Linux and Power Point

[javasaurus]

We're getting some new equipment here, and the manufacturer produces the software to run the equipment for Linux operating system. Everything else here is Windows based.

How difficult is it to get images/text from a Linux system to a Windows system? Is it as easy as saving a .jpg and mailing it to yourself? If the Linux system is not on a network, are there cross-platform thumb-drives? What about compatibility between Power Point and the Linux equivalent?

Any info or links will be appreciated!

Thanks!

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

All Linux kernels/distributions since "2.2.42" (some 7-10 years old now) can read a FAT or FAT32 file system, the standard file system for DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95/98. FAT32 allows for more characters in the name over the old 8.3 but does so by hiding the fact that it's really an FAT/8.3 file system with a wrapper at the driver/os level. In other words, a "hack".

At any rate, all flash drives and memory cards are either FAT or FAT32 'cause it's portable, fast, and out of patent so there's no licensing restrictions on them. You can plug it in and most modern linuxes will recognize the device and make it available for mount, and some desktops will actually go ahead and auto-mount it much like they do with cdroms.

OpenOffice can probably read most PPT files, though there are always font/color/layout problems with any translation. OpenOffice's output of PPT files are likely more correctly preserved when finally imported to PowerPoint.

There's no unix2dos conversion needed the way one would with text files. Same with word processing documents and spreadsheets as long as they're exported in the windows format by OpenOffice.

JPG files are what they are and are totally portable. PNG files are what they are but not ever system handles some of the more obscure aspects (like alpha channels for transparency) the same way. IE6 I know ignored the alpha channel, and I have no idea of IE7 fixed that (and given that they fixed so little else with regards to standards, like their CSS model, I doubt it).

plain text documents have to be converted and "dos2unix" programs are all free and easily found for both platforms. hit your google, and some Linux distros already have them. If doing FTP, you can say "ascii" mode and the FTP client will translate it on the way. all that changes is that dos uses "\r\n" (carriage return / line feed, old printer codes in ASCII) for a newline where-as unix only uses \n. Without the \r, programs that are "stupid" (Notepad, for example) don't know what to do with them.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

After seeing your post, I read more about OpenOffice. Very cool.

I also learned that there is a version of MS Office for Linux. Seems a little backwards to me. Working for the government, it seems that our IT department frowns on having too many variables in the systems they control. So everybody here normally uses Windows with MS Office. It takes really extraordinary circumstances to move away from that, so we may be forced to pay for Office for Linux, even if essentially compatible freeware is available. Sigh.

Still, this all means that we have options that will work, it's just a matter of working with our IT dept. and the equipment vendor to choose the right solution for us.

Thanks!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is or ever was a version of MS Office for linux.

There is running Office over "Wine" or other Windows emulation system (Codeweavers is a commercial product for this purpose), but M$ itself has never actually ported ANYTHING to Linux, not even the Windows Media Player they promised about 6 years ago that now tops my list of vaporware.

The thing about emulators? Wine either works or it doesn't and good luck to you, or Codeweavers (built on Wine) costs almost as much as a Windows license, and in either case you still (technically) have to pay for the MS Office license, so as they saying goes, why bother?

Is the point of this saving money on Windows by moving to Linux, or is the point simple data transfer from the geek or two that is using Linux? If the latter, the geeks are the exception and they become responsible for it (and as you say, the geeks in charge of the geeks aren't too fond of this).

Moving to Linux + emulators doesn't save money in the long run. Either you pay for a Linux expert and pay for license and support of the emulator, or you pay for Linux support from a vendor like Red Hat Enterprise as well, and you're still paying almost as much per seat as you were on Windows and now have forced your users through a *partial* learning curve where half the stuff they know, half they've never seen before, and none of it transparent.

Windows emulators are best for the two or three geeks who need them, not something to build a business on.

Is there really Office related material coming from the Linux box, or just images and text. If just images and text, then someone has to stick them into the Office docs, so you might as well, just transfer the files to stick in there and keep MS Office in charge of all else.

With Linux disconnected from the 'net, you also lose the ability to do file synchronization protections through tools like visual source safe.

Really, I'm failing to see the point here...

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Oops, didn't realize it was on an emulator.

Here's the deal. We are getting a new piece of really expensive lab equipment. As is normal for such things, it comes with its own software. In this case, the software is Linux-based.

Our IT department doesn't let us hook up anything to our network without approval, and their approvals fit on a very short list. So the Linux machine won't be networked.

Most of our equipment runs on Windows machines. We can easily export data and figures from the equipment software to Excel or Power Point, then transfer (by thumb drive) to our office computers and put it into reports and presentations.

So what we need is simply a way to move data and figures from the Linux machine to our office computers. But it sounds like we can do that using OpenOffice, and exporting the info in Windows format, then a thumb drive.

Thanks again for the info!

[dacuteturtle.livejournal.com]

Options are myriad.

You could just connect to a windows share and drop things.
You could create a windows share on the linux box and yank things off.
You could use Filezilla to connect via SSH and yank the file off.
Thumb drive or other FAT or NTFS removable device.

Your exact needs will dictate the best course of action.

Filezilla via SSH is likely the easiest network transfer method to set up with the fewest gotchas. Other methods have better advantages, but also have more gotchas and more decision points.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Government IT departments generally frown on anything "new" -- which means they may not let us hook the Linux system up to the network. I suspect our only option will be a thumb drive for file transfer. Our real concern was compatibility, and it sounds like that won't be a problem if we export the files in a Windows format.

Thanks!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I would avoid NTFS on thumbdrives and stick to FAT32 - yes, the 2.6 kernel supports NTFS but not every distribution turns that on (with automounting) by default and in some cases i've been damned perplexed about trying to fix that so i've generally given up.

Knoppix does do the automount, as does the latest Ubuntu.

2.4 kernels (i.e., older linux boxen) only support NTFS read-only, and may still have problems so its best avoided.

NTFS is also slow, bulky, and has lots of stuff nobody needs on a thumb drive like "Recycle Bin".

[dacuteturtle.livejournal.com]

I generally stick to FAT32 as well. Same reasons. From the User Support side, FAT32 is the most portable drive format out there. It's the easiest to support.