At the risk of stating the obvious, I'd like to add my 2 dinars. A major
roadblock to adoption of linux in small offices is that accounting applications
currently dependent on DOS (yes still people use them, and they work great) and
Win platforms need to be run. No way those people are going to adopt to any
experimental software.
So, the mission began. Taking 1 office at a time:
(In my verbose narration I will mark the "points to ponder" within %% and %%)
================================
Office 1: Small office using FoxPro based accounting package with upto 5/6 users
at a time. Simple people need simple apps and it's a mystery why FoxPro is not
the sher khan in this app world.
Simplicity also calls for leaving Wine aside for a while and going one level
"below" to DosEMU which as the name suggests is a DOS Emulator. (yes, figured it
all by myself!)
Platform: FC3 Default install
DOSEMU: 1.2.2.1 (www.dosemu.org) latest stable version.
RPM had dependencies. So installed pretty much all the developer tools.
Got it working.
%% It asked me for CD 2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3 %%
Got dosEMU running by typing xdosemu which starts DOS in its own window. (I
daresay the Good Ol RHL FC Bible was far more useful than the ubiquitous google)
The c: which you will see is actually existing in /$HOME/dosemu/freedos
Now you know your mapping point.
Fire the program and it comes up. Yeah.. just like that.
DosBOX also works fine, However, The Screen cannot be Maximised. With DosEMU the
screen can be maximized.
Remaining Steps:
**Making it run from multiple Linux Clients accessing this package on a Linux
Server.
** Making sure that the printing works! Else the whole exercise would be a no
go.
So, Once this happens, the people to benefit?
a) The company and employees. Currently atleast 1 person a day suffers for 3
hours of downtime due to viruses.
b) The Tech Support engineer. Who comes does reinstall or reformat or
Re-whatever
each time things go wrong, thus spending X hours. It's like mopping the floor
without shutting the tap.
c)Anyone still running FoxPro apps pointlessly on Win Machines seeking
redemption, here's your ray of light.
c) Myself: I'll get my mug on the cover of Time Magazine or Jane's Defence
Weekly.
============================================================
The following Case is really boring and without even a successful or potentially
successful outcome. You might as well press your "NEXT" button.
OK... If still interested, here goes.
Office 2: Another small office running Tata EX Next Gen.
Crossover office and wine failed to get my RH/FC boxes to talk to Tata EX Next
Gen running on Win XP Pro (requiring SQL Server).
The thick client installed fine. However on running, the symptoms it displayed
were typical when it is unable to connect to the DB.
The only thing different I had done while installing TataEX was to install MS
SQL
Server outside the EX directory. As thr EX directory was required to be shared,
i
thought keeping the DB unshared (Well in some way anyways) is a little more
secure.
So the Thick client talks to the Server which talks to the DB and accounting
happens.
%%I am not sure if variation in the installation of EX has caused my EX client
to
not find the DB.%% Since it is hardware lock based, and Installing EX on WinXP
PRo is a pain, will be a while before I do a resintall with default settings and
try running it.
Trying to install SQL Server on RH9 using Wine failed. There is a thin line
between ambition and foolhardiness they almighty Lord of Free Things wants to
tell you through me.
%%% Can anyone throw light on whether hardware locks are in any way OS
dependent?
Because I am gonna try installing EX Next Gen Single USer Version (which uses
the
MS Access Engine) on a FC3 Machine using Wine. Not sure how the hardware lock
would be handled. %%%
-Abhishek
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