[Wolves] Your Feedback Please ! :) - Linux on my work laptop.

[Richard Barker]

On 14/08/05, Sean Spencer <sean_spencer at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>  
> Hi all, 
>   
> I'm currently thinking of installing Linux on my work laptop, to see exactly
> how productive I could be as a sys admin (of a Windows Environment! - brave
> I know). 
>   
> Why on earth ??..... you may ask. Well, I spend approx 10 hours each day
> (mon-fri) working mainly at my laptop. I want to futher extend my knowledge
> of linux, and feel for me, that this may well be a good way for me to
> accelerate my learning. Don't get me wrong; if I get really stuck, I have a
> Windows desktop next to me too ! 
>   
> So, for the main I need to be able to do the following from the Linux
> install. 
>   
> 1) Log onto a domain (currently STILL an NT domain, but soon to be migrated
> to Active Directory) 
> 2) Control Servers\Workstations (I know already I can do this via RDesktop) 
> 3) E-Mail (No problems there) 
> 4) Occasional manipulation of images 
> 5) Occasional web development (mainly changing/updating pages) 
> 6) Access MS SQL Server ? (i.e. is there some kind of query tool available I
> can throw SQL queries at the server from the laptop?) 
> 7) Office suite compatible with MS Office 
> 8) Create PDF files occasionally 
> 9) Print to network printers 
>   
> That's the 'main' stuff. No doubt there is other bits, but thats the
> majority. 
>   
> Apart from thinking I'm crazy, any more thoughts ? :P 
>   
> Sean. 
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> 

Hi,

I work as one of the admins of a 150 PC Windows Server 2003
environment.  I dual boot my main machine on Ubuntu and Windows XP.  I
don't think you're crazy, as I've been doing the same thing for
several weeks and hardly boot into Windows XP now.  I also installed
3ddesk to switch desktops and scored some jealous glances from the
Windows crowd. 3;-)

I've found that I can connect to windows printers and shares with no
problems in Ubuntu, the only fly in the ointment is I have to enter my
username and password for each machine when I connect to a new PC for
the first time, but it saves them in the keyring and only asks for my
keyring password on my first access to network shares.

The other main problem I have is that Openoffice can't seem to get at
files on Windows shares, but if I copy them locally, it's fine.  I
mount the shares using the "Connect to Server" option from the places
menu, I could work round it by mounting the drives in the fstab
though.  Does anyone know if Openoffice 1.9 fixes this?

As far as email goes I use Evolution, connected to Exchange Server
2003, for some reason I don't seem to be able to edit notes.  I can
get at public folders, etc and set out of office status just fine. 
The configuration was as easily as for Outlook 2003.  If I need to
make note I just fire up Gedit and save the text file into a notes
subfolder in my home dir.

I'm coding PHP sites for our Intranet right now and use Bluefish for
web sites and the GIMP for graphics.

The major pain was proprietary Windows apps we use, Bigfix, AVG Anti
Virus, Crystal Reports and the IFS CRM system.  Luckily we have copies
of them on Terminal servers so I can Rdesktop in and still use them.

Another minor gripe is that Ubuntu has no GUI editor for routes, we
have servers on other sites that are linked via an ISDN leased line
WAN, so I had to go in and manually edit the network config.  Now that
worked, but I'd rather not mix configuration methods in case the GUI
tools mess up a change I made with nano.  Does anyone know when
they'll get round to putting a route editor GUI in Ubuntu?

I also made lots of progress with my Palm Tungsten E, so if you hit
problems with one of the newer Palms, I may be able to help with that
as well.

Good luck with the laptop,

Rich.