[GRLUG] Using Ubuntu instead of windows at work.

[Michael Mol]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Michael Glaske <mglaske at gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

> So.  What I need to do my work is this:
> 1. Connectivity to Exchange 2007, so I can use email, contact, calendars,
> meeting scheduling, etc.
>  - I have found a couple options, Evolution w/ Exchange MAPI add on, which
> seem very buggy.  IMAP which is not really acceptable, or using actual
> Outlook itself through Crossover.

I'm not familiar with more/better options for your use case, with one
exception: IIRC, Evolution supports operating through Exchange's web
interface. You'd need to poke your Exchange admins to get that
enabled, though. I haven't played with it myself; I've never had to
touch Exchange.

> 2. Connectivity to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 OCS
>  - Look like empathy is supposed to do this with a SIPE plugin, but I have
> installed it, and it's not connecting.  I do have the sipe plugin working on
> my windows box through pidgin however, so I know it's possible.

SIPE is an extension of SIP (which is used for VOIP), so you might
look at SIP clients. Ekiga is probably the first place I'd suggest you
look. I haven't played the field much beyond that.

Pidgin is available for Linux, but I don't remember if the SIPE plugin
ever got ported over from Windows land.


> 3. SecureCRT or something like it for SSH/SFTP connectivity.  Needs to have
> a nice directory tree where I can sort our 300-400 servers into folders for
> easy use.
>  - Installed SecureCRT from Vandyke on Ubuntu, but it locks up parts of X
> when run, so maybe it's not ideal.


I'm not familiar with any particular tool on Linux which combines SSH
terminal, SFTP and directory support.

Most desktop environments support SFTP as a built-in feature, and you
can use their concept of shortcuts to connect to network servers.
Think of it like Windows' built-in support for FTP, but perhaps a bit
better-exposed. As for terminal connections, I really don't know. I
use console SSH.


> 4. RDP Client like RoyalTS, where I can sort our 100 or so windows servers
> into groups, and each RDP session is contained within the window so I don't
> wind up with 20 windows open (too hard to manage)

KDE and GOME both have decent RDP clients. Search your system's
package repos for 'RDP'.

> 5. Office, word processing, spreadsheet.
>  - Libre office seems quite nice, so I think I'm all set here.
> 6. Visio and Project :(

Closest I'm aware of is Dia. Personally, I find it drives me up a wall.

> 7. VMWare Virtual Infrastructure Client.

You're boned. vSphere client doesn't run on anything but Windows. Best
you can do, AFAIK, is remotely connect to a machine running the
vSphere client, or run a local Windows VM. This is one reason I've
been sprinting on learning Xen lately.

> 8. NetAPP Storage Manager

Unfamiliar with it.

> 9. Windows Domain tools (ADUC, DNS, DHCP, DFS, GPMC,
> Exchange Management Console)
>  - (ugh. probably have to be in a VM of some type, looking
> for recommendations.  I like Oracle's Virtual Box, but haven't looked for
> a Linux version)

VirtualBox is available for Linux, but it's under a noncom license.
It's probably your best first pass, regardless. If that doesn't work
out for you, try qemu-kvm. There's also Xen, but I can't recommend
that for workstation use quite yet. Still looking into it.

> 10. Connectivity for Cisco VPN on ASA.
>  - Standard IPSEC VPN tools will probably work, but I haven't looked for
> any.

OpenSWAN. Also, NetworkManager should have VPN support if you install
the right packages. (I don't know which these are off the top of my
head)

> 11. Good LDAP Manager.  Is there Apache Directory Studio for linux?

Without googling, I don't know. Given that it's Apache, probably.

> 12. Cisco IP Communicator (soft-phone) - probably not. :(

Absolutely!

Ekiga is a very good first pass. It works well on Linux, not so well
on Windows. If you want to get a little nittier and grittier, give
Linphone a try.

> 13. A nice multi-time-zone clock that stays on the desktop.  I use Qlock on
> windows, and it's perfect.

Chose your desktop environment, add a bunch of clock widgets.

> 14. A nice on-desktop task reminder list.  I use 'rainlendar' on windows,
> which I just found, and is awesome!

Dunno.

> I think that's about it.  Some of this stuff just isn't possible on linux
> for licensing or other stupid reasons. So I think I will have to run a VM of
> some type, so suggestions on that front would be awesome.  How far has WINE
> come ?

It runs World of Warcraft very well, and some other things. :)

Check the WINE application database to check application support on a
per-app basis:
http://appdb.winehq.org/
-- 
:wq

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