Linux Software Questions

[nathj]

Hi there,

I thought I'd start this discussion in the Cafe/Lounge as it's not really work related at this stage.

I've recently installed Linux Ubuntu on my laptop as dual boot option. This is great and frankly I love it.

There are only 2 things holding me back from using this in preference to Windows:

1. VPN
2. Development IDE

VPN
My company runs a VPN from a Windows server in head office and I connect to that from Windows Vista. If I could connect to the VPN from Linux then I would have access to all the files I need.

Does anyone know of an y easy way to set this up? I've tried a few guides on-line but can't seem to find what they are talking about. I'm using Ubuntu 8.10

Development IDE
Currently I use AceHTML Pro on my Windows machine and I really like it. It's a fairly standard development environment and has all the usual bells and whistles - but no wysiwyg editor (I don't like them anyway). What I need for Linux is something similar that is free. If this was able to connect to MySQL databases as well then even better but two tools would be fine. For the DB connections I currently use Navicat for cases where the host doesn't provide PHPMyAdmin.

Okay, so those are the questions, I'd appreciate any help on this as I am growing increasingly frustrated with Windows.

Cheers
nathj

[Dormilich]

If I do coding on my xubuntu machine I use bluefish editor, but since I do most stuff on my mac I didn't dive much into its features. at least you can paint the bells and whistles to your liking....

regards

[Markus]

Diff question: does Mac software work on Linux?

[drhowarddrfine]

There are many editors such as the above mentioned BlueFish, Nvu, Aptana, Eclipse, Anjuta, NetBeans and others. I'm not familiar with the one you mention. Most developers use vim or emacs.

There are others and of course they are all free.

VPN works on Ubuntu but you may want to search Linux forums and not just Ubuntu forums/documentation.

[NeoPa]

Nathj,

I've moved this to the Linux / Unix / BSD forum as the cafe is not for technical discussions at all.

You may benefit from posting separate questions in their own threads in future. Your choice really, but it may get better coverage as experts will be able to see what the question is about and whether or not they can help.

[nathj]

Nathj,

I've moved this to the Linux / Unix / BSD forum as the cafe is not for technical discussions at all.

You may benefit from posting separate questions in their own threads in future. Your choice really, but it may get better coverage as experts will be able to see what the question is about and whether or not they can help.

Cheers,

I posted here initially because I thought it was more of an off-topic discussion, but I see you are right, so thanks for moving it.

nathj

[jhardman]

Diff question: does Mac software work on Linux?

Some does, it depends really. At the heart it all should since OSX is really a fancy UI over unix, and certainly OSX can run a whole heckuva lot of unix programs.

someone here recommended I try TextWrangler on my mac, from memory it is a Unix program - might work for you.

Jared

[Nepomuk]

Hi nathj! Let's see, if I can help with any of your Ubuntu VPN question. :-)

VPN
My company runs a VPN from a Windows server in head office and I connect to that from Windows Vista. If I could connect to the VPN from Linux then I would have access to all the files I need.

Does anyone know of an y easy way to set this up? I've tried a few guides on-line but can't seem to find what they are talking about. I'm using Ubuntu 8.10

I use VPN with my Xubuntu 8.04 Laptop (haven't switched to 8.10 yet, but will do so soon) and it's no problem at all.

You may have seen the Network-Manager - it allows you to choose a WiFi network for example. You can set this up to make VPN connections too!

You'll need to install the following packages (e.g. with apt-get, aptitude or synaptic):

• network-manager-pptp (for Windows VPN-Access)
• network-manager-openvpn (for OpenVPN-Access)
• nscd (needed for the OpenVPN-Plugin)
• network-manager-vpnc (for Cisco VPN-Access)

(Note: all of those packages are in the universe repository - if that's deactivated, you'll have to enable it. (For example you can do that in Synaptic -> Settings -> Package sources -> choose "universe")

When those packages are installed, you should be able to click on the network-manager symbol and choose

VPN-Connections -> configure VPN -> Add -> follow the instructions

Some does, it depends really. At the heart it all should since OSX is really a fancy UI over unix, and certainly OSX can run a whole heckuva lot of unix programs.

Ah, now there you are mistaken. Yes, OS X is unix. But Apple created loads and loads of libraries of their own, which are proprietary. So, to use Mac software on other platforms, these libraries have to be reverse engineered.

You're right, that theoretically that would be much easier than doing so for Windows software (as the Wine Project does), but I know of no big project that has such a goal.

The other way round of course, Linux is open source, so it's easy to port the libraries to OS X.

So, in most cases the answer is: No, you won't be able to run Mac software on Linux. There might be exceptions, but at the moment, that's it. Sorry.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[nathj]

Hi nathj! Let's see, if I can help with any of your Ubuntu VPN question. :-)
I use VPN with my Xubuntu 8.04 Laptop (haven't switched to 8.10 yet, but will do so soon) and it's no problem at all.

You may have seen the Network-Manager - it allows you to choose a WiFi network for example. You can set this up to make VPN connections too!

You'll need to install the following packages (e.g. with apt-get, aptitude or synaptic):

• network-manager-pptp (for Windows VPN-Access)
• network-manager-openvpn (for OpenVPN-Access)
• nscd (needed for the OpenVPN-Plugin)
• network-manager-vpnc (for Cisco VPN-Access)

(Note: all of those packages are in the universe repository - if that's deactivated, you'll have to enable it. (For example you can do that in Synaptic -> Settings -> Package sources -> choose "universe")

When those packages are installed, you should be able to click on the network-manager symbol and choose

VPN-Connections -> configure VPN -> Add -> follow the instructions

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Nepomuk,

Thank you for your help. I've installed all those packages no problems at all. The trouble I have no is that when I set up a VPN using pptp I get the message that it could not connect because there were no VPN secrets.

This all sounds a bit mysterious to me - is there some sort of inner-circle secret handshake I don't know about?

The VPN for work runs fine under Windows, perhaps I need to get some more information from there and add that in, but that was all set up for me and I've no real idea what I'm looking for.

Many thanks
nathj

[Nepomuk]

With VPN, you (can) have a gateway, a network name, a general password, a username and a user password.
That it can't find the "secret" means, that it doesn't know the general password. You'll have to get that from the VPN admin and then enter it where it says "group password" or something like that.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[nathj]

With VPN, you (can) have a gateway, a network name, a general password, a username and a user password.
That it can't find the "secret" means, that it doesn't know the general password. You'll have to get that from the VPN admin and then enter it where it says "group password" or something like that.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Nepomuk,

Thanks for the info. I've asked the guy who was responsible for setting up the VPN. As soon as I have it I'll try it out and let you know how I get on.

I just want to say thanks for helping out so much. I really appreciate it.

Once I've got the VPN working I can try out Bluefish properly and then figure out installing MySQL and PHP5 (maybe 6) and see how I get on. though I'm expecting trouble as I've already installed Apache and I know precious little about using the Terminal to control things.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help - if I ever run into you (not literally or automotively) I'l buy you a drink.

Cheers
nathj

[Nepomuk]

Nepomuk,

Thanks for the info. I've asked the guy who was responsible for setting up the VPN. As soon as I have it I'll try it out and let you know how I get on.

Great, good luck with that!

I just want to say thanks for helping out so much. I really appreciate it.
...
Anyway, thanks again for all your help - if I ever run into you (not literally or automotively) I'l buy you a drink.

Gosh, I guess I'll have to make a trip to the north east of England then! :-D (Alternatively, Mönchengladbach is the German partner town - that's a bit nearer for me. ^^)

Of course, you're very welcome! It's always great when I can help people get Linux working. :-)

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[nathj]

This is just a quick post to say thanks to say thanks for all the help.

The final solution, which I am now using was not to connect to the company vpn over linux but for the company to buy me a linux based webbook. I've got a nice dell inspiron running linux ubuntu and it's lovely. it's also really small and easy to carry to meetings so every one wins.

Thanks again
nathj

[Nepomuk]

That's a good solution - could you convince my uni to buy me a webbook too? It would be much more useful in lectures... ^^

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[nathj]

Alas, they are beyond the scope of my influence. I would love to help but my powers of persuasion do not stretch that far.