Re: Linux for a programmer's desktop

Buck wrote:

> I want to learn more about Linux.  By far, the easiest way would be to
> run it here at work.  In fact, I have a hand-assembled jumble running
> on a 486 here in my cube, but it's ancient and command-line only.  I'd
> rather use X on my desktop.  There are several gotcha's that I'd like
> to overcome.  The first is that I'd be all alone - the IT folks will 
> be unable to offer any assistance, and will be somewhat apprehensive 
> about me ditching Windows.  Also, everyone else will still be running
> Windows.  Dual boot might help in that regard.  IT are running
Exchange > for our email/calendar and Office is installed on every
desktop.  I'm > a dyed in the wool Code/400 user.

Tough to go it alone.  I was fortunate enough to have another Linux user
here in the office to spur me on.  There are a bunch of little things
you will need to be comfortable with, like finding and installing
software, mounting drives (both as a replacement to "Map Network Drive"
and so you can use your floppy/cdrom drives), the differnet files
structure, file security, when to use and not use the "root" user,
printing, and other basics.  Believe me they are not all like Windows -
not worse or better, just different.  And it all makes sense once you
understand it, but the learning curve can be frustrating.  I'm not
trying to discourage you, I just think it would be a hard row to hoe by
yourself.

> I can investigate the interoperability of OpenOffice.org with Office,
> and perhaps be able to continue to participate with the rest of the  
> company who will still be using Office.  If that doesn't work,        
> dual-boot.

I use OpenOffice and so far I'm happy with it.

> I have looked at Ximian for Exchange interoperability.  It'll run me 
> $99 for the desktop and another $69 for Exchange interoperability.  If
> push comes to shove, I might be able to use OWA but the Exchange 
> server has a severe limit on the size of mailboxes and I store most of
> my mail on my PC.  Has anyone else used this to be the sole Linux geek
> in a Windows company?

We run SendMail on a Linux box for mail, so I'm not versed in Exchange
compatibility.  Other than that, I will also say that I'm happy with
Ximian.  The only thing I can't do is click on a link in a message and
have it open my browser, but I think that is just me.

> As far as Code goes, I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and learn 
> something else.  Bearing in mind that my work PC is a PII-450 with 
> 128MB RAM and 1.6Gb left of disk, any thoughts on an editor that is 
> iSeries-friendly?

One thing you can look at is products like "WinForLin".  This allows you
to have a Windows emulator running as an application on your Linux
Desktop.  You can run virtually any Windows app on your Linux Desktop. 
My friend ran the VisualBasic editor and Visio in WinForLin and said the
performance was better than on Windows.  Go figure!

> Does this whole plan even sound feasible?  Or would I be better off to
> spend less time at work and more time on the computer at home where I
> can cobble a PC together to load Linux et. al.  That ought to make the
> family happy, eh?  :-)
>  --buck

Feasible?  Sure.  Easy?  Not necessarily.  Potentially frustrating? 
Definitely.  Worth it?  Probably, but that's easy for me to say, I was
weaned slowly from MicroSlop and I had help.

I hope this was of some help.  

Best of Luck,

Joel
http://www.rpgnext.com