Re: [seul-edu] wine testing efforts

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

> One of the major things I've run across in the Red Hat pilot is that 
> most of the schools would really like to keep running most of the 
> educational software they have.  If they are interested in moving to 
> Linux, right now this means Wine (with a couple of exceptions).
> 
> Here are some preliminary Wine testing results from different sites here 
> in North Carolina.  Test platform was RHL 7.3, updated with the 0512 
> build of of the basic Wine (obtained from http://www.linux-easy.com/daily/).
> 
> If anyone has tried any similar applications or has done some serious 
> testing, I'd love to hear about it.
> 
> We should probably database-ize this at some point. :)

Yes, I/We can do that. Any interest?

If yes, I'll do it.

Les Richardson
H. Hardcastle School
Edam, Sk. Canada



> 
> Note that the commercial Codeweavers Crossover product 
> (www.codeweavers.com) is known to handle Office much better than the 
> basic Wine.
> 
> *****
> 
> Microsoft Office 2000:  Partially functional
> 
> Office 2000 installs fairly well.  DO NOT install the Office Assistant 
> -- he will crash Wine everytime he starts up.  If you don't have an 
> Everything Red Hat Linux install, there are complaints about fonts -- 
> looking into this.  Even with the font problems, the apps seem okay. 
> Known working:
> 
> Word 2000
> Excel 2000
> PowerPoint 2000
> 
> OLE functionality (cross-program transfers, like putting an Excel 
> spreadsheet into an Word Document) does not appear to work.  Access and 
> FrontPage both require IE 3.0 or higher -- the IE 5.0 installation 
> included with my CD did NOT work, so those two are out for the time being.
> 
> This is probably the easiest of applications to replace (OpenOffice.org, 
> StarOffice) in the grand scheme of things because most people do not use 
> 90% of the included functionality.  The major block we've run into is 
> that some business education units concentrate on Microsoft 
> certification and application-specific training.
> 
> *****
> 
> Riverdeep Pre-K software:
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "ABCs and 123s" -- seems to be fully functional on 7.3 
> (with updated wine)
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "Trudy's Time and Place House" -- partially functional 
> on updated RHL7.3, has a redraw issue that prevents proper function.
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "Sammy's Science House" -- partially functional on 
> updated RHL7.3, has a redraw issue that prevents proper function.
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "Millie's Math House" -- partially functional on 
> updated RHL7.3, has a redraw issue that prevents proper function.
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "Travel the World with Timmy! Deluxe" -- nonfunctional 
> under updated RHL7.3, needs DirectX 7.0 or better(winex?)
> 
> Riverdeep/Edmark "Thinkin' Things: Toony the Loon's Lagoon" -- 
> nonfunctional on RHL7.3, but also nonfunctional on Windows system, so 
> status is unknown (corrupted CD?  incompatibility with Win98?).
> 
> 
> I was disappointed in how this turned out.  Most of this software is or 
> was very recently Win3.1 compatible, which would imply better Wine 
> compatibility in my mind.
> 
> *****
> 
> Orchard Software:
> 
> Nonfunctional.  The demo installs, but apparently the database fails to 
> initialize and you can't get to any of the lessons.  I'm still working 
> on this one, because it is important here in NC.
> 
> *****
> 
> NCS Mentor for Virginia Schools:
> 
> Mostly functional.  A couple of minor display issues, but the program 
> works, even running off of a Samba share.
> 
> *****
> 
> SIFS -- a Windows-based Student Information System in use in Virginia. 
> Appears to be fully functional, but probably needs further testing.
> 
> *****
> 
> SIMS -- a DOS-based SIS.  Folks here have it running with 
> dosemu/FreeDOS, there are issues with printing (should be solved) and 
> with backup, which is done with a Zip disk.  We also have contact with 
> the maintainer, so this should be okay.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Matt Drew
> Red Hat, Inc
> Education Pilot Tech Coordinator
> (919)880-7736 (cell)
> (919)754-3700 x44192
> mdrew@redhat.com
>