Linux Mint at Work

booman

booman

Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming
Staff member
Inherited a Gateway DX4840-11e Desktop at work and decided its time to try Linux in the work environment.
  • Mint 17.2 64-bit
  • Intel Core i3-550 3.2GHz Dual-Core (HT) Processor
  • 8GB DDR3 memory
  • 1TB hard drive
  • GeForce 7600GT
I work in the Newspaper industry and there are a lot of old systems and proprietary software that works only in Windows. Unfortunately I have to use VirtualBox and install Windows 7 to run any proprietary software.
But all my internet browsing, remote access to servers works just fine in Linux.

With Mint Cinnamon I can use multiple panels and desktops to manage my VM and internet.
I have a small list of proprietary software needed to run in Windows:
  • Microsoft Office (mostly Outlook)
  • Goverlan (Remote access/Active Directory)
  • Advertising Software
  • Acrobat Professional/Designer
  • Sybase (SQL ODBC database access)
  • Internet Explorer 11 (Pagination web-based GUI, Java)
  • Circulation GUI (text-based and Java-based)
Thats about it.
Since I work in IT, I don't need to use all of these on a daily basis. For the most part I only use Outlook and Goverlan. I'm tempted to try Outlook in PlayOnLinux because I've read that it works pretty good.
I've tried it on a Mac in PlayOnMac and everything worked but the calendar.

Software I use in Linux for work:
  • GIMP 2.8
  • Chromium
  • Remmina (Remote Desktop & VNC Access)
  • Virtual Box
  • Wine/PlayOnLinux
  • Activity Monitor
  • TextEditor
The only problems I'm having so far is creating links to server shares. I normally have a shortcut to my user folder. I can use "Connect to Server" and SMB which ads a link on my desktop, but I can't change the name of the link. I also think these links/mounts will disappear after I restart.

The other problem is that I have created Windows specific links .lnk to a bunch of commonly used IT files/directories, but Linux doesn't recognize .lnk or the path associated with it.
 
I am going to garuntee there are replacements in linux for the SQL stuff. I think it's really cool that you are trying this out though!!!
 
I have a feeling there are as well.
We use an ODBC connection with Sybase, but I have no idea how to do that in Linux.
The funny thing is our database is hosted on an old Solaris Unix server.
But the proprietary software is Windows only.
Who comes up with this stuff?
Lets host everything in Linux and then only make Windows compatibility...
 
If you know what kind of database runs on the server then it might not be too hard to figure out what kind of open source software can connect to it. Chances are that a lot of open source software is able to connect to the server, but it will probably require more work to make it interact with whatever it is already interacting with. If things are set up to work one way, then it is probably a bit of work to get it working with different software. Knowing SQL syntax is a definite requirement too, to ensure things are set up to run as intended.

Unix != Linux, and most of the older Unix OS's are proprietary, not open source.

Most importantly, you just need to know if there is any other software/code that make use of the proprietary software, because that's what makes things complicated. But if the proprietary software is just used by people to access something, then it can always be replaced, but you need to train people to use different software.
 
booman said:
I have a feeling there are as well.
We use an ODBC connection with Sybase, but I have no idea how to do that in Linux.
The funny thing is our database is hosted on an old Solaris Unix server.
But the proprietary software is Windows only.
Who comes up with this stuff?
Lets host everything in Linux and then only make Windows compatibility...
Click to expand...

We could just start developing that sort of stuff on a professional level...
 
As far as I know the proprietary software is using Java for the GUI
So I normally install Sybase, then use Windows ODBC to connect Sybase to our database.
Then I launch our Applications with a .bat file which launches Java-based GUI
That is about it.
Never tried it in Linux and I know there is ODBC functionality in Linux

Of course it would be a total waste of time because our owners and managers rather spend the extra $100 per Windows installation instead of causing frustration for everyone who uses the software.
But its fine to test it out anyways.
 
My boss told me that running Windows 7 in a VM VirtualBox with our Enterprise KEY is illegal because Microsoft requires us to purchase a Virtual License KEY.
Has anyone heard of this?
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me because the Windows 7 activated and is absolutely legitimate. I'm not surprised because this is how Microsoft works. We can't even install out Windows legally in VM to test a program or extract game files.
 
I'm doing some reading and found some people posting about OEM copies of Windows are ilegal to use in VM, while retail copies are.
 
Windows licenses are very restrictive to my knowledge, but regular retail licenses should be perfectly legal to use as long as it is not installed on two systems (or VM's) at once.
 
Agreed
I used our work Enterprise license and each installation should be included in the number of CAL's we have purchased.
I'm dual booting Win7/Mint and VirtualBox Win7
So that is two licenses
 
booman said:
My boss told me that running Windows 7 in a VM VirtualBox with our Enterprise KEY is illegal because Microsoft requires us to purchase a Virtual License KEY.
Has anyone heard of this?
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me because the Windows 7 activated and is absolutely legitimate. I'm not surprised because this is how Microsoft works. We can't even install out Windows legally in VM to test a program or extract game files.
Click to expand...

Thats not possible to be put in a law. Unless you were usig VMWare or something, if you're using oracle virtualbox, there is nothing in the lisences that restrict that.

Thats like getting a copywrite DMCA on youtube because you made a game dev mad and they said it was illegal because you ran the game at 60FPS.

Theres no sense in it.
 
I am using Oracle Virtual Box
Works great and I haven't found anything yet that says I'm breaking the law by running Windows 7
 
Slightly off-topic, but I'd like to see a guide on how to get Win7 going in VirtualBox in a Linux host. I've tried several times, but something comes up each time, and I haven't had the time to debug.

I'm probably doing something simple incorrectly, but I'm not sure what. It might be something with the way I'm handling the VB installation or build. A guide to setting up VB, and then installing Windows in it would be very, very useful around here, I'd think.

@booman: In reference to this licensing problem, are you saying that if I'm running a legal copy of Win7 installed on a hard drive in Box#1, that I can't use the license number to install it in a VM on Box#2? That wouldn't surprise me.
 
Did you start with the Windows 7 ISO?
You should be able to open the image with VirtualBox and start installing windows

What I found is that OEM versions of Windows can only be activated once on any computer. VM or no VM, can only be activated once.
OEM's are those stickers on the side/bottom of your Dell/HP/Lenovo/Sony/Toshiba laptops and desktops with a Windows key. I am using a volume license from work, so I was able to activate just fine.
 
A regular windows license can also only be activated on one computer at a time. If you have it activated on a computer, and then install from the same disc to a VM and activate it, and keep using both then you are technically doing something illegal. I don't know what will happen if you go back and forth between computers/VM that use the same license, but I would personally not risk it since you might end up with one losing its activation.
 
I've used windows 10/8 discs repeatedly with their keys from dreamspark and nothing bad has happened to me yet.
 
Daerandin said:
A regular windows license can also only be activated on one computer at a time. If you have it activated on a computer, and then install from the same disc to a VM and activate it, and keep using both then you are technically doing something illegal. I don't know what will happen if you go back and forth between computers/VM that use the same license, but I would personally not risk it since you might end up with one losing its activation.
Click to expand...
From what I have read online that seems to only apply to OEM activations. I'm using a volume license...
Either way, I'm very tempted to remove dual boot since VM is working so well.
 
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