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My internet is upside down :(
It looks like this

or even better

Well, at least the rendering engine seems to work... http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Beta

IES4Linux installs IE on wine in a matter of minutes, no WGA required ... :)

In fact, I ran WGA a few months ago under wine, it validated my non-existent Windows license :)

I hear ya! My distro of choice is Novell openSUSE 10.2, which is very easy to set up and use, though I had to remove zmd to get efficient updates with opensuse-updater (the upcoming 10.3 doesn't install zmd by default). IMHO, Novell openSUSE 10.2 is an order of magnitude easier to set up and use than Ubuntu, though the /. community in general has taken an anti-Novell stance due to its patent cross licensing agreement with Microsoft (which is funny, considering how /. loves Apple despite Apple's numerous patent and technology cross licensing agreements with Microsoft, but I digress).

I've been able to "convert" two people at work from Windows XP to openSUSE 10.2 based on its merits and ease of use. Ubuntu will hopefully get to a similar position from a technical perspective, but IMHO at this time, Novell openSUSE 10.2 is already there, and Novell has committed themselves to making SUSE Linux a world-class desktop operating system.

From your post, here is what openSUSE 10.2 and likely other distros can offer:

- Browser: Firefox, Konqueror, Mozilla Seamonkey, Opera, and IEs4Linux (I use IEs4Linux to access Outlook Web Access's calendar at work, since I use Thunderbird for my email. I'm looking forward to an Exchange plug-in for Mozilla Lighning)

- Email: Thunderbird (yay! I'm also writing a Salesforce.com extension for it called Thunderforce), Evolution (I actually despise it, though I also don't like Outlook's interface. To each, their own.. Don't bother with the Exchange connector; it's slow and crashes often), KMail, and others

- Quicken 2008 might be tricky. Quicken 2007 appears to work to an extent, but it might have issues, which is probably not good for an accounting package

- GnuCash is a possible replacement for Quicken, though it's more like QuickBooks than Quicken. For a personal finance look and feel, KMyMoney might be the better way to go, though some time might need to be invested in the conversion process. Converting from Quicken Mac 2004 to KMyMoney was not seamless for me, but I haven't gone back and fixed the errors in the import configuration that I used and tried again. If you do the GnuCash approach, then you can use my GnuCashToQIF program to export back to Quicken in case if you want to go back to it or if you need to export your data to an accountant, either as QIF or IIF. I have an old Mac at home that I'm moving away from, though I'm still using Quicken and iTunes on it

- Novell's version of OpenOffice includes extensive support for Excel macros, so it's worth trying out. It might address all of your Excel needs. As a nice bonus, OpenOffice uses a single-document interface (SDI) instead of a multiple-document interface (MDI), permitting you to have two or more separate top-level spreadsheet windows side-by-side or on different monitors. Excel is MDI, though it does create a top-level start menu button for each open document, essentially faking SDI, but it's really MDI. You could enlarge Excel to span multiple monitors and have your MDI windows not maximized, but that breaks down if you have one monitor portrait and the other one landscape. If you really, really need Excel, then it appears to be well supported by CrossOver Office

- Visual Studio 2005 is a tough one because MonoDevelop might not include all the features that you may be accustomed to. It does implement a lot, but it's probably not a drop-in replacement yet.

- Standard Fare, Browser, email, etc. (got that covered with Linux or OSX)

Of course. And if you ever get in a pinch and your company requires IE for some reason, IE 4-6 all run very well in Wine. The Evolution email client also integrates with Exchange fairly well, from what I understand.

- Quicken 2008.

If you're willing to jump through hoops, GNUCash might be able to import some of your data. It's my understanding that Quicken does not run well in Wine, and, in fact, Intuit seems to be deliberately introducing lock-in "features" that get worse with each new version. If you want to keep your financial data, I'd highly recommend getting it out of Quicken ASAP.

- Excel

OpenOffice.org Calc is the most equivalent in functionality (and should have no trouble importing/exporting most documents, provided they don't rely on Excel bugs or heavily on scripts. KFormula (part of KOffice) also comes to mind. Pre-2007 Office apps also work very well in Wine, if you need it. I don't know if 2007 does, if at all.

- Visual Studio 2005 (Mostly .NET 2.0/ASPX/C#) (I know I can not convince my employer to switch, so I have to be able to develop for it).

Mono produces code that will run on .NET (as it is, after all, a .NET-compatible suite), and GCC produces object files that will link with those produced by Visual Studio. Unless you need the UI for some reason, you can pretty well ditch most of it. All Mono is missing at the moment is Windows.Forms (and other similar interfaces), but they are well on the way to getting clones.

What I'd suggest is to try using some open source apps that have been released on Windows and get yourself used to them - bring then into your workflow. Once you've dropped Quicken and are comfortable with working with Mono, you should be pretty well set to start experimenting in Linux. This isn't going to be a format-the-hard-drive-and-install-Linux-today kind of migration for you, until you've unleashed yourself from the worst parts of vendor lock-in.

We don't need Cedega anymore. I'm actually running some games under Wine and they perform as expected under Windows. Yes, even those fast 3D FPS.
Of course not all games are supported, but the list is growing; take a look at the App DB list.
Some of them install just fine, some others need a bunch of dlls copied here and there, but usually you have a working game in a matter of minutes.

And it's not just about games: Wine is getting mature to a point it can actually replace Windows even in a development environment. Need to test web pages with IE and have no disk space to waste for a Windows partition? Here's IE for Linux .
I've also succesfully installed and used different versions of Delphi (the best Windows RAD out there, don't even try to argue that:^) provided one doesn't try to use ActiveX components, something most non mcsd drones will see as an improvement rather than a setback.

Sorta reminds me of the old days when I used OS/2 as a multitasker for DOS programs. I needed a reliable way to test some client/server Clipper db apps I was writing and OS/2 was the only way to rapidly build and test on a single machine what had to work on several PCs in a netbios network.
Another funny thing is that the small fonts I used in those apps to gain maximum screen space worked perfectly under both native DOS and OS/2 VDMs (DOS boxes) but always crashed Windows 95 terminals.

To me it's history repeating again: looks like Windows is doomed to be beaten by something else even in its own field.

1. Install applications such as Word or Excel on Wine on central server. You can give each program its own "fake windows" directory.
2. Mount central server's Wine directories over NFS. You can even boot from NFS, if you like.
3. Run Wine locally. All the application data will be pulled over the network, without actually installing it on the clients.

One interesting thing is that I can virtualize IE, thanks to IEs4Linux. Downside: IE7 isn't actually run; they use IE6 with the IE7 rendering engine. Upside: You get four separate versions of IE on the same machine -- you can probably even run them simultaneously.

By the way: You don't need virtualization to run apps off the network. You just need a fileserver and an app which doesn't insist on being installed on a physical hard drive. (For example, Steam will refuse to run if you attempt to install it on a network drive.)

On Ubuntu, with ies4linux, it crashes ie6 but not ie7.

Pizza Pizza also doesn't work in Linux which means I have to boot my Windows laptop to get some chow ... :-(

No, you don't.

Well, actually it is an option. Not, of course, a good option. But, if you just HAVE to download a movie from WalMart.com, you actually can. The IEs 4 Linux project will install IE 5.0,5.5,6.0 on a Linux box, and I believe they have a beta working with IE7.

Now if only Wine had proper access to the SANE driver, I wouldn't need windows for anything.

It's not always "exactly as seen in Windows", but you can get 90+% there before sending your page off for rendering.

"Yeah, I can't wait to install Microsoft software on my Linux systems."

Here you go - run Internet Explo[d|r]er under linux http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Finally get into those IE-only sites using linux.

Might I recommend using Linux instead of windows?

http://www.tatanka.com.br/

Web developers (developers, developers) without a Windows box cannot test websites for IE. And given IE's track record with standards compliance, this is not a good situation for Microsoft. I'm not buying a whole Windows box just to test websites in their crummy browser.

Yeah, neither am I.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ has been unreachable from at least my nameserver some time now. Does anyone have a mirror? It's really useful utility and I'm afraid maybe Microsoft shut it down. If someone has a tarball please post a mirror site for it. Perhaps, just the domain expired.

Thanks.

Why not just buy a copy of windows XP? If you're a web developer and you think it's important to test in IE, then you should pay for the required licenses to run it.

Or use ies4linux

Both my desktop and my laptop run ubuntu, but if I really needed to access an IE only site, I'd just boot into windows.

Why bother when you can run IE under Wine?

ies4linux

I'm not sure if it'll fix our etrade and movielink problems, though.

take that one computer running MS IE6 and replace Windows with Linux and then install IEs4linux( http://www.tatanka.com.br/ ). That'll get you MS IE5, 5.5, and 6 on one machine. And really, it
would have been cheaper to purchase more system memory and run a few virtual machines for testing.

Good to hear a Microsoft based developer concerned about wasting time.

LoB

IE runs under wine. Here is the painless way to install it.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

You can actually install 3 versions of IE on linux easily.
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

"Windows applications don't run on Linux"

You'd be surprised. Even Internet Explorer runs under linux.

This week another developer installed suse 10.3 alpha 1 on his dual-lcd box at work - all his Windows apps work - and one of them works better under linux than it does under Windows. Plus he now has access to a lot of stuff that just isn't available under Windows.

IE runs under Whine, but you need to launch the application from an existing install of Windoze.

False. You can install IE standalone, and in fact I have IE 6 installed under Wine. And my actual pc has never seen a Windows install (it's a Gentoo system). You can find a dumb-easy script to install IE6 here.

Linux is not ready for prime time when it comes to music software. The only program I've found that automatically detects my MIDI keyboard is LMMS. Whine chokes on Cakewalk software installs.

This is sad but right. LMMS is very promising but is very limited now (However I'm nicely impressed by its painless VST support)

Google Earth installs but the graphics are slower'n crap.

"Installs" under Wine? There is a native Google Earth binary for Linux. I have it running on my machine and works well. If you have problem with slow graphics, check you have direct rendering enabled on your machine.

"However our vendors have the purchasing info/programs on the web, and pretty sure AT LEAST one requires IE. Thus we need windows underneath."

You no longer need Windows to run Internet Explorer - it runs fine under linux .

What is IEs4Linux?

IEs4Linux is the simpler way to have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on Linux (or any OS running Wine).

No clicks needed. No boring setup processes. No Wine complications. Just one easy script and you'll get three IE versions to test your Sites. And it's free and open source.

Who is the target public?

• WebDesigners that want to move to Linux but still need to test their sites on IE.
• People who have to open IE-only sites

The IEs installations are smaller than usual because they include only the necessary files to have a good test browser (there is no Outlook, Media Player etc).

It really works. Complete with all the IE-specific javascript/dom/css bugs.

I wonder how compatible IEs4Linux would be with your current vendor?

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Did some people actually go through the trouble of making IE7 install on a system that doesn't run it? E.g., on Win 2000? I can only hope there weren't too many.

I did - on Linux. It's extraordinarily handy for quickly testing sites I am developing without having to dig out Windows. In fact, I'm running 4 versions of IE (5.0 to 7), Iceweasel, Opera and Konqueror all on one desktop.

Simple instructions for anyone interested are here.

At least one of those downloads was by my humble self and now graces my humble Ubuntu desktop, thanks to the excellent IEs 4 Linux package.

(Disclaimer: I do web dev work and need it for testing purposes. And I feel all dirty and sordid with every time I fire it up).

it's coming!

./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

Are you sure?

I've just entered the following:

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

And it failed.

Update: it seems that you need two hyphens before the "beta". It is also necessary to download the special beta version of ies4linux, which is not linked to from the main ies4linux page.

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-2.5beta3
./ies4linux --beta-install-ie7

That should work, but I'm getting "An error occured when trying to cabextract some files."

./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

Are you sure?

I've just entered the following:

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

And it failed.

Update: it seems that you need two hyphens before the "beta". It is also necessary to download the special beta version of ies4linux, which is not linked to from the main ies4linux page.

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-2.5beta3
./ies4linux --beta-install-ie7

That should work, but I'm getting "An error occured when trying to cabextract some files."

ies4Linux is still supporting IE7 installation only in beta. You have to use the --beta-install-ie7 command-line option when installing. I have seen some issues, notably with transparency support (GIF and PNG), but I primarily use IE7 to test layout positioning. The transparency issues are apparently a problem with wine.

As a Linux and Firefox user I haven't been able to use Internet Explorer 7 yet...
As a Linux user, I've also been running IE7 by using the ies4linux installation script. I have IE versions 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 installed to run using wine. Not great for browsing on a regular basis (that's what Firefox and Opera are for), but a necessity for testing and development.

Never thats a violation of Microsofts EULA

Can you imagine IE 7 and IE6 as standalone programs on a KDE desktop?!

While you can't run IE 7 in Linux yet...IE 6/Flash 9 & below is certainly possible with Wine from any desktop at the following address:
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-2.0.tar.gz

(Can you imagine IE 7 and IE6 as standalone programs on a KDE desktop?!)

You really should check out ies4linux.

It's an extremely clever set of scripts that pulls the necessary components of various versions of IE from microsoft, and configures wine so that it all just works, making setting up IE to run under wine the work of a few minutes. Whilst still in beta, version 2.1 includes support for IE 7.

(Actually all it includes at the moment is the rendering engine wrapped in an IE 6 interface - but for web development the rendering engine is what we need to see in action the most.)

You really should check out ies4linux.

It's an extremely clever set of scripts that pulls the necessary components of various versions of IE from microsoft, and configures wine so that it all just works, making setting up IE to run under wine the work of a few minutes. Whilst still in beta, version 2.1 includes support for IE 7.

(Actually all it includes at the moment is the rendering engine wrapped in an IE 6 interface - but for web development the rendering engine is what we need to see in action the most.)

There is, actually (at least the rendering engine) http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/news/28

Mwa-ha-ha-ha. IEs4Linux is my answer! =)

Now you can also get your vista/XP whatever with IE7 , and have a virtual PC (vmware or whatever MS calls their stuff) runinng an linux image, that have ie4linux installed ...
Then you have IE7 on your main windows machines (god.. did i say windows is your primary OS ?) and test backward compatibility with IE 6, IE5.5 and another i don't remember the number within your neat little Linux image through wine...
May be easier than having a win2k computer somewhere...

Check it here :
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

I found IEs 4 Linux to be really helpful for testing web pages on various versions of IE. They're hopefully bringing out support for IE7 soon too.

I suppose that it's only really helpful if you're running Linux though.

I really feel for the guys on Linux or Mac who have absolutely no way of testing sites on IE.

I test on IE on my Linux box all the time. Sure, the fonts are fairly different so it's not good for final layout but it's awesome for discovering if pages render correctly and way easier than keeping a full-time VMWare session running.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

should have asked google first :(
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/news/28

Yes... IE7 does run under Wine - so it wouldn't be too hard for Microsoft to make an official Linux/i386 version.

Try CrossOver from CodeWeavers. I am a web developer too and I run IE6 on Ubuntu with it.

You can also try IEs 4 Linux: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Right here.

I'm a web developer, and the only reason I use Windows is to make sure Internet Explorer renders things properly.

You probably know this already, but anyone in a similar position should definitely check out ies4linux. IE6 / 5.5 / 5.0 only so far I'm afraid, but it works very well.

The IEs4Linux http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/news/ project claim to have a hacked out of XP IE7 rendering engine running under Wine... claiming improvements in the near future.

ie is a piece of sh1t the really makes my life as a web developer suck ass, but i can deal with it and work around it... its the fat lazy ass developers and managers that suck every microsoft cock that make IE7 under Linux a need not a want.