> I am so interest by this sort of solution can you give more informations > or tools to try > > Thanx in advance > > Lionel >
Well, I have to say that the current version of DOSEMU is extremely easy to install. By default, the installation is geared to a single-user install, but it's a piece of cake to put it in /usr/local/ and then add it to your path. The two trickiest things in the set up are: Printing, and Tricking your users so that they don't know they're using Linux. You may be fortunate, maybe you don't have to worry about the second problem. I had an advantage, I had a very consistent installed system base. Every computer used Windows NT 4.0. I also had the same access software on all computers, not some users with telnet program A, others with program B. Everyone used the same set up. The only differences between users were the printer settings. Because my users sometimes move between offices, I created a few shell scripts that alternated the users' .dosemurc files. Each location had a separate file. That caused some problems, once a month or so, someone would print a 30 page report 45 miles away. I started out with a great dos based telnet client called CONSOLE telnet. It was free, open source and because it was a DOS (actually, win32 console) application, my users didn't know the difference. Because it was a console program pass-through printing only worked to an LPT port. Therefore I had to create login scripts for my users to map LPT to the correct place. I then bought a site license for VanDyke's CRT. I'm very glad I did that. It has great script ability support as well as keyboard mapping. If I were to do anything differently in that regard, I would have bought the Secure CRT instead of the standard version. Now, for my own personal use, I use Putty, a free SSH client. It's not as customizable, but because it emulates an XTERM, instead of VT100, I've had great luck with the keyboard. Don't know why. Now I just wish it could do zmodem transfer. I never did get around to fixing the problem with printing > 17 pages using pass-through printing. Thought I had it fixed for awhile. I was wrong. I had two dosemu global.conf files, one that had LPR printing, the other that had pass-through printing. The code is very simple to implement, and I have it somewhere. It's also in the archives for the mailing list. Anyway, when users logged into Linux, they had a little menu. They chose which application they wanted and depending what option they choose, the correct global.conf file was used. The problem with pass through printing is that after aprox 15-17 pages of text, the terminal display freezes. You can still exit your program gracefully, if you can do it with your eyes closed. Usually. It was a minor annoyance, and if I ever have a need, I'll figure out why it's doing it. One feature that I never got to implement was a screen manager that allowed multitasking in the same terminal. Screen actually worked perfectly, but completely killed pass through printing. I mean completely. I didn't have a strong enough need to pursue it, so I didn't. Now, I use XDOS through VNC, which is a very elegant solution. I can use all my favorite Linux apps, and all my favorite Windows Apps, and I get VGA+ for DOS programs. Plus, VNC has a java plugin so that if you have on an intranet, you don't have to install **ANY** client software. Just tell users to go to a web page. You wouldn't use pass-through printing for this though. Also, it uses a lot more RAM, CPU and bandwidth. Speaking of bandwidth, I once demonstrated DOSEMU running over a 1200 baud connection. You should have seen the other guys when I did that. I was in Aspen, where it's impossible to get a fast Internet connection. (I shouldn't say impossible $$$) If I had a mind to, I could've made serious money selling this solution. Probably still could. There are a lot of places out there where Frame Relay and ISDN don't exist. 19.2K modems still rule. I can run 10 people from a remote office through a single 19.2K modem connection, believe it or don't. It's the latency that gets you, not the bandwidth. There were several initial concerns I had to deal with. I can't remember what they all are, but if you ask the right questions, I'm sure they'll come back to me. I do remember having a lot of woes with file locking. As it turns out, migrating all of my users into DOSEMU solved it. I believe it was the SAMBA 2.0 causing the problem. They said in the 2.1 or 2.2 release that they fixed a known bug with file locking issues when Windows and Linux users try to access the same files. By the time that came out, I had moved on to bigger and better problems. Let's see, the only other tidbit I can think of at the moment is the initial problem I had with fonts. I believe that in windows, if you use the font called 'terminal' or 'fixedsys' (I can't remember which) your text mode stuff works fine. I think you need to have IBMPC set as your char set in dosemu.conf though. Any comments? Happy to help. Matthew Nuzum followers.net <http://www.followers.net>
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