I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks.
Bev.
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Bev Nicolson wrote:
I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks.
Hi,
I've done a couple of 60-point science courses with the OU in recent years. The problem (which may or may not be significant depending upon the course content) may be with the interactive stuff they supply on DVD. The videos themselves are fine (regular DVD content), but they also often provide application-based stuff. One of my courses, for example, had an "explore the sea-bed around the mid-Atlantic ridge", which, IIRC was an actual Windows app (although it might actually have been Java-based - it's been a little while). I must admit that as I have a Windows box kicking around for emergencies, I didn't even bother to try getting any of it to work in Linux (even just to see "if I could").
Everything else was fine. I wrote all my TMAs in OpenOffice on Linux (the formula editor, once you got used to it, and its export-to-PDF feature produced *very* professional-looking submissions), and the eTMA service works fine on Firefox. I was/am running Mandriva, so not sure if any of this really helps :-)
Regards, Simon
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On Tue, 2007-08-28 at 18:22 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote:
I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks.
Bev.
Not supported can often just mean "not tested on" if their site works on both Windows and Mac (and therefore presumably more than one browser) then there is a very good chance it will work on firefox on ubuntu.
If software resources are made available for your your course outside the scope of the website then it may be that only Windows and Mac binaries are made available. Then your choice is to either experiment with Wine by following the recent thread on the main list or install Windows in a virtual machine (the virtual machine can be operated for free but you will need a Windows licence) and this being an option I would strongly recommend that you attend the next iplug meet as samwise is performing a demonstration.
If the site just wont play in firefox on linux then a last resort may be http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page, but that resource is intended more for site development than actually using a browser in anger.
Well I know a colleague of mine at work has studied several times with the OU and runs Linux at work and at home. The way he's solved the problem is to run a vmware windows PC over the top of his Linux PC so that he can install the software. Its worked well for him bit is a bit fiddly to setup initially I believe...
Rgds
On 28/08/2007, Bev Nicolson bnicolson@operamail.com wrote:
I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks.
Bev.
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