After having some serious memory issues with our largest applications in Windows, we decided to dump Windows Server 2003 and switch to Linux Ubuntu (kept the same hardware). Here are some observations I have made during our first 10 days.

(I am brand new to Linux, but quite familiar with Windows.)

• Installing Linux (Ubuntu version) on a formatted hard drive was very easy, and Ubuntu is free.
• Dealing with user security and permission in linux was a real pain. Took quite a bit of searching the net, and even a Linux reinstall to get things going.
• I had no driver issues on a Dell PowerEdge T110 Server computer (basic Xeon processor with 4GB of RAM. About $400 from Dell)
• Mapping a folder on the network was also a bit difficult.
• Changing Sbasic in sesame to reflect the new folder paths was easy, but tedious because we have a lot of 'xlookups' on a lot of different forms and applications (ie. C:\sesame2\data\ changed to /home/sesame/data/). Linux is also case sensitive, so sbasic programming had to be tweaked.
• Setting up a 'shortcut' or 'launcher' to start sesame server is awkward. Perhaps Lantica has a Linux quick start guide that I overlooked?
• I run sesame server from a terminal windows which allows the terminal window to display a live error log. Helpful, and raises a few more questions.
• Sesame has been MUCH more stable on Linux, when running several large applications. We have yet to crash after 10 days of heavy usage.
• Sesame runs MUCH, MUCH faster on Linux. Aps that would load in 45 seconds, now load in 4 seconds. 'formfieldvalue(), Mass Updates,  save, etc, are faster and more robust. Another big reason to upgrade. I was able to load every Ap I could get may hands on, and saw no slowdown in speed.

If you are having issues in Windows with large applications, don't hesitate to test out sesame on a free copy of Linux. You won't regret it.

I still have some 'setup' to do on Linux, but things are now VERY stable and EXTREMELY fast, so I'm very pleased.

Steve

Steve,

You don't mention whether you are running Ubuntu server or Ubuntu desktop.  Ubuntu desktop is very user-friendly.  Ubuntu server isn't.  Pretty much anyone running any Linux server version has training specifically in Unix.  (Linux is actually a version of Unix.)

If you are running the server version and it's not to late to switch, I definitely recommend switching.  There are loads of "how to" videos on YouTube for Ubuntu desktop.

As a complete newbie you will find quite a few things annoying, but after you've worked with it awhile you'll see how similar Desktop is to Windows.

A difference from Windows is that the highest level in the file system is /  All folders are descended from / -- there are no separate drive letters.

A major difference between Ubuntu and other Linux/Unix versions involves Root.  In Unix/Linux, Root is the "super user", with highest administrative rights. All users other than Root have a separate folder descended from /home, e.g., user "robert" would be in /home/robert  Root's folder, however, is attached directly, i.e. /root  Of course, root has a password.

Unlike Windows, you really don't routinely log on as "root".

Ubuntu is unique in that there is no separate user "root".  There can be, but Canonical strongly discourages it. Instead, you precede a command with "sudo", which means "Super User Do".  For instance, to copy into a system folder you would type sudo cp sourcefile targetpath

Below is a "script" I have used several times to install Ubuntu Desktop.

If you are only running Ubuntu as a server, a lot below will not be needed, e.g.:
- Installing Microsoft fonts
- Installing codecs
- Moving the Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons to upper right.

This assumes that all users will log in with the same name.

Ubuntu can natively access Windows shares, but Samba must be
installed for Windows machines to see the Linux machine.


THIS WILL WORK WITH UBUNTU DESKTOP 10.4 OR 10.10
CANONICAL CHANGED THE DESKTOP FROM GNOME TO UNITY
IN VERSION 11.4.  BE SURE TO INSTALL AN LTS (Long
Term Support) VERSION.

In setup set to boot from CDROM

Insert Ubuntu 10.10 install disk and boot

Click Install

Set clock & keyboard (default)

Set partitions manually
Delete any existing partition
Click on empty space, select Add
Create a Primary partition / about 8 GB. 8590*10^6 = 8GB That is a VERY large primary partition. Use ext4 file system for max speed.
The /swap partition should equal the physical memory and has filesystem type swap. (2148*10^6) The partition can be primary or secondary.
User data goes in a separate partition /home  (about 10GB) (For a server application this is not the main data partition.)
This is a logical partition, not a primary
As they are created the partitioner will show the mount point.
Create a logical partition /our_data type ext4  You can set the mount point from the partitioner.  This is the main data partition.

If you are going to use a separate disk for this partition, don't create this partition.  Once Ubuntu is installed, create a folder with: sudo mkdir /our_data
(Like Windows, you can mount an entire disk in a folder. If you do that, once Ubuntu is installed, format the second disk as a single partition and then mount it.  Unlike Windows, the folder where it is being mounted doesn't have to be empty.  You can put test data, make sure everything works, and then simply mount your production drive.)

"Your name" is not the "user name"
Set user name to: abc Staff
 The user name will be in /home/<username>
 (or maybe /usr/username)
Set the login name to abc-staff
Set password to abc
Set the computer name to linux-server
Set to log in automatically
Install


SET APPEARANCE

System => Preferences => Monitor
Set monitor resolution

System => Preferences => Appearance => Fonts, Change the font sizes
Backgrounds => Get more backgrounds online
Select the picture, right-click, Set as Background
Theme => Radiance => Close

 Application font is used in menu bars


ADD AND REMOVE MENU ITEMS

System => Preferences => Main Menu
-- menu Applications -- System Tools doesn't show up because
no items are selected by default.  If you click an option (e.g.
Configuration Editor), System Tools will get large and display.
Enable: Applications => System Tools
Enable: Applications => Accessories => Archive Manager
Disable: Preferences => Assistive Technologies, iBus, Bluetooth, Mouse
Disable: Administration => Startup Disk Creator, Log file viewer


PUT WINDOW CONTROL BUTTONS ON RIGHT
Applications => System Tools => Configuration Editor
Apps => Metacity
Change button_layout to menu:minimize,maximize,close




RUN UPDATE MANAGER


INSTALL MICROSOFT CORE FONTS:

System => Administration => Synaptic Package Manager => pwd = abc
Select ttf-mscorefonts-installer, mark for installation, Apply.
This installs Andale, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans, Courier New,
Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Verdana and Webdings.

Other common fonts to install: Tahoma, Lucida, Wingdings
rename them to lowercase

To install a GROUP OF fonts system-wide and allow others to use it:

1. Create a new folder on the Desktop with the target folder name,
i.e., if the target will be /.../lucida, name the desktop folder lucida
2. Download the new font(s) and extract to the desktop folder
3. In a terminal type: sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/<foldername> /usr/share/fonts/[whatever]
This will copy the entire folder to the system font folder.
 [whatever] might be lower levels, i.e., .../fonts/truetype/hebrew/script
 When you run the cp it would wind up in /fonts/truetype/hebrew/script/lucida
NOTE: You will usually want to copy the folder to /fonts/truetype
4. Delete the desktop folder.
5. Restart your application. The fonts will be available system-wide.

To install individual fonts:
1. Open a root terminal.
2. If the target folder does not exist create it: mkdir /usr/share/fonts/<whatever>/<target>
3. In the root terminal open a file browser: nautilus
4. Select the font files to be copied.
5. Paste them into the target folder.
6. Restart.

In Windows Lucida fonts are at C:\Program Files\Java\ and
C:\Program Files\Corel\

Also create an msfonts folder for Tahoma, Wingdings, etc.
In a terminal: mkdir /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msfonts


SET UP SAMBA (Lets Windows machines access Linux.)

Open a terminal, copy and paste the following and run it:
sudo apt-get install samba samba-common samba-common-bin winbind system-config-samba

** DO NOT INSTALL SWAT! It removes all comments, etc., from smb.conf

System => Administration => Samba
(This runs system-config-samba)
Preferences => Samba Users => Add User
Unix Username => abc-staff
Windows Username: abc-staff
Samba password: abc

Click the plus sign (Add Share)
Click Browse, select the directory to share
The share name is what the network will see: \\servername\sharename
Set the directory to /our_data and share name data_folders
Set Writable and Visible
Tab Access => Only certain users
Click abc-staff
To change later: System => Administration => Samba, select share => File => Properties

Preferences => Server Settings => Basic
Leave the workgroup as workgroup
Change the description
Server Settings => Security
Preferences => Samba Users
change the password for abc-staff to abc

***ALTERNATIVE -- probably NOT needed
How to manually edit the smb.conf file:
cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /home/abc-staff/Templates/smb.conf-template
gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
Save As /home/abc-staff/Templates/abc-smb.conf
sudo cp /home/abc-staff/Templates/abc-smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf
Test the file: testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf
(Restart samba) sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

CHANGE TERMINAL COLORS
Applications => Accessories => Terminal => Edit => Profile Preferences
(fore: #0000a0, back: white)


LOGON:
User name: linux-server\abc-staff
Password: abc

To manually edit smb.conf:
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

-- copy & paste contents of custom smb.conf


STARTUP APPLICATIONS
System => Preferences => Startup Applications
Turn them off here


PRINT TO PDF
System => Administration => Synaptic Package Manager => pwd = abc
Search for cups-pdf => Apply


SHARE PRINTER
System => Administration => Printing
Right-click on printer, select Shared
Server => Settings => Advanced Server Settings
Check:
Publish Shared Printers
Allow Remote Administration
Do not preserve job history


FILE BROWSER DISPLAY OPTIONS
System => Preferences => Main Menu


SPEED UP VIDEO
Install MPlayer
Right-click on MPlayer SCREEN, Preferences
Increase cache size to 8192 (kb), set audio quality to mid
Exit MPlayer, restart it


TURN OF IDLE SCREEN LOCK
System => Preferences => Screensaver
uncheck Lock screen when screensaver is active
Test: Open a terminal, type: gnome-screensaver-command -a
This blacks the screen.  Move the mouse.

(Also possibly)
Applications => System Tools => Configuration Editor
apps => gnome-power-manager => lock
uncheck gnome_keyring_hibernate and gnome_keyring_suspend


SET UP TO INSTALL TARBALLS
Synaptic Package Manager => build-essential


=== BELOW ARE NOT NEEDED FOR abc ===
CRAP CLEANER (BLEACHBIT)
Terminal: sudo apt-get install bleachbit
Bleachbit is like CrapCleaner
Sweeper will also do this.
System Janitor


UNUSED VIDEO CARD DRIVERS
Synaptic Package Manager: search for xserver-xorg-xvideo
Remove unused drivers


SPEED UP AGP VIDEO (BIOS setting)
If the mobo has an AGP card, changing the AGP Aperture size
in the BIOS can speed up the video. The system uses 4k pages
of system RAM when the video card RAM runs low. An address
translation table called GART accepts memory calls from the CPU
and translates those to memory page addresses so the CPU sees
a contiguous address space. The more memory the video card has
the smaller the aperture should be.


FANCY VIDEO (COMPIZ)
Preferences => Appearance => Visual Effects => Extra
Terminal sudo aptitude install compizconfig-settings-manager


CODECS (Medibuntu)
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Google Medibuntu community documentation
Add Medibuntu as a repository
This is done by copying and pasting (right-click, can't Ctrl-V) into a terminal.
Follow the instructions on the page. You have to copy & paste several times.


Try to view a WMV file. It will search for codecs and install them. This is a
time-consuming process (abt 20 min) that requires repeated steps. (The sudo works fast.)

ADD BOOKMARKS
Open a Nautilus browser (Places)
Navigate to your destination
Menu => Bookmarks => Add Bookmark (Ctrl-D)


ALLOW EVERYONE TO EDIT /our_data
Applications => Accessories => Terminal
sudo chmod a=rwx /our_data

DELETING OLD KERNELS

Ubuntu has the Update Manager and Synaptec Package Manager, used to install and update software.

When you run those on a regular basis all of a sudden when you go to boot you will come into something similar to the list of options you get if you press F8 while Windows is booting.  You will see a list of kernel versions and if you don't touch anything one will be started automatically.

Here is how to delete the older versions.

1) Open a ROOT terminal
2) Type: uname -a
3) That shows the kernel version currently running. Note it.
4) Start Synaptic Package Manager
5) In Quick Search search for linux-generic
6) Installed versions have a green checkbox. On the versions to be removed right click and select Mark for Complete Removal
7) Click Apply

Generally, there is no difference between Unix and Linux, so I'll only mention Linux.

Unlike Windows, Linux is case-sensitive.  Although you can use filenames like "January 2011 Report.xls" standard practice is to use all lowercase and hyphens, not spaces, i.e., january-2011-report.xls

There is a very good reason for avoiding spaces, apostrophes, etc., in filenames--octal is Linux's native language and some programs, etc., will automatically replace punctuation with the hex equivalent, preceded by %.  So you might name a file "January Payments Report" and a program might automatically change that to January%20Payments%20Report.

Unlike Windows, file extensions are not meaningful. Note that to a certain extent Ubuntu does not follow this convention.

By default no file is executable.  You have to set the program's permissions. That is done with the command-line utility chmod.  (Ubuntu has a graphical interface to do that.)

Case-sensitivity applies to all aspects. Linux utilities have an incredible range of options and parameter flags are also case-sensitive, i.e., cp whatever -r and cp whatever -R would produce different results.

The philosophy behind Linux utilities, names, etc., is that the user knows what s/he's doing. Until Ubuntu, virtually all Linux users were hard core geeks with formal college course work in Unix. The "dummies" were Windows power users with a background in system administration and programming. The idea is that if you're not comfortable with the command line, skip Linux. Also, you'll be using various utilities a lot. So it's easier to learn the command name once and then type something short rather than type long names that are easier to remember.  Hence, "cp" = Copy; "ls" = List (= Windows Dir), "mv" = Move, etc.

A lot of utility names are based on geek humor.  For instance, what Windows users call a command prompt Unix calls a shell.  Unlike Windows, there are many shells.  The original was called "sh".  Someone expanded that a bit.  Someone named Bourne expanded it more, leading to "bash", which stands for "Bourne Again shell".

Linux utilities include a detailed set of on-line manuals referred to as "man" pages.  You can routinely get help by typing man commandname

There are a number of Linux "distros". Red Hat and Novelle are the two largest but they basically sell complete software "stacks" referred to as LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache server, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python. Folks using those would normally have experienced Linux system admins.

Software is mainly distributed in "packages" using one of two formats: .rpm (Red Hat Package Manager) or .deb for Debian (the Linux "fork" that includes Ubuntu.) Ubuntu includes Synaptec Package Manager which takes care of most of the technical aspects of downloading and installing software on an Ubuntu system. Because the package management system coordinates "file dependencies", you can't mix installers.  If you are using Ubuntu/Debian, you can't install an rpm package.

You will also see references to a "tarball", "make" and compiling.  Historically, most Linux/Unix software was distributed as source code in a compressed format (tar stands for tape archive) and it was compiled with the "make" utility. Ubuntu has pretty much eliminated the need for that.  Unless you need some oddball utility you will probably never need to use "make".

There is a HUGE amount of high quality free software available for Ubuntu. Most university, industry and government research projects that develop software for particular in-house activities develop for Linux, not Windows.  Because a lot of it is done under research grants, they either are required to or voluntarily make the code public. Generally, binary files are not available, but the installer packages will determine what other files are necessary and download and install those and compile everything automatically.

Unlike Windows, there is no central folder for programs equivalent to C:\Program Files.  Programs generally wind up in one of several places.  Although this can be confusing if you have downloaded source code and are trying to decide where to put it, that generally is not a problem with Ubuntu because the target location will be predefined in the installer.

There is a version called Portable Ubuntu, although it is not the latest Ubuntu version. It loads on top of Windows. So, you can have your Linux programs running in Portable Ubuntu and your Windows programs running simultaneously.

There is a program called WINE which emulates Windows. Basically, it takes Windows API calls to system routines and reroutes them to the equivalent Linux routines. www.CodeWeavers.com has a commercial version that is normally a bit more advanced, although they do donate their code to the overall WINE project.

I only have personal Sesame at home, where I have been basically working on a replacement for part of our QA system because "someday" we'll need it.

We have an outside consultant who was involved in setting up the QA system around 15 years ago.  Although he basically hasn't been involved in years, every time I suggest something my boss goes running to him and he often nixes the idea.  When we needed to replace our Windows 2000 Server with its 512MB PC-133 memory and 1GHz processor I suggested Linux on a modern motherboard, which could be done for around $200.  (That's where I started working with Linux.)  He told my boss, "Your company's clients are running Windows, so you'll need Windows for compatibility" even though the server never contacts our clients and the users are running Windows.  So we'll definitely never be using multi-user Linux in a production environment and we probably won't be using anything with Sesame until extended support for XP ends in 2014.  (We set up XP as our "server" operating system for QA.  Everything else is on a Win 2008 Server machine.)

Those are probably the correct set of libraries to run a 32 bit application on the 64 bit OS.

... but these are not drivers. They are runtime libraries, like DLLs on Windows.

Above I have a "script" I have used with Ubuntu Desktop versions 10.04 and 10.10.

I just tried setting up 11.04 and the script will not work "right out of the box".

The Gnome 2.x interface has a single menu-type bar at the top and in the upper right corner are Applications Places System.

System opens to Preferences and Administration.  Between the two of those most system settings can be found.

11.04 defaults to the "Unity" interface, which has an application launcher icon bar on the left side of the screen.  It does not provide access to the various System settings.  When you try to change to Gnome as the default interface, searching on the Web just pulls up loads of things about Gnome 3, which is not yet supported by Ubuntu.


Here are the instructions, courtesy of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at www.zdnet.com:

It’s actually pretty simple to choose between Unity and the classic UI.

  1. Log out of Ubuntu 11.04
  2. At the log on screen select the user you want to log in as
  3. At the bottom of the screen you’ll notice a task bar appear -  this allows you to switch between different modes
  4. Select Ubuntu Classic
  5. Log in as normal
  6. If you want Unity back, repeat the steps but instead choose Ubuntu