasks will have to be done on my Windows machine. My goal to be able to do the majority of my “day-to-day” tasks on the Linux box.
Applications I chose to use the brand new PCLinuxOS MiniMe 0.93 distribution. PCLinuxOS has not been around very long, but they are definitely heading in the right direction. I use PCLinuxOS 0.92 on my main home workstation, so this was a good excuse to try their latest release. My single most-used application is Outlook. I am hoping that Evolution w/ Exchange Plugin is up to the task. As an alternative, I read that IMAP should allow me to manage my mail and calendars as long a the Exchange server has IMAP enabled. I am not sure if the server is configured to accept IMAP connections, nor how much functionality this would allow, so I will only dig into this if the Evolution w/ Exchange Plugin solution is un-acceptable. The rest of the aplication choices in the above table are self explanatory.
Wish me luck! Tomorrow promises to be a very interesting day. |
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Comments (8)
Good Luck
Visual Basic 6 = No Alternative (not true!!)
Notepad/Crimson Editor -> kwrite, gedit, and, a bunch of others including vim if you're a real nut, and the ability to use it with kate.
Visual Basic 6 -> gambas ...This is rapidly developing into a viable alternative, but you have to have the latest version to get all the bells and whistles, IMO it needs a little more time to get off the ground.
MS-SQL -> mysql
MS Acess -> knoda - fantistic front end & manager for mysql, postgres, sqlite, etc... Knoda may have a driver for Oracle Express.
Sage ACT 2006 Contact Mgr -> KOrganizer ... or just write something to go with mysql
Samsung Laser Printer drivers -> driver actually included in current cups
Most of the other apps listed have at least three good FOSS equivalents. And more on the way, of course. (-:
The databases have been viable in Linux for some time. It's the management and front ends that have just started to appear in the last year or so.
I know that some will argue, but MS got it right with MS Access. The thing is a darn swiss army knife for desktop users. Because of that, many desktop users are crying for an equivalent in Linux.
Knoda gives the user the same control over queries, forms, and, reports, as well as setting all the fields and parameters. The range of database plugins has gotten truly amazing mysql, PostgreSQL, sqlite, Firebird, dbf3/4, Access, and I think there may even be one for Oracle.
Bracing for Day 1
File Manager Ubuntu comes with GNOME by default and I actually prefer a snappier system with less eye candy. I also prefer more of the GNOME-based tools than the KDE ones. But that's just me. Anyway, I use Thunar instead of Nautilus on that platform and if you ever get a chance, compare the speed and features of Thunar versus Konqueror. Thunar is light on features but heavy on being intuitive and fast. I like it that way.
Text Editor I use mousepad when I want to open a file fast, or gedit when I can afford to open it a little slower. I also use Bluefish as my IDE.
Bitmap Editor Always a good choice to use Gimp, although if you have not also tried Inkscape, I recommend you do so.
Office Suite OpenOffice is just intolerable to me anymore. It's too slow to open and I can't take it any longer. Instead, I use Abiword and Gnumeric. Mind you that some distros make these two products look lousy. Therefore, you have to use the right kind of distro that make the fonts in these two apps look fantastic. Ubuntu has this fixed nicely. Still, if I need to throw together a presentation, I use OpenOffice for lack of a better tool.
Office Email If you've got Exchange Server on the backend, and can tolerate the slowness and quirkiness of Evolution, then so be it. Just note that it works through OWA and that's kind of a kludge. Some admins in some companies are nice enough to turn on IMAP on their Exchange Server so that we Linux-heads can get in with Thunderbird and Evolution through a more native API, but this is not easy for them to setup and not something I see often.
My opinion is that if I were to run a company, I'd do what the ISPs do. I host OpenLDAP, Courier POP, Postfix SMTP, Postgrey Mail Filter, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV Email Virus Scanner. Then, if they wanted to use Evolution or Thunderbird with that, great. And if they wanted to host Horde or SquirrelMail for some users, that can work too.
I'm a big Thunderbird fan and can't wait until Linux has a calendaring tool on the Mozilla platform.
BTW, if you use the 'nmap' command against the IP address of your Exchange server, it should come back and tell you whether or not IMAP is loaded or not.
Visual Basic 6 Well, if you don't mind moving to the web, PHP, to me, is the VB-on-steroids-replacement on Linux. I use it as the primary language I do all my work if I can.
However, if you want to build rich client apps, then consider this combination:
* thttpd web server on a unique, alternate port per app * sqlite3 for the small embedded database * XUL with Firefox for the GUI * any CGI language of choice such as ngs-js (Javascript), PHP-cli, Perl, Python, etc.
VB6 used to also come with a dev environment. I simply use Bluefish to do everything I need. If I need a database IDE, I'm a big PostgreSQL fan and I use the 'pgst' tool (from sf.net) to administer that. To administer SQLite3, I do it from command-line.
If you simply must do VB6 development, and want to do it locally instead of through your Krdc connection, then consider installing QEMU, putting Windows inside it, and launching VB6 within that. I've heard good reports about this.
Source Control Subversion or CVS, and there are many good GUIs for administering it in a rich client or web interface, as well as plugins for most IDEs such as Bluefish, Eclipse, Netbeans, etc.
Database Well, stick with your Oracle or MS SQL if you want to, but I prefer PostgreSQL for most chores and SQLite3 for small chores. As for MySQL, I don't see any reason why I should use it and be limited to its feature set when PostgreSQL is more powerful and can scale more when I go over 50 users.
Contact Manager I have never needed anything except what's already on my mobile phone or what I stick in a spreadsheet. Jeesh? Am I behind the times?
Bug Tracker There are dozens of quality web-based bug trackers on the Internet in various formats such as freeware, payware, subscription-based, etc. Bugzilla seems to be the popular thing of the day. Others like a popular Perl/Mason-based one of which I cannot remember the name of at this moment.
Virus Scanner I don't trust anything. I still use a virus scanner on Linux. I use ClamAV and I have read how to configure it properly and set it up to notify me.
Remote Windows Desktop I use tsclient and either VNC or rdesktop, depending what I am hosting on a given Windows server or workstation.
You didn't mention some other common things, so I'll throw those out.
Firewall I edit iptables scripts by hand using this URL: http://www.nuxified.org/supermikes_kicking_firewall_tutorial
Quickbooks for Small Businesses Consider using spreadsheets or Grisbi. Also, you could roll your own with XUL, thttpd, sqlite3, and your favorite scripting language. And if you ever do roll your own, please make it free and post it on the Internet for me!! ;)
Blog Tool I use drivel.
I get the impression that you might be happier with Xubuntu. I've been using it for the past week or so. Your default application choices are pretty much the Xubuntu defaults. And I'm loving xfce4. I figured that coming from Ubuntu and it's up to date Gnome desktop, I would be less than thrilled with xfce, especially since my desktop box is no slouch for resources. But I've been very pleasantly surprised with its great functionality and smart looks. And every action is very gratifyingly instantaneous.
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I think if for any reason I where to be forced into Windows Only days It would feel like drowning......hehehe
Hey keep us up-to-date on how it goes....
tnx