Running gOS Linux

[waveydavey]

I used Evolution ages ago and found it was pretty good. As a test I had to setup a desktop using Linux for work that would completely replace the XP desktops. I did this probably 2 years ago bar one thing. Our "in house" application would only run on IE. I was told by the Soft Dev VP chance of changing that was virtually non existent?

[bruisah]

Originally Posted by Bassey

Brilliant. I've been looking for an Exchange compatible email client for ages. I tried (and liked) evolution but never came accross the Exchange plugin. whenever I've searched for Exchange and Linux I just get lots of talk about how Thunderbird are working on it and hope to have a v3 release in September.

Thanks bruisah!

No problem!

FWIW, the exchange plugin used to be a chargeable option from the original owners of Evolution (Ximian). They got bought out a couple of years back by Novell when they (Novell) acquired Suse.

At that point, the exchange plug-in became free.

Meanwhile, I'd moved away from Evolution due to problems with it, and I've been happily using kmail instead (I much prefer it), but with the POP3 option for getting my email.

It's only recently that I've returned to Evolution (Fedora 9) and set up the Exchange plugin (which was very easy to do!)...

Incidentally, I also have my old work XP installation running as a VM. I found that VMWare have a tool called VMWare-converter. This installs in Windows and enables you to create a virtual machine from your current Windows installation. You can then take the VM image and run it under Linux (or whatever!).

As an additional (it keeps getting better!), Sun recently acquired Virtual Box which is a very good (and free) virtual machine player - and it can play images created by VMWare-converter!

So... At work, where we have IT built Windows installations, I shrunk my NTFS partition, created a Windows VM image, installed Fedora 9 (8 on the laptop), and now I run Windows under a VM to keep the IT bods off my case (and to properly sync my Loox PDA)!

It works really well, and it runs just as fast as XP did on my old work PC!

Anyway... Enough waffling on... I should really be doing some work!

A.

[Bassey]

I've done the same thing. Ran vmware converter on the windows laptop and then installed Linux. However, the virtual laptop is now running on the desktop PC, just as a backup in case I missed anything in the conversion. Which is just as well, as I had to extract the outlook .pst fuile (which I had taken a copy of!) in Outlook XP format last night. Mail2Web will read .pst files into your hosted Exchange server, but only in the older format.

So the wife is now running Linux but accessing all her Outlook stuff through an Outlook 2003 OWA to the hosted exchange through Firefox. It really is amazing stuff!

The only problem I find with VMWare server is that it takes an age to start a virtual image up. Once there it is quick, but even on my Core2Duo 2.4GHz with 2GB of 800MHz RAM it's a good few minutes to restore a paused image.

Anyway, thanks for the evolution tips. Looks like I have a fun weekend ahead of me!

[bruisah]

Originally Posted by Bassey

I've done the same thing. Ran vmware converter on the windows laptop and then installed Linux. However, the virtual laptop is now running on the desktop PC, just as a backup in case I missed anything in the conversion. Which is just as well, as I had to extract the outlook .pst fuile (which I had taken a copy of!) in Outlook XP format last night. Mail2Web will read .pst files into your hosted Exchange server, but only in the older format.

So the wife is now running Linux but accessing all her Outlook stuff through an Outlook 2003 OWA to the hosted exchange through Firefox. It really is amazing stuff!

Same mechanism for Evolution - OWA.

Originally Posted by Bassey

The only problem I find with VMWare server is that it takes an age to start a virtual image up.

From what I've read, Virtual Box runs faster than VMPlayer... VirtualBox

I find that mine takes a year and a day to boot up, but restoring an image is pretty fast (Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHZ w/4GB RAM (PAE) - Windows gets 1GB RAM).

Give me a shout if you need any help or advice - I've been (ab)using linux extensively for the past seven years or so!

Regards,

Andy B.

[waveydavey]

Do you need to keep booting it up and down? With our VMWare Servers I tend to just pause and "un-pause".

[bruisah]

Originally Posted by waveydavey

Do you need to keep booting it up and down? With our VMWare Servers I tend to just pause and "un-pause".

Hit the close button and you get three options:

1. Save machine state
2. Send the shutdown signal
3. Power off the machine

So normally, I just use the save state option.

Obviously, you can also pause and unpause without closing the actual VM.

A.

[Bassey]

I am pausing and un-pausing. But that is still taking an age on the desktop.

I run about a dozen vpc's at work for development, but they all sit on a dedicated server with GB's and GB's of RAM and I remote in to them and have no speed issues. If anything, it's quicker than running a local OS.

Unfortunately, you do still have to reboot the machines after, for example, Windows updates.

[bruisah]

Originally Posted by Bassey

I am pausing and un-pausing. But that is still taking an age on the desktop.

I just ran a test on my system:

Fedora 9, Kernel 2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.PAE
Intel Core2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
4GB RAM

Virtual Machine (on VirtualBox):
1GB RAM
Windows XP Professional

Save current state: 17 seconds
Startup from a saved state: 15 seconds

The startup time was so fast, it took me by surprise so it may actually have been quicker (I looked away!). I checked that it was all up and running though (Firefox, Outlook, activesync were all up and running and Outlook had already checked the mailbox).

Pretty darned fast IMO!

Regards,

Andy B.

[windows]

Okay going to have to play here I can see. Any tips on resolvign my high sound volume issues as that at the moment is stopping me playing once Aly has gone to bed - the volume is that loud it'd wake her instantly!

[Cie]

Have you tried double clicking the speaker icon to bring up volume control?

Dragging the sliders down should sort out your problem.

Also try right clicking on the speaker icon and go into the preferences, make sure that the correct device and track is selected.