Running under Linux

[Mike Tarver]

I would love to be able to run Alpha 5 on my Linux box using Wine or Crossover Office (which allows me to run Office XP, Visio, Project, Dreamweaver MX, and Photoshop 7). I'm currently tied to Windows by Alpha 5.

[Lawrie]

Maybe some Alpha reps should check out this show in their neighborhood: http://www.xandros.com/

Xandros offers a Deluxe version that includes Crossover Office from http://www.codeweavers.com/ .

My opinion:
I think 2005 is going to be the year for Spyware and getting away from Windows at the workstation level is something we have to consider since the best anti-spyware software to date, is only capable of filtering roughly 50% of the spys and Linux is extremely less vulnerable.

[Lenny Forziati]

Wine, Crossover Office, etc are windows emulators and there is nothing we can do to make Alpha Five work in them. The work needs to be done by those developers to make the emulation more complete. There are many, many Windows programs which do not work in those emulators for this reason, including Access and Filemaker.

[sqlpython]

Actually Access 2000 and Access 97 run quite will under CrossOffice / WINE.

[Tom Cone Jr]

I wonder if Alpha Five would also, if it did not write to the system registry any more?

[AaronBBrown]

I wonder if Alpha Five would also, if it did not write to the system registry any more?

Any emulator needs to support registry calls. Compared with most applications, we use the registry very little.

[sqlpython]

I tried to install Data 2 the Web for MySQL in Linux with CrossOffice but it failed.
Never tried to install Alpha 5.
I suppose Alpha 4 would install in the DOS emulator.

[sqlpython]

Yeah, the only application I need in Windows is ALpha 5.
I am turned off by MS policies recently announced
in July 05 Validation of Authenticity for Updates
in Aug 05 During UPdates MS will Police the users hardware for illegal MS/partner Software
I am doing more and more in MySQL. It was good move for Alpha to align themselves with MySql.
I hope they seriously consider a Linux Data 2 the Web.
It is not news to marketing that the operating System audiences in size are
1. MS 2. Linux 3. Apple Apple has been #3 for about 3 years..

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

Maybe Alpha could develop a Linux version...

[sqlpython]

See the Data 2 the Web for MySql forum here at Alpha.
Apparently just such an item is under development.

[Unfree]

I confirm it's not working with Crossover 7.1 mac but there is a solution with Suse 11 and Crossover 6.2 here :

"X Version: 7.1.0-pro
Application: Alpha Five V7
Distribution: Suse-11.0

I've been running the Alpha Five database program from Alpha Software Inc. for
several years under crossover with functionality at about a silver level - most
things work. I've been running Suse-11.0 and crossover-pro-6.2.0 in a windows
98 bottle and recently upgraded to crossover-pro-7.1.0. Now when I start the
program I get a MEM_BAD_POINTER pop-up window, if I click OK, the window again
pops up until it finally locks. I reloaded crossover-pro-6.2.0 and it still
runs fine but of course I would like to run the latest crossover. I ideas?
Thanks,
Dick"
_http://www.codeweavers.com/support/tickets/browse/?ticket_id=707727;list=6;ticket_level=2

[paul_sc1]

Thanks for posting that Ben. I purchased alpha 5 desktop and application server at version 8, updated them to 9 platinum but not sure if I will upgrade to 10 when it comes out... unfortunately, I have not used alpha 5 at all since I find myself in linux desktop most of the time for the majority of my work.

My expectation was to make a hybrid system to allow our remaining windows users to access the desktop environment and then our ever increasing number of linux desktop users access the data through the web browser. Since I have no option to host the app server on anything but windows, I planned to host a5 app server on a windows vm in one of our linux servers.

With the mysql accessibility features of 8 and 9...I could just access our data off one of our higher powered linux mysql servers. But, as I said above...I just have not had time to stay in a windows environment long enough to work with alpha...and If I can't do that....none of the above plans will happenj for me.

At least as you mention, if it worked in wine...or crossover office pro 8 as I now have...I could pound away at it all the time ;)

[EMHmark7]

More security proof, having it running on FreeBSD. OpenBSD is more safe, but I think FreeBSD would develop faster, could maybe be more compatible (I don't know what I am talking about here but, since there is a larger user/developper base, and maybe it is closer to Linux).

Anyway, it would be nice to have some knowledgable at Alpha (of course with a windows emulator, or some virtual machine soft), try it on FreeBSD (with Jail feature) and let us know about a standard (at our own risks) setup checklist. There could be lots of $ for them.

Ok A5 is slower than some compiled technologies (that are less flexible on programmer's side and less integrated with all what we need). So, An idea is to have many low cost CPUs sharing the task. So, we need to spend some $ at Alpha (for each CPU!!!!) but why for Windows? Everybody tells me a Windows server is not safe on the net.

With FreeBSD, we can tune it against many types of threats. In fact it is like an OS with a built-in (to be tuned ok!) firewall.

So, if the idea is good for Yahoo! and other bigs, why not for us?
__
I am posting again here a part of one of my previous posts in another thread:

2) About virtualization, anybody tried it? Any real performance/security gain, or advantage for A5 server?

3) Anybody using a PCI card implementing hardware fast encryption/decrypt and if A5 can use it?

4) About FreeBSD, I need to learn the OS before starting my tests and I am not an expert, so, if you are interested by the info, I recently got this answer from http://www.codeweavers.com/ answering my request originally for OpenBSD.They produce a Windows emulator for Apple Mac computers (by the way, Max OS is FreeBSD based) :

"If you're interested in giving it a shot on your OpenBSD system, our FreeBSD builds are ready. Again, we're not really sure how well it will work on OpenBSD (if at all), but our devs think there's a decent chance. If you'd like to try it, all we need you to do is create an account with us. Once created, just login to your account and head to the My Downloads section of your My Account page, and look for the Unsupported Downloads tab. Within you'll find a BSD tab."

I also found another windows emulator for FreeBSD:
http://win4bsd.com/wp/desktop/

There is also Wine (a non commercial opensource implementation, not an emulation!!! of Windows for FreeBSD), but maybe it is not fully implemented up to now.

5) If somebody knows another emulator... or tried a virtualization software
with A4 server, let us know!

[EMHmark7]

Also, FreeBSD supports multi-processors. I think OpenBSD does not.

Anyway, almost everybody will agree, the MOST anoying feature of A5 is its operating system. Is it possible to think about a safe and state of the art solution running on Windows? Not shure in the same sentence!

Who in the market can tell use the real risks using Win Xp for a webserver? There is always another one telling us it is unsafe.

[jorgecardenas1]

I agree, A5 must run on linux.

Since Apache is the most used server it would be recommended that WAS runs on Apache, not with its own server. But if not possible at least WAS must run on Linux, and yes the development would be good to have it in Linux too.

The economy is moving more companies to Linux, let's move A5 there too.

[Kent Kirkland]

I am converting my system over to Linux (using Xubuntu right now). Tried to use Crossover to run Alpha 5 version 9- failed. Will try it again, but based on what I have read here, it's not too promising. I totally agree with Jorge and the others who posted here. We need a version for Linux. I am ready to pay for it. Others will too. I have been running Microsoft-based systems since 1987, and it's time to cut the cord. Not only because of the constant upgrades which make your system obsolete (and unsupported), but because of the malware which attacks on a daily basis. The anti-spy virus software for Windows does not get it all. The final straw was when Microsoft installed the "Genuine Windows Advantage" on my machine AS AN UPDATE, without requesting access. I will find a way to migrate all of my systems over to Linux. I hope that Alpha Software would support this move, as millions more will be making it, and there is $ to be made, folks. If this is not done in the near, I will be forced to convert what I have created over to a Linux-friendly database. Please consider this, and I welcome any response from Alpha software-- I love the concept and execution of your product (even though as a non-programming user, I struggle to learn its most basic tools). Thanks -Kent K

[EMHmark7]

I am not an expert, but I think Linux is not the most secure option. I heard that it is not so perfect. A better compromise between Linux and OpenBSF (the most secure) seems to be FreeBSD. It seems that maybe it is more compatible than Linux. Many Win softwares are already running on FreeBSD with emulators or dirlectly through an implementation of the widows API!