DaLabrador

Originally Posted by Jogga

Well, I haven't exactly covered myself in glory with the Linux experiment :( I lasted until around 13:00 when I realized that I couldn't get to a file that I needed on the network. Unfortunately, I was discovered sneaking into my Windows PC (thanks Box ). The file, a very large Excel file with lots of lookups and calculations (but only 10.5mb) did open in Open Office but subsequently crashed every time I tried to do anything with it. So, I went back to Excel on my Vista machine to finish an important assignment. However, that's not the end to my shame! I had to send the amended file back to my client and Outlook (on my Vista machine) would not cooperate! I had to open my laptop to send the file so I not only had Windows Vista running, I had Windows XP and Ubuntu running all on different machines. Clearly, Open Office is not up to the job. It may have been better if I had not tried to open an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), but, in fairness, the splurge does claim that the program can handle it. I still like the setup and I am determined to give it every opportunity to meet my needs, however, today both Ubuntu and Jogga failed miserably!

Nooooes!
For Eyecandy I've heard that Beryl is good if your machine is up for it and if you've got an nvidia graphics card (when I was into eyecandy I had to use nvidia because they were the only ones releasing decent linux drivers. Dunno about now).
As I wrote earlier - vmware server(or virtualbox)+windows install and/or wine solves all windows needs unless you're a gamer.
Besides - virtualization is also a pretty trendy word nowadays.

Windows network? smbclient is your friend (although I believe newer ubuntu should be kind of good at windows network shares from gui).

If excel is a deal breaker and you can't get the functionality you need from wine+excel version supported by wine(wine runs alot of windows applications in linux) firing up a virtual machine every time you need excel might seem like a bad idea, I guess. Crossover office($39.95. 6 months technical support.) may be your friend, but I've never tried it (it is extremely well known, but I've never had the need for it).
Crossover office is based on wine but optimized for running office apps whereas wine is a general "windows emulator" ("wine" = "Wine Is Not an Emulator", so it was a joke. A bad one.)

OpenOffice + microsoft formats plays nicely if the files are basic enough, but Microsoft never intended their stuff to function with apps not sold by them (unless they've been coerced to do so), so it might not even be Ubuntu(nor even the openoffice developers) who is to blame. I believe (guess, basically) that openoffice works way better when using open formats, and that you somehow could have converted the excel sheet to an open format before editing, converted it back to excel and then sent it (UNLESS it contains macros), effectively eliminating bugs (and/or "features") in the excel version you used to create the file in the first place.
Sadly it sounded like a macro error, and openoffice calc supports scripting, but not VBA.
If the macro(s) is(/are) easy or small enough it(/they) should be easy to convert.

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breley

Originally Posted by DaLabrador

Crossover office may be your friend, but I've never tried it (it is extremely well known, but I've never had the need for it).

When I used it a few years back it worked pretty well, but I was more concerned with Outlook compatibility than using complex Excel spreadsheets. AFAIK, Codeweavers Crossover Office is really a repackaged wine install with some bells and whistles. They did have a nice compatibility chart.

Hm, I wonder if my old VMWare 3.2 and/or 4.0 version for linux would work on the latest (K)Ubuntu?

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DaLabrador

Originally Posted by breley

When I used it a few years back it worked pretty well, but I was more concerned with Outlook compatibility than using complex Excel spreadsheets. AFAIK, Codeweavers Crossover Office is really a repackaged wine install with some bells and whistles. They did have a nice compatibility chart. Hm, I wonder if my old VMWare 3.2 and/or 4.0 version for linux would work on the latest (K)Ubuntu?

The latest VMWare server(scroll down to "6.4.13 VMware Server") works. And it's free.
Other alternatives are Virtualbox or Xen. Still free.
They jumped on the free for consumers - $$$ from enterprises train (probably derived in one way or another from software piracy, but that's WAAAY off topic.)

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Jogga

Originally Posted by DaLabrador

Windows network? smbclient is your friend (although I believe newer ubuntu should be kind of good at windows network shares from gui).

Yep, the Ubuntu box found the network shares without difficulty and I've become a dab hand at using the Places explorer; however, in one of my weaker moments I was tempted by a 1TB MyBookWorld network drive. Private files (that is, files that you want to store on the drive but not make available to other network users), are accessed by an application called Mionet. This has some benefit: for instance, I can access my network drive from anywhere in the world using my laptop (with Windows and Mionet installed) and an internet connection providing the drive is switched on. The downside is that Western Digital don't provide Mionet for Linux

I did find a hack online, but I didn't want to leave the drive without a password or brick it completely. Under the circumstances, I thought it better to cheat.

Originally Posted by DaLabrador

If excel is a deal breaker and you can't get the functionality you need from wine+excel version supported by wine(wine runs alot of windows applications in linux) firing up a virtual machine every time you need excel might seem like a bad idea, I guess. Crossover office($39.95. 6 months technical support.) may be your friend, but I've never tried it (it is extremely well known, but I've never had the need for it). Crossover office is based on wine but optimized for running office apps whereas wine is a general "windows emulator" ("wine" = "Wine Is Not an Emulator", so it was a joke. A bad one.) OpenOffice + microsoft formats plays nicely if the files are basic enough, but Microsoft never intended their stuff to function with apps not sold by them (unless they've been coerced to do so), so it might not even be Ubuntu(nor even the openoffice developers) who is to blame. I believe (guess, basically) that openoffice works way better when using open formats, and that you somehow could have converted the excel sheet to an open format before editing, converted it back to excel and then sent it (UNLESS it contains macros), effectively eliminating bugs (and/or "features") in the excel version you used to create the file in the first place. Sadly it sounded like a macro error, and openoffice calc supports scripting, but not VBA. If the macro(s) is(/are) easy or small enough it(/they) should be easy to convert.

I did some research on alternatives to Open Office yesterday (following my battle with the spreadsheet application). The consensus in Linux land is that it is the best alternative to Microsoft Office and is more flexible than most of the other open source applications.

The spreadsheet that I was trying to use was pretty cumbersome with several worksheets and plenty of lookups and calculations (but no macros). I'm guessing that, in common with Excel, Open Office recalculates the workbook when it opens. Frankly, it just fell over when it tried to open a foreign format (.xls) of such magnitude

Notwithstanding my difficulties, I'm not prepared to abandon it just yet though :) I suspect that I would have had more luck if I had built the workbook in Open Office's native format from the ground up and I am going to give that a go today.

BTW, when I got Excel open on the Windows desktop, I managed to import and manipulate all of the new data within thirty minutes. The same effort took me over three hours in Ubuntu and I never actually managed to complete the task. I've always been a fan of Microsoft (and I probably always will be a fan), but, I am pleased with my foray into open source thus far, despite the difficulties yesterday.

I'll keep you posted.

Jogga

Originally Posted by breley

Thanks, AKAJohnDoe...your backup documentation is excellent and been bookmarked by me for some time! Jogga, for extra eye-candy and interface customization like icons, wallpapers and so forth, be sure to visit either Eyecandy for your GNOME-Desktop - GNOME-Look.org or Eyecandy for your KDE-Desktop - KDE-Look.org Gnome-look.org would be the default choice for most Ubuntu users. Hey, send a screencap once you get everything finalized! I'd be configuring my Kubuntu and seeing if I can get the wireless-N card to work, except we've been without power at home since Sunday.

Thanks breley. :approve:

I haven't tried KDE yet; I've stuck with the embedded Gnome desktop. The last few days has been about getting the box into shape and finding a look and feel that I'm comfortable with.

First impressions are favourable, but I can't help thinking that I'm back in a 3.1 era every time I see those icons :). I may well need some eye candy to resolve my flash backs. I do like the native Ubuntu desktop so I haven't tried changing it yet and I've been using the Cosmos screensaver (just because I like it).

On a more positive note, hooking up my camcorder via firewire was a doddle, which is a relief as the Ubuntu box is the only one in the house with a firewire port. :) Importing music and photographs has also been painless.

Jogga

I'm having a pretty horrible time with my PCs at the moment. Believe it or not, my laptop has crashed today and I've lost pretty much everything!

I'm restoring now, but for some reason, I can't access any backup more recent than 30/08/2008! I shall be reviewing my backup strategy inline with the advice offered by AKAJohnDoe and Martin earlier in this thread.

DON'T WAIT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOU - BACKUP NOW!

DaLabrador

Did the HD, SW or the HW give up?
If the HD is alive you can just remove it from the laptop and put it in another computer (in a desktop pc with a 2.5'' adapter, for instance) where you can access your files. There are external solutions aswell.

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Jogga

I don't really know why the data disappeared On bootup I had an error message which I suspected was something trying to install itself but couldn't (because I log on using a restricted account). I upgraded the account to see what was causing the problem and pretty much everything had gone

DaLabrador

Originally Posted by Jogga

I don't really know why the data disappeared On bootup I had an error message which I suspected was something trying to install itself but couldn't (because I log on using a restricted account). I upgraded the account to see what was causing the problem and pretty much everything had gone

Gone from where? If you're running an upgraded antivirus, a malware removing program regularly and use a firewall stuff usually doesn't just disappear.
Checked C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Desktop?
Checked C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\My Documents?
Checked C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents?
Checked C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop?
I'm no Vista wiz (I'm still satisfied with XP and my rig is decent enough), but these paths exists in Windows XP, but more info on where the files resided before they ran away would help.

Decent free antivirus for personal use.
Decent free malware remover for personal use.
Decent free firewall for personal use.

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breley

In Vista the paths would be:
C:\Users\<user name>\Desktop
C:\Users\<user name>\Documents

It's a bit of a nuisance looking for files too, because Windows key + F (find) for me generally requires clicking on the Advanced Search in the right side of the search pane, then changing Location to "Local Disk", then checking the "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)".

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Jogga

Originally Posted by DaLabrador

Gone from where? If you're running an upgraded antivirus, a malware removing program regularly and use a firewall stuff usually doesn't just disappear. Checked C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Desktop? Checked C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\My Documents? Checked C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents? Checked C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop? I'm no Vista wiz (I'm still satisfied with XP and my rig is decent enough), but these paths exists in Windows XP, but more info on where the files resided before they ran away would help. Decent free antivirus for personal use. Decent free malware remover for personal use. Decent free firewall for personal use.

Thanks for the guidance DaLab; I must look like a complete amateur :)

However, just to convince you that I'm not running completely blind!

• I run Microsoft OneCare on all the laptops (3) and PCs (2) in the house with the exception of the Ubuntu box (1).
• I run a hardware firewall on my router
• I run the MS software firewall on all of the of the Windows machines and Firestarter (a software firewall) on Ubuntu
• Low-level virus scans are run everyday on all Windows machines and system-wide scans every fortnight
• I use Spybot S&D as a secondary (to OneCare) Malware removal application
• I backup (at least, I thought that I did) every day at 18:00
• I run restricted user accounts on all but my Vista machine (my wife and daughter don't have Administrator rights on their machines at all :))
• All machines are configured for automatic updates

I'm pretty serious about the security and integrity of my network and my data.

However, my laptop problems (XP Professional SP3) did cause me some problems! A little research suggests that upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007 is not without difficulty (example) and I suspect that is what has happened in this instance. It seems that Outlook 2003 and Office Basic (2007) is not a good mix. I searched all the user accounts for the Outlook.pst file to restore once Outlook had been re-installed, I even used the MS Search bar and Explorer to search for the data, to no avail.

The good news is that my laptop is really just a mobile terminal for when I'm on the road. Most of my important files are on the network drive (and therefore unaffected), all I've lost is a couple of weeks worth of email. I have learned that I had inadvertently changed my backup plan when I trashed my XP desktop a couple of weeks ago and added the laptop to my OneCare circle (happily now rectified).

All-in-all, I confess to being somewhat embarrassed, particularly after my OP. I can't believe that I was content that my backup strategy was not in need of review! However, the email can be restored (a simple request to my client) and all of my archived stuff was safe and sound in the backup.

DaLabrador

Sometimes the active mail account changes automagically in Outlook. That's sometimes as easy as changing back (some drop-down menu option in one incarnation of outlook. I believe it resides in File or Archive or somewhere in the vicinity).
It sould seem very strange if they (MS) made an automatic wipe of personal data a feature of an upgrade process.

You may want to rething your e-mail strategy and switch to IMAP (as opposed to POP3).
That way all mail is stored on the mail server, and you can still have local backups as redundancy.
Use an e-mail provider you can trust your corporate data with, although unless encrypted all e-mail providers regardless of technology can read anything they want. Your ISP and every router and a hole bunch of other computers between you and your intended recipient too, of course.

For network security I would recommend an IDS.
A free firewall presents an extra layer of protection (windows XP's doesn't block outgoing "calls" and, frankly, is very primitive).
Besides - why not?
I'm sorry if I'm preaching to the choir, but I care about your digital integrity.

__________________

1. Be Kind.
2. Have fun.

Jogga

Thanks again DaLab

My laptop is up and running this morning, but it's a bit shaky! I don't seem to have a virus or malware but I suspect that I'll end up rebuilding the machine just to get it back into shape.

Jogga

There's been a (little) bit of publicity about the Karmic Koala in the UK this week, so I thought that I'd see what all the fuss was about. When I first installed Ubuntu on my trusty DELL Dimension 8400 in September last year, I thought that the project would prove to be no more than an interesting experiment or, at worst, an amusing diversion, but I was wrong: over the last twelve months, Ubuntu has become my primary OS (giving my seven year old DELL (and my 40+ year old brain ) a new lease of life), so it was not without some trepidation that I decided to explore my first major Ubuntu upgrade.

My original distro was the 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) and, with the exception of security and stability updates, I have not found it necessary to upgrade since that first install. This is not an ideal starting point as the recommended upgrade process is incremental, meaning that I faced the prospect of three significant upgrades to get to the 9.10 version released on 29th October (thus preserving my files and settings) or a clean install of the new OS (a third option could have been a dual-boot arrangement, but that seemed a bit messy to me). After some thought, I decided to follow the incremental route and downloaded the files for 8.10 (around 800MB). This was a seamless upgrade and, after some minor tweaking, the OS functioned as if nothing (much) had happened. So far, so good! On to the next version, the Jaunty Jackalope (9.04): it was here that I hit my first problem. The pre-installation validation sequence indicated that my graphics card was not supported and that I could have problems with the upgrade. At this point I got decidedly nervous and thought it best to abandon my project before bricking my PC, until I remembered Ubuntu's brilliant Live CD. Live CD is a sort of try before you buy feature that runs the OS on your PC from the CD rather than installing it to your hard drive (you can also achieve this using a USB pen drive). That's not the only advantage: downloading the complete version rather than the upgrade is significantly quicker (about eight times faster in my circumstances) and, if you download the files in Ubuntu, there's no checksum process to worry about. So, I downloaded 9.10 and burned my disk. After half an hour running the new distro on the PC, I could find no problems with the graphics card or any other hardware, so I decide on a clean install.

It's here that I hit my second problem! You'll remember that I initially decided to follow the incremental upgrade route because in so doing, I'd preserve my files and settings (and doubtless, you'll also have one eye on the thread title ): well, I changed my approach mid-project without giving sufficient thought to the consequences. Sure, a clean install is faster, more efficient and easier (a clear opportunity) but, after all is said and done, it is a clean install and formatting the hard drive is part of the process (a clear risk). Fortunately, the upgrade was painless and, so far at least, I like the new OS. Moreover, I'm bright enough to have copied all of my files (Documents, Pictures, Music, etc) before installing the upgrade, so all of my important stuff was protected and accessible. However, my software and settings have all disappeared during the upgrade as you would expect.

Clearly, I can re-install my software easily (it's freely available and free of charge after all), but rebuilding my Favourite websites and email accounts manually in Opera is a pain! Moreover, remembering to change the permissions on the raw1394 file (for my digital camera) and allowing access to the network drive and network printer through the firewall has severely tested my patience over the last two days. I've also experienced a small but irritating problem with Tellico (a library application), that I think will require manually rebuilding a database of more than five hundred entries. The lesson is clear – BACKUP everything and do it often!

Notwithstanding these minor inconveniences, Ubuntu 9.10 (all 4GB including swap) is running contentedly on my PC and upgrading has cost me nothing in additional capital. Indeed, so far my “experiment” costs have yet to exceed my original outlay (if you don't count ) and I have a state of the art system that boots faster and is more secure than anything that Microsoft has to offer. Compare these advantages to the upgrade price of Windows 7 (Home Premium) of and the astonishing 16GB of disk space required to run it!

DavesPPC

I backup when I remember to do so :)
But when I do it's on DVD's and thumb drives...one stored in home one stored at work.
And RAID (continually).

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*sigh*