Skip to main content

Status report: to what extent has the migration from Windows to Linux taken place?

As at mid-May2019 - ~10 weeks since a change to the test environment - it's about time to document the status of the migration from Windows to Linux.

Successful path to migration found, a bonus is that the path is bi-directional

Linux Mint, WPS Office, GPS Prune, Google Earth and XNView are successfully replicating their functionality in the Windows environment.

The changes to the data are successfully read and updated within the Windows environment.  For these apps, the path to migration is achieved, is bi-directional.  For these apps, mission accomplished.

Path to migration is visible, but not yet reliable enough to count as a success

gscan2pdf has been found over two months to be unreliable, with predictable crashes upon a particular instruction of post-scanning processing.  This could be gscan2pdf itself, or any number of the subsidiary programs it invokes.  It is still worth persistence.  NAPS2 for Windows is still the more reliable app.

Path to migration is obstructed by apps which are incompatible or otherwise unusable

PDF browsing and annotation

Of all the functionality that has gone wrong, it is the simple, basic, fundamental task of reading and annotating PDF files.  An initial test in May2018 found that Foxit for Linux and Okular broadly failed to meet the base requirements met by Foxit for Windows, but there seems to be few alternatives in the Linux environment, so a formal test-of-use of the three PDF browsers is required to establish where issues exist.  The control case is Foxit for Windows.

Path to migration not yet tested

  • GenoPro.
  • Replacement for Thunar File Manager (no filter; Linux Mint provides Catfish, but this is largely keyboard-inaccessible, therefore largely unusable).
  • Connecting to a VPN.
  • MP3Tag
  • PDFill (subject to persistence with gscan2pdf).
  • Duplicati 2


End of document.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scanning & OCRring to PDF: Simple Scan, gimagereader and gscan2pdf v NAPS2 for Windows

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to scanning paper documents to PDF and digitising the scanned text via optical character recognition. Environment & required functionality The scan-and-OCR function needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; A Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". In any modern office - whether at home or at work - some transactional documents and documents from public authorities still arrive by snail-mail. This requires the ability to scan all documents, optionally with the digitisation of scanned text (typically via optical character recognition). The hardware is an old HP OfficeJet Pro 276dw, connected to the LAN instead of directly to a workstation. Alternatives There are two strategies: To use the software pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adjusting screen brightness

The machine on which Linux Mint is installed an old Acer Aspire 5732Z (" Gandalf ") It has buttons to adjust the brightness of the screen's backlight.  When the user uses these buttons, Linux Mint correctly presented a fading-popup box (a slider bar) to denote relative brightness.  But Linux Mint did not actually adjust the brightness of the screen. It seems to be a known issue in the Linux Mint forums  and solved in multiple  stages by the Easy Tips Project . I followed the instructions on Easy Tips section 5.2  in Gandalf's admin account, then re-booted, then logged in using the user account, and the brightness adjustment function worked correctly. Easy Tips asks the user to discover the relevant property of the machine, then creates a file that contains a script of parameters that other programs in Linux Mint understand. This method worked for Gandalf, because Gandalf has an integrated Intel chipset. Useful commands at the Terminal ALT+T (or th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Keepass and KeepassX

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to password manager, Keepass. Environment & required functionality A number of encrypted password vaults synchronise between three machines: The Linux Mint Xfce laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas "; Another Windows 10 machine, name withheld to protect the guilty. The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives My original decision to use Keepass was in 2016 and was based on: Keepass is open-source; Keepass is locally stored, not stored in the cloud; Keepass does not automatically plug into the browser (a plugin permits this if ever necessary); higher security standards at the office, worth deploying at home; portability of the password vault via Google Drive, encrypted such that Google would not be able to slurp data from an o...
Post a Comment
Read more