August 21, 2009 at 21:00Best Linux Programs on HP Networks
First, a little context.
HP mainly uses Windows on workstations. However, Linux also plays an important role in the HP infrastructure. I wrote about this on the Russian blog HP . On a workstation, Linux also finds its application, however, for obvious reasons, Linux users experience difficulties due to the fact that many programs and portals are not suitable for them.
The author is just such a user who, despite the difficulties mentioned, finds pleasure in using Debian Linux on his laptop.
I posted this topic a few days ago on our blog , and now I want to share it with the Habrovites a bit more. By the way, this is my first post, please do not kick if something is not quite right.
Using a year and a half Debian Etch and then Lenny as the OS for the workstation, I want to share my impressions of proven and not entirely justified Linux applications.
The palm branch goes to the developers of Wine . Yes, it was their efforts that, in front of my eyes, the HP Service Center client for Windows fully earned money from under wine.
Thanks to this, it became possible to use the Service Center in my normal mode for my work as an HP Network Node Manager support engineer . In my eyes, over the incomplete 2 years, improvements in wine occurred along the following upward path:
i. wine 0.9.x - SC installs but does not start,
ii. wine 1.0.x - SC starts, but searching the knowledge base and using charts leads to an abnormal termination, SC crashes,
iii. wine 1.1.x - SC starts, opens a search in the knowledge base, correctly opens charts, finds documents, but does not open them - the problem of authentication or access to the database.
iv. and finally 1.1.26 ~ winehq1-1. Everything works with a bang, a full search and use of the knowledge base! This is a feat in my opinion. The only small remark, when opening pdf documents, there is no choice: open or save. That is, pdf documents cannot be viewed. But I don’t like to open them from under SC, almost always they are accessible from the technical support portalHP OpenView and informational value for us - engineers are rare. The small curvature of the text display during fast scrolling is also generously forgiven, this does not interfere with work at all.
Total painstaking work of wine-sheep and constant substantial improvement in the functionality of this product, which made it possible to work comfortably with a complex Windows program.
The gold medal went to FireFox . No, I'm not going to “flame” about browsers at all, especially since Opera remains the main and favorite browser on the Internet for me. But alas, the HP network has nothing to do. Our intranet is too “wild” for a fragile and light Norwegian masterpiece. Authentication NTLM is not supported in Opera and on the intranet, which is widely used MS SharePoint, is NTLMneed it.
FF passes quietly here. Further. quite unexpectedly for me, FF went through such slaloms as HP Virtual Rooms (an analogue of WebEx for remote access to the site via standard web protocols) and VMWare . That is, these programs have a plugin for FF, which quietly "stick" and work.
It is declared that WebEx also works from under Linux. but I couldn’t get it running. Maybe my hands will reach and I will deal with it. But, while not really needed, HPVR calmly replaces it.
The silver medal goes to Pidgin . He deserved it with the pidgin-sipe plugin., which allowed you to communicate with an office communicator from MS (MOC - Microsoft Office Communicator) without going into Windows. It does not yet support the mode of configs with several participants and calls. Confa is used quite rarely, and in my opinion no one uses calls. Well, in addition to MOC, the entire gentleman's set of IM protocols: ICQ, google talk, jabber , etc.
There are disappointments for Linux users in HP: the same Opera, I hope at least NTLMauthentication will be screwed in future versions. A bunch of portals within the network using a variety of technologies like in the dashing 90s of browser wars and sharpened by MS (only IE is officially supported on the HP intranet). The most important disappointment remains the lack of remote access support for HP owners of USB smard-card devices in HP, although it would seem that all this has been around for a long time for Linux.
UPDATE: The new pidgin-sipe-1.6.2 plugin supports conf mode.
HP mainly uses Windows on workstations. However, Linux also plays an important role in the HP infrastructure. I wrote about this on the Russian blog HP . On a workstation, Linux also finds its application, however, for obvious reasons, Linux users experience difficulties due to the fact that many programs and portals are not suitable for them.
The author is just such a user who, despite the difficulties mentioned, finds pleasure in using Debian Linux on his laptop.
I posted this topic a few days ago on our blog , and now I want to share it with the Habrovites a bit more. By the way, this is my first post, please do not kick if something is not quite right.
Using a year and a half Debian Etch and then Lenny as the OS for the workstation, I want to share my impressions of proven and not entirely justified Linux applications.
The palm branch goes to the developers of Wine . Yes, it was their efforts that, in front of my eyes, the HP Service Center client for Windows fully earned money from under wine.
Thanks to this, it became possible to use the Service Center in my normal mode for my work as an HP Network Node Manager support engineer . In my eyes, over the incomplete 2 years, improvements in wine occurred along the following upward path:
i. wine 0.9.x - SC installs but does not start,
ii. wine 1.0.x - SC starts, but searching the knowledge base and using charts leads to an abnormal termination, SC crashes,
iii. wine 1.1.x - SC starts, opens a search in the knowledge base, correctly opens charts, finds documents, but does not open them - the problem of authentication or access to the database.
iv. and finally 1.1.26 ~ winehq1-1. Everything works with a bang, a full search and use of the knowledge base! This is a feat in my opinion. The only small remark, when opening pdf documents, there is no choice: open or save. That is, pdf documents cannot be viewed. But I don’t like to open them from under SC, almost always they are accessible from the technical support portalHP OpenView and informational value for us - engineers are rare. The small curvature of the text display during fast scrolling is also generously forgiven, this does not interfere with work at all.
Total painstaking work of wine-sheep and constant substantial improvement in the functionality of this product, which made it possible to work comfortably with a complex Windows program.
The gold medal went to FireFox . No, I'm not going to “flame” about browsers at all, especially since Opera remains the main and favorite browser on the Internet for me. But alas, the HP network has nothing to do. Our intranet is too “wild” for a fragile and light Norwegian masterpiece. Authentication NTLM is not supported in Opera and on the intranet, which is widely used MS SharePoint, is NTLMneed it.
FF passes quietly here. Further. quite unexpectedly for me, FF went through such slaloms as HP Virtual Rooms (an analogue of WebEx for remote access to the site via standard web protocols) and VMWare . That is, these programs have a plugin for FF, which quietly "stick" and work.
It is declared that WebEx also works from under Linux. but I couldn’t get it running. Maybe my hands will reach and I will deal with it. But, while not really needed, HPVR calmly replaces it.
The silver medal goes to Pidgin . He deserved it with the pidgin-sipe plugin., which allowed you to communicate with an office communicator from MS (MOC - Microsoft Office Communicator) without going into Windows. It does not yet support the mode of configs with several participants and calls. Confa is used quite rarely, and in my opinion no one uses calls. Well, in addition to MOC, the entire gentleman's set of IM protocols: ICQ, google talk, jabber , etc.
There are disappointments for Linux users in HP: the same Opera, I hope at least NTLMauthentication will be screwed in future versions. A bunch of portals within the network using a variety of technologies like in the dashing 90s of browser wars and sharpened by MS (only IE is officially supported on the HP intranet). The most important disappointment remains the lack of remote access support for HP owners of USB smard-card devices in HP, although it would seem that all this has been around for a long time for Linux.
UPDATE: The new pidgin-sipe-1.6.2 plugin supports conf mode.