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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