Alright well, I've been following the guide posted to create your own linux server, and I was wondering how I could get Windows program working on there? I haven't set it up yet as I don't want to format the HD before knowing what to do. The box it's going to go on will be heading off to our bakery and used as the work computer there. All it does is spreadsheets, word, powerpoint, internet, prints and sends faxes. Now my question is, we have giant databases of fax numbers and business contact addresses and all, and my father uses a program called WinFax, so was wondering if I could get that working on Xubuntu or some other type of Linux distro Thanks
Office generally works quite good under Crossover Linux, but it's not for free. OpenOffice (the free OSS office package) does open nearly all MS Office documents & spreadsheets, and saves to them too, altough formatting can change. If just to type letters, OpenOffice is just as good as MS Office (it gets tricky when sharing documents between the two). WinFax, I haven't heard of it before. You could search for a native Linux solution tough. Just google "Linux <fax brand & model>". That could show a lot of good links. Or you could use wine for it. Try this guide in case no native Linux software exists (to install wine) and adapt it a bit to run WinFax HTH
Thanks for replying, The reason I'm going for WinFax though is that the databases are really pretty big, and only compatible with WinFax (blasted products) and it would take too long to input the databases all over again and we need them everyday.
You could try the Wine approach, but I think that the WinFax dbase is readable by some Linux applications (what I get from 2 seconds of Googling at 1:30AM )
Ahhh.. Sounds interesting Are there any other type of Linux distros I could use which would look a little more like Windows (so that my father doesn't freak out) while still be able to do the server like in the guide? I've never used Linux so bear with me
Ubuntu is about as close as it gets... Check out the different flavours tough: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/derivatives
there is a distro called Linux XP (or something like that) which looks exactly like win xp but i have no idea if its any good
You could also look at the LookXP project. You can download and install the .deb packages if you're going to run Ubuntu (or any other Debian-based distro). I've just put it on my OpenBSD install. I had to compile from source but it worked pretty well. I've got an issue with the icons in XFE that I'm trying to fix but you shouldn't have a problem with the .deb files. Here's a screenie to see if you're father would freak out or not: Linux XP (not connected with the LookXP project) is a commercial offering so it'll cost you somewhat although not a lot from memory.
Windows software will not work on any linux distro without using WINE or other emulator. Doesn't matter how much it *looks* like windows!
The purpose of the LookXP project is to soften the impact of linux on new users who come from a windoze background. The idea being that if you make the GUI look like windoze, they'll feel more confident using it (linux). Despite the look, it's still linux running underneath (or, in my case, OpenBSD). As others have said, you won't be able to run windoze software on linux (or any of the BSDs) without using something like WINE, CrossOver (a newbie-friendly, commercial version of WINE), an emulator, or using virtualisation software like VMware. Still, a lot of windoze apps have linux 'clones' (or should that be: a lot of linux apps have windoze clones?) so you may find you will not need to run a windoze app and, instead, can get the same job done using a linux app. OpenOffice is a prime example - it's a great substitute for MS Office and while it's not as extensive as MS Office, it meets 100% of the needs of 80% of its users (there's only so much clip art you really need).
And even then, not all WindoWS software works on Linux. Wine can handle a lot, but it surely can't handle it all.
