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Ask Slashdot: Recommendations For Linux Telecommuting Tools?
First time accepted submitter rodrix79 writes "Hi all. I am trying to move from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu, but maybe to Mint). The problem is I telecommute full time and I am having a hard time trying to find the right tools to keep communication flowing with my clients (which are mostly on Windows / Mac). Any good recommendations from Linux telecommuters?"
(1) Decide what you're trying to do
(2) Decide what application level software will do what you need
(3) Use whatever platform (2) runs on
I would not put my income at risk by playing silly games with the platform I use to earn my living. If I want to use something else for other purposes, then jolly good, I'll buy another box.
Sorry, but for business things you really do have to use Skype. It is what everyone uses, so you just have to go with it. That is cold hard truth. If you want UNIX OS, then just use Mac. I do and love it.
In all honesty... an IM program, an email program, and a web browser. Without saying what tools you're looking to replace, I really don't know where to go with this one.
You can use Teamviewer.
Can you be more specific? Like telling us what doensn't work? All major chat protocols work, email works, browsers work, OpenVPN works (others may work too). There are good terminal services clients. So, apart from the "I can't have Microsoft Office", what -pray tell us- doens't work.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Citrix (Make life easy).
A private forum if applicable. (I'm trying to nudge my main client in that direction, they have multiple outlets who don't communicate with each other much)
If you're trying to remote into a company LAN or VNC things then your main block is company IT policy rather than Linux capabilities, but if you're looking at standard communication tools then browser choice is sometimes more important than OS choice.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
I generally hate it when people don't answer the "real" question posted to an online forum, so for starters: Jabber and rdesktop, and at every turn, promote the use of Google's online collaboration tools if they don't already use them heavily (they actually don't suck, but I wouldn't run a company depending on Google to say non-evil).
That said, you have asked the wrong question. You need to start with "I make my living serving people using X but don't want to use X, should I drink the Xool-ade or risk losing my shirt?"
And if you don't already know the answer to that question, we can't help you.
In my case, telecommuting requires some readily available tools, such as openvpn or git/svn. For my softphone needs, I use Ekiga. For instant messaging, there is Pidgin. For screen sharing, I had excellent experience with Teamviewer. For email, anything from Thunderbird to Mutt. But really, I never had any particular issues regarding communication on Linux. Linux may be lacking in other categories of software, but it really shines in communication department.
Apparently Plantronics has some decent equippment for Telecommuters according to Slashdot. I dunno. Personally I think plantronics sux
Tell yourself it's based on BSD and that's kinda close to linux. I've long ago given up on using linux as a desktop/laptop. Run a Mac, be happy and put a linux virtual machine on your mac for the hardcore geeky stuff. Best of both worlds, IMHO.
What problems are you having? I telecomute a lot on linux. i use NXserver/NXclient to connect to remote desktops. VNC and RDP to connect to client machines. Skype to do video chat etc. I have no problems... what is the problem you are having?
I have to take a Windows laptop home so I can use a VPN to start a putty session to log into a terminal to do unix system maintenance instead of just ssh'ing from my home linux box (yes , I know I can put VPN on linux but its hassle).
When I've asked why they can't just have an open ssh port they start waffling about security. I'm sorry , since when are VPNs more secure than ssh? Never, thats when. I'm sick and tired of know-nothing Windows admins running IT infrastructure.
I run Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu.
But I won't install it again, because there are bugs introduced in the Ubuntu patches which are not an issue with the base Debian build.
So come the next box, I'll be trying different distros again.
I'm rather disappointed to report that every major distro has let me down on updates and patches over the years. I really have to question the value of a "maintenance service" if the maintenance introduces bugs instead of fixing them. (RedHat, Mandrake, SuSe, and now Ubuntu have all done this at one time or other.)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Either windows in a VM running on Linux or vice-versa. For real work (coding) you have Linux; for everything else you use Windows. It works especially well if you have a multi-monitor setup.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
--Doug
"Never pick a fight with someone who buys his ink by the barrel."
- Mark Twain
You might check out Teamviewer, and Skype for Linux is in beta.
Also, I'd recommend running a Windows VM. Often you might need to use your client's tools (like GoToMeeting, etc). Having access to these and being flexible for their needs makes them much more likely to get the warm fuzzies that keep them as clients.
If your clients work on Windows and you can best interact with them using that OS, then use that OS.
I've been working via a Linux desktop nearly every day since the mid-90's and even now I have an old laptop with Windows XP on it. Because every once in a while, a client issue will require me to fire it up. And sometimes the boss wants me to edit a Visio doc. Or whatever. In those cases, it's the right tool for the job. For day-to-day dev work, I'll be staring at XFCE and xterms and whatnot.
Use whatever allows you to work best.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Now, was that so hard?
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
Even if its not your primary means.... and believe me, I am a hardcore linux guy whose used linux on his desktop, even while working at VERY windows centric shops that didn't entirely approve. The key is to have windows available, either as a machine you can RDP or as a VM (preferable).
95% of things, you can find a fine Linux based alternative.... but every once in a while someone is gonna send you a non-xml visio or maybe you have to talk to an exchange server (I never had luck with the linux tools.... even when I got them to work).
As I type this, my work laptop is, in fact, setting up a windows VM for this purpose. At my previous job, we had both desktops and laptops, so i just did nearly everything on my laptop, which ran Ubuntu, and would just rdp control my desktop for reading email and filling out timesheets (which required IE)
Personally, I would love to ditch windows completely...but I need it for steam anyway (my only non-work use for windows), and while I don't mind spending half a day getting a new free software alternative running... few people have the patients to wait for me to do it on their time.... so, I have windows for those times, and just take everything I have to do in windows as something to add to my "upgrade to linux" punch list.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I have an HP Touchpad with ICS installed on it, has everything I need for commuting. I use Itap RDP to remote into computers and servers, the mail client works great, even supports exchange. Other tools I use; VPN, Skype, and Facebook. A tablet is the perfect tool on the go.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Unlike most distros you get a non-fucked-about-with kernel the way Linus released it and its very very stable. Granted , its not very user friendly but if you have even moderate linux skills this really won't be an issue.
Most people in my organization telecommute, and we mostly use Google+ hangouts (with extras) whenever we need some face time with people elsewhere. It's worked well for us, but it has some limitations and it *is* controlled by a third party. We also use Google's Docs and Calendar tools heavily, so Google hangouts were a natural evolution. This works well in Linux and in both Firefox and Chrome.
That is on a technical level; in reality you are the one who needs to adapt. If you can dictate a solution, the one I propose is not bad. But you may have little choice because it's easier to change *you* than the rest of the organization if need be.
It's hard to tell what you're looking for here. I'm not sure what would be considered a "telecommuting tool" or what kinds of communications you want to have with your clients. For example, it seems to me that a telephone would work well even if you didn't have a computer at all. Email works fine on Linux.
So let's start here: What are you used to doing on Windows that you're now having trouble doing on Linux? Is it an issue of trading documents, and you're not able to read some specific document format? Or are you trying to do video conferencing, and you haven't been able to find a good video chat client?
From the summary alone, I have no idea what the problem is.
Can you be more specific? Like telling us what doensn't work?
Having already posted a reply, I have a gut feeling this submission is in some way trollish. No specifics, vague notions of "telecommuting" (do people even use that word?), and management-buzzword phrases like "hard time trying to find the right tools to keep communication flowing with my clients". Really? IM, email, online doc sharing, VOIP, video chat, Libre Office (or even MS Office in Wine)... shit even old-school ftp drop boxes: none of those will work in keeping communication "flowing"?
I get the feeling the submitter is looking to say, "See? Even Slashdot -- largely regarded as Nerd Central -- can't think of ways Linux can provide the tools and services necessary to serve the business-ready needs of today's modern telecommuting professional". Or some such reverse-astroturfing thing.
It could also be that the submitter isn't a technical person. But the submission smells funny.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Use all three on three separate machines and get a KVM switch to choose the most appropriate at the time. Some form of NAS would help.
Alternately, you could try to use one piece of hardware and VMs.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
I have been doing this for 12 years. For the first 10 years I alternated between using Linux (which at times made it very difficult to interact with Windows clients) and using Windows, with all its attendant problems.
Here is what I have been doing for the past two years: A Ubuntu desktop system with multiple Windows virtual machines, using VirtualBox.
From the Linux system I can do most of my desktop work; PPTP VPN into customers and our other offices; RDP into Windows Servers; ssh into Linux systems; and LogMeIn into Windows desktops.
From the Windows VM I can run MS Outlook (when your organization runs Outlook you can make life VERY hard for yourself by using any other email client) and I use Cisco VPN and Cisco AnyConnect when necessary. I know there is a Cisco VPN client for Linux but I never got it working smoothly. As far as I know there is not an AnyConnect client.
When it comes to document compatibility, I can use MS Office in the Windows VM, or OOo in Linux -- they seem to interoperate very smoothly. But when needed I can run Visio or PowerPoint in MS Office.
The part I love best about this solution is the stability and restorability. I have multiple Windows VMs. One is my "real" work environment, so I back it up carefully (it's just a file!) and I don't install any suspect software. Another VM is a sandbox for when I need to load some software with a big footprint, or something I may not keep. I also have VMs for Windows Server, Windows development, etc. Limited only by the size of my disk.
Oh the other best part: many of those Cisco VPN connections force all of your network traffic through their tunnel. That can be fatal to productivity. So fire up a Windows VM and VPN from there. Your "real" desktop system is not affected -- you can still email, IM, surf porn, whatever.
Who in this day in age (and I'm talking about someone on slashdot that asks a question about telecommuting)....cannot afford more than one computer?
Have one for linux..have one for windows.
Hell, what about running VMs? Have windows running on your linux box.....hell, get a mac, and run linux and windows on vms...and have the best of all 3x worlds.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I re-read the question, but I didn't see any where the poster said what they were using on Windows to keep in touch. Chances are Linux has the software you need, or in a pinch, you can use CrossOver/Wine to run the Windows apps. But to answer this question first we need to know what it is the poster does. Do they need Citrix, remote desktop, VoIP, video chat?
Don't. If everybody you're dealing with it using Windows or Mac, then follow suit. If you want to use Linux, then do it on personal time... as somebody else said, I wouldn't jeopardize my income by switching platforms "just because".
And since I'm sure to get flamed by all the Linux advocates... let me pose this question. Let's say you're working in a Linux or a Mac shop, including Linux-only apps, and somebody comes in and decides they want to use Windows... you'd probably not want to accommodate them.
I'm all for Linux and rooting for underdogs and all that good stuff... but, if you need somebody who can put 100lb widgets on a shelf that's 6 feet high, and the underdog is 4'5" and sickly and weak, he just can't do the job, no matter how supportive you are.
Chatrooms are quick and people often end up helping each other thus saving you the trouble. I find them much better than forums or email for my most common communication. I set up one with ejabberd but you could use jabber.org or jwchat.org. There is even a browser based chat client so that your customers don't have to install anything: http://blog.jwchat.org/jwchat/
You can also log everything and when a user connects they get to see what happened recently instead of entering blind.
Wikis are convenient for typing up documentation and answers that you don't want to have to give again - they make it easy enough that you actually do it instead of putting it off.
Make sure you go and meet people in person every so often - makes all the tools work better.
Install several web browsers (at least Chrome and Firefox) - it's amazing how much that helps when trying to deal with some odd company web page.
rdesktop is obviously wonderful.
If you must have a windows machine, make it virtual - so convenient IMHO and you can snapshot the disk and move it from one computer to another and all sorts of useful things.
Twinkle is not a bad VOIP solution though old and it worked in my company where ekiga didn't really so it's worth trying.
Install a webcam at the remote locations if you can (we did this in our office) so that you can see who's there and who isn't when you are remote - very nice and gives one a sense of connection.
Sorry for the randomness of all that :-) Just what I thought as I thought it.
This is all just my personal opinion.
Get VMware Workstation. Run a Windows VM in your Linux box, or vice versa. I'm on a Mac using VMware Fusion, but I do things in word and excel all the time and have a SuSE box (don't ask!) open right now for some dev work. It's honestly BETTER, for me as a develop, than an all-in-one environment, because the operating systems in VMs-as-containers means I don't run into application specific configuration or dependency hell. And, if need be, I can push a whole dev environment up into a service provider as a running host.
1) Keep your work computer at work to run windows and set it up as a ssh server, then use vnc type of program to remotely ssh back to your computer from home. This is probably one of the simplest way as long as your company network team allows you to do this. This is fairly easy to setup.
2) Run windows at home inside a VM machine as others have suggested. This is much more involved as option #1 since you will have to set up everything from scratch AND you have to install all programs that was needed at work. Probably not very doable.
3) If your company has a VDI environment set up, then you can actually use something like Citrix receiver to directly login to your windows computer at work, which will work better than option #1. But this option is only restricted to those company that already has VDI so probably not applicable to that many people. (The company that I work for does this and I login to windows directly in Ubuntu, works great).
4) If all 3 above options do not apply, then consider just get a laptop from work (most people already get work laptop) and setup a VPN client so you can work from work (again check with network team but most company allows this type of setup), and if you still want Linux you can always use a KVM program like Synergy so you can run windows and Ubuntu side-by-side.
All the stuff for which you don't have an immediately workable alternative in linux, use in a Windows VM. Nice thing about making the Windows virtual, rather than the Linux, is that when your customers send you malware by accident, you can just say, "Oh, yes?"
Or maybe you don't have those issues in the business world. It's been a lifesaver for me because every semester there are at least a couple of students who get hacked/infected/malwared and everybody on their contact lists gets the "benefit."
I'm not sure what you're using it for, but if you want to do anything on any OS, you could go with VMware. It's not cheap but you can emulate just about any modern OS on it. You can either have it totally sandboxed (for testing or security) or you can allow it to share data between OS's. One of the problems I've had with Duel booting or just having multiple systems is getting data from one to the other easily. VMware lets you just cut and paste from a window running windows to a window running mac or linux.
It definitely has it's downsides (price mainly) but its good for tech support for sure. The customer has trouble with your software and has it installed on Windows95... What??! Are you really going to keep a PC sitting around with a Win95 install on it?
Anyway, just an idea.
I use Fedora 16 and VPN into the office using PPTP. Aside from being required to use Office/Exchange (for which I use Winblows 2000 - the last Microsoft CD I own - on top of VirtualBox), virtually all of my needs are met with Fedora's distribution. If there are stupid ActiveX webapps or Java applets that weren't written with Linux in mind, then I might have to use Windows for that reason too. Life is a lot better for Linux desktop users now than it has been in the past. More enterprise vendors offer OS-agnostic web interfaces instead of desktop applications. Regrettably, many of them are starting to value their in-house and web 2.0 documentation more and are guarding them within an authentication wall. This causes problems when you'd like to use search engines to find answers to common problems. Meh.
ssh -X gives you all the gui you need on linux. You can even use cygwin as a client. Mac osx comes with a xserver client that automatically launches when that command is run.
sl
A VM is your answer. If not, then dual boot. In the worst case, buy two computers. If all you are short of is videoconferencing software, try Google Voice. I've heard the linux version works well. I Skype my folks from linux...It works well for that because I'm using only 2-way video and voice. You can't video conference with more than two and there are other issues as well, compliments of Microsoft, who has not updated the linux software in a long time.
Looking for remote desktop similar to and as easy as PCAnywhere - Team Viewer is about the only way to go, works on Mac/Linux/Windows and does quite a decent job of it.
Run a Windows App remotely, GoGlobal works fot that. Though the printing and file systems are kinda sucky.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Your question isn't very clear. I'm going to assume that by "communication" you mean "talking to people". If that's the case, the answer really is old technology plus attitude, approach and effort. What tools do your clients use to communicate with each other (besides face to face)? Most likely the answer is telephone, e-mail, and exchange of documents. Maybe they also use some sort of IM client. You should do that -- talk on the phone, exchange e-mails and IMs, and read and write documents, and do all of it about twice as much as you feel you should have to, because not being there in person hurts your ability to communicate normally with them.
If you do want to add some cooler technology to make that work better, there are some options. You can replace (or augment) phone calls with video conferences. I work for Google, so we obviously do pretty much all remote conferencing via Google+ Hangouts, and it works really well. It's also extremely easy for people to install and run on their own machines, provides a shared whiteboard, screen sharing and shared document viewing/editing and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux (and Android, and ChromeOS, and maybe others, dunno). There are good remote collaborative document editing tools, too. Google Docs works very well, and I'm sure there are other options as well.
But if what you're asking about is communicating with people, the tech won't do nearly as much for you as just making a committed effort to overcommunicate. When your clients begin telling you that you really don't need to communicate with them quite so much, then you know you've got it about right. If it seems like putting this much effort into communication will make you less effective at actually getting stuff done, well, you're right. It's part of the cost of telecommuting.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
The basics for communicating are: Phone, E-mail and Chat. Linux can do these. You forgot to say what work you do, though.
/etc/hosts, and then connect local <=> remote IPs with the same port number on the ssh command-line. You'll have to stop Apache/sshd/etc listening on those fake local IP addresses, though, but at least this way you can connect to N remote http or ssh servers each on port 80/22 of their own dedicated IP address, without having to remap anything locally at connect time.)
I use a hardware VoIP box (Linksys) for international communications so that I can use a real phone, offlineimap to keep IMAP fast enough to use, and ssh with port-forwarding instead of a VPN. (Create a local IP address on device 'lo' for each machine on the remote net, add the names to
I think a lot of the recommendations are going to depend upon what you do for a living. Are you a Systems Administrator or Engineer, a Software Engineer, or remote tech support? I can't provide any recommendations without knowing what your job function really is.
How is using Linux for telecommute any different than using it on a local network? It's not. Whatever works there (everything except for native Windows software) will work with telecommuting. It's one of those latent benefits of having a standardized networking stack.
So tell me, how often do you beat your wife?
(Aside from running Outlook or using a Microsoft graphical console, I haven't had a need for Windows or a Mac in the past two years - and I have to deal with Linux, Windows, and Macs on a daily basis for support and management. For that I've used vbox.)
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
... a Plantronics solution?
I've been telecommuting on and off for several years now. It's such a non-issue that I had to think aobut what I should write here.
Between OpenSwan, the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client, and my current employer offering Citrix-hosted services, there's nothing I cannot do from home. You don't need a phone system that ties into your employer's as long as you can forward calls from that system to your cellular, or home phone (if you still have one).
I haven't used M$ Office in over a decade, and I haven't missed it at all. Only twice in 12 years have I run into document formatting issues, but both were easily solved by exporting/importing via a different filter. I even get by with LibreOffice for my college assignments (in fact, a few of my professors prefer the Open Document format).
Tying into email should be a snap. You have your choice of clients for POP3 and IMAP connections, Evolution for Exchange integration, and a native Linux client for Lotus Notes.
I have run into a few issues with my current employer being super single-sign-on happy, not realizing that when this is done in IIS/AD that it negates the ability for Kerberos-based authentication for everybody else, but I've found that I can use my virtual desktop in Citrix on the rare occasion I need to access one of those sites.
Contrary to needing Windows in the enterprise or for telecommuting, I cannot think of a single good reason to use it.
Obviously people use that word -- you recognized it just fine.
And I fail to see how this could be a troll looking to say "See? Even Slashdot -- largely regarded as Nerd Central -- can't think of ways", since it's an open invitation to spell out the ways, for both the poster and anyone else who is curious.
And yeah-chessypoofs the submitter may not be a technical person. Have you ever gone through UbuntuForums? Linux is /very/ popular with non-technical people.
It's 2012 -- you don't need to be a computer geek to run Linux anymore. Haven't for years. We got all sorts now. We've even got people who don't sneer at newcomers for being new.
Are you using Linux because you love Linux? Or because you hate Windows?
Because it sounds like you're very close to treating it as a religion. Admittedly I've been there myself - and I'd say that there's damn-all in terms of vaguely usable Linux desktop VPN clients and diabolical commercial support. It's fine if you're looking to get two servers with a very specific configuration working; terrible if you want to connect a single Linux desktop to a commercial VPN system.
Ironic, considering the number of firewall products that are Linux-based. But there you go.
I have been telecommuting aka working from home 100% for over 3 and half years. To keep in touch I use Gmail / Google Voice and Skype as a sort of second line.
I have in the past even run an asterisk server and used Ekiga and the whole host of other SIP tools as clients.
I have used Linux in enterprise environments for nearly 13 years using a combination of virtualization and equivalent tools to do my work. In the beginning I used VMware workstation (starting in 1999 with the 1.0 release) now I use KVM.
I tend to favor RedHat based solutions as their features seam more enterprise driven and is closer to my needs in such an environment. I use RDESKTOP for remoting into windoze systems and ssh for UNIX and other linux. I have even utilized XRDP for remoting into linux boxes with the RDP protocol.
I have found that the only things I really need my windows VM for is when the application is web based ans only runs from internet explorer.
I must add that my shop is mostly UNIX /Linux but there is a fair amount of windows. The question is a bit vague but I for one stand as an example of using Linux in the enterprise from work from home scenario.
Linux opens up alot of possibilities to the remote worker such as the aformentioned asterisk server (I used ELASTIX.) I have not had issues with web based audio video services such as skype and gvoice.
rdp into your workstation in the office & use whatever os & apps everyone else at yuor office does.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Gobby is not perfect and has some editing issues but it's excellent for pair programming or at least to conduct source reviews.
But... the future refused to change.
I'm telecommuting full time. Got two servers, two laptops, two mobile telephones and two workstations, running:
Servers: Linux / Windows
Workstations: Linux / Windows
Laptops. OSX / Linux / Windows
Phones: Android / iOS
Then I got virtual machines for pretty much anything you can image, just in case.
Use Linux for your work locally if you want, but use Windows or Mac tools when the client uses them.
I don't understand the "communication" issue. Email, telephone, and web conferencing are OS agnostic. You need to handle Word, Excel, Visio, and probably MS Project documents though.
Or do the reverse and run Windows in a VM where necessary.
True, but I do find it more convenient to do the reverse, specially when running the latest hardware. I had run into problems with Linux on certain combinations of AMD64 laptops and wireless modems and routers. Once it was virtually impossible to get a laptop to connect to a wireless router using WPA/PSK authentication and TKIP for encryption (there was a requirement to be like that.) So at that point I was "screw it". I simply could not be fighting these edge cases (specially when I'm under the gun with a pressing issue.)
Now I have a setup of different computers running XP and Vista as hosts with several Linux VMs (each configured with a given stack and tools depending on the job) and cygwin and mingw for good measure. I have an old but still capable PowerPC with Linux on it, but I haven't turned on in two years as I haven't had a need to run Linux as the host OS.
It all depends on the situation so YMMV.
Recently Linux has come out with some amazing tools, quite similar to what you see on Windows: Email. Instant Messenger. Web Browser. VOIP. Some advanced stuff here. I'm not sure you will be able to find any of these things in linux. If you get confused try the mouse input device next to you and click on "icons" that say things like "Firefox" or "Skype". Seriously dude?
Or are you just one of the assholes that starts hating something after 4 people say they like it.
--Jamie
I've been telecommuting for over a decade (I even co-authored a book about it) and using Ubuntu (LTS releases: Dapper, Hardy, Lucid) most of that time. The organisation I work for has Microsoft desktops (Vista, Win7, IE8, OutLook 2010, Office 2007) and Linux servers (RHEL & CentOS).
For my development work VMs have been a blessing. I use VMware but am fairly agnostic about the VM vendor.
For access to the corporate LAN I use vpnc with split tunnelling.
I use Firefox and Thunderbird - the latter works with corporate's MSX so I don't need OutLook. I synchronize my OutLook calendar with my Google Calendar which I can access in Thunderbird.
I recently switched to LibreOffice (from OpenOffice) and compatibility with MS formats is much improved.
When I do need Windows I fall back to using it in a VM.
I can also recommend Hamster as an excellent Task tracking tool.
Webex works better than skype for most of what we do. Seeing the other people isn't as valuable as being able to present a desktop, in my experience. Get a headset.
If your remote desktop is Linux, you'll want xWin32. You can't effectively run KDE without it (that I know of), and Gnome works better with it. Unfortunately, it's not free. If you're willing to suffer with Gnome, you can use VNC, but it's buggy.
Not sure how well webex works in Linux, but you can run both W7 and Linux on the same box using virtual machines, as many have pointed out. I recommend VMWare, as it seems a tad more stable than Virtual Box. "VMWare Player" (that's what you want, which is tricky to determine from their confusing product page) is free for Windoze and Linux, but I think it's $$ for the Mac. At least, one of my colleagues reported having to pay for it. I don't run a Mac, but I run WXP, W7, SuSE, Mint, and Ubuntu net remix.
We have a VPN ... I regard that as essential. You can fake it with ssh, but it's clumsy.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
-= miles =-
I have had no problems keeping in contact with clients both in the office and when offsite. We run our own Postfix email server, Apache web server, iptables firewall router, Asterisk telecommunications server and all desktops are Gentoo Linux. When in the office I just use OpenOffice.org for spreadsheets and documents and save in .doc or better still .pdf if they are bound for people out of the office. Email is all handled client side by Mozilla Thuderbird.
Need access to apps in the office when on the road? I just have iptables rules to allow connections using VNC to my internal systems. Or better still I just pipe and forward the X apps straight to be over a secure SSH connection to my Gentoo Linux laptop, or my Apple Macbook which I recently thought i'd try. When out and about all business calls are automatically forwarded from the office Asterisk system to my mobile or whatever mobile or land line I designate as my temporary office.
The Internet is build on non Microsoft technology, you don't get hindered by stepping away from it, a few home truths just need to be discovered - pipe your Microsoft Office suite across the net directly without VNC and have access to your office file systems? Yeah right! On Linux it does away with having to set up VPNs and all that gumpf for me. So convenient.
Don't Bother. Honestly. Linux, although marvellous on the server, is just not ready yet for the desktop.
This is a long winded response. Please bear with me as I give you some background.
I was first bitten by the computing bug in 1984 when I discovered my uncle's Atari 800 and Xenon, which at the time came on a cassette. I've been programming full time since 1988 on successive platforms starting from the Atari ST (1988) and moving up to PCs in 1993, web in 2001 and mobile just a few of years ago. I am adept at least half a dozen computer languages. I custom build all my computing hardware. Basically, I think I know PCs, computing and operating systems pretty well by now.
My last OS was XP, which I kept squeaky clean, fast and efficient. I had that XP install running for six years and it recently got corrupted when one of my memory modules went sour about a month ago.
I took this opportunity change my OS. As much as I loved my XP install, it had several limitations:
1. Microsoft's decision to nerf proper 36bit PAE mode since Windows 2000, artificially limiting the OS to 4GB (minus graphic card memory) was starting to really hurt; mainly because I use virtual machines to do all my development, having dozens of these for various clients and development platforms. ~3GB memory was becoming a pain as I could only load a handful of VMs at any one time.
2. Games. Yes. Gaming drove me to PCs and programming. I was missing out on DX10 and DX11 titles. Again, thanks Microsoft for nerfing XP.
What did I really want? I wanted a 32bit OS that could give me access to 4GB+. I didn't want a 64bit OS as I have no need for it. I don't see 64bit as mainstream. Sure, its a must for video production or crunching big pharma molecular combinations... but for me... 32bit was more than fine.
I wanted to give Linux on the desktop a shot as I knew Linux 3.0+ had proper 32bit PAE support. I work a lot with Linux servers. I love Linux, first bitten by Gentoo in 2002 (I bootstrapped several installs from Gentoo stage 1 - so I am familiar with Linux's gubbins).
These are the distros I tried about a month ago.
1. Linux Mint Debian Edition - 2011.09. I love Debian. Really really love Debian. So I thought LMDE would be perfect. And it almost was. Bar one issue. Debian. For me, Debian is perfect on the server. Very stable. Very slow for updates. Perfect. On the desktop? Not so perfect. Several widgets and apps that I needed would not install on LMDE due to it having older packages based on Debian testing. Also a fresh install of LMDE has serveral problems, mainly a non working swap and hibernation support which reqires abit of tinkering. This is just the tip of the iceberg though as several things don't work after a vanilla install.
2. Ubuntu 11.04. That lasted all of 10 mins as soon as saw Unity.
3. Linux Mint Lisa Gnome. This lasted 30 mins. Linux mint took Gnome 3 and added a few extensions. Gnome 3 still sucks. _Hard_!
4. Linux Mint Lisa KDE. This lasted about five days. KDE 4.8.1 is actually very impressive. And almost perfect. Sadly, its imperfections eat away at you until you start despising it. These range from a plethora of minor bugs, a flaky window manager that often ignores window rules and doesn't understand full screen apps, broken packages that don't install or run correctly and so on. Many of these issues has bug reports dating back to 2009 and 2010... so quick fixes were well beyond the horizon.
One overriding factor turned me away from Desktop Linux: stability. X11 would crash at least once or twice a day, potentially corrupting my VM images as an X11 crash kills any GUI applications relying on it. This is bad as I spend 90% of my time inside a VM. One bad crash could potentially ruin a VM image. This, for me at least, was not acceptable. These VM images range from a couple of Gig to 20GB in size so daily backups were a non starter.
In the end, I bit the bullet and tried Windows 7 32bit with a hacked Kernel which supports 36bit PAE. I now have Wi
Berating and asking for more information about what the op wants are pretty different things.
And while the answer 'dont, dont even try' is a valid option, it isn't the first serious answer by a long shot. It is the first one to suggest in the opening line using windows instead however, and I've got to wonder if that is what you are actually applauding.
Mikogo is the only "Gotomeeting" software that I know of that works well on Linux. That will allow you to switch between presenting your desktop or flip to allow viewing of their Windows desktop.
Skype works okay for conversations, but I would probably buy a VoIP box to carry around like iTalkBB www.italkbb.com or the one from Vonage for telephone stuff.
Well if you are planning to telecommute, it would be expected that your company has systems and procedures in place for this. What are they.
Even within the Windows world, not everyone has all their work professional software at home. So they will have methods for you to obtain /
access it as required.
In general there are probably two directions they may have gone.
1) It's a generic communication type job. You'll probably need email, calendaring, instant messaging, video conferencing, generic web applications (wiki / CRM etc)
2) Technical job that requires professional software.
In the case of 1. Linux can probably handle most of your needs trivially.
Email.
There are any number of clients. Your company will probably have IMAP set up, maybe over a VPN. Pretty much all the email clients do IMAP. There are also MS Exchange plugins available for various clients
Calendaring
Similarly there are various options. Including DavMail / Exchange plugins
IM
There are plenty of options here as well. Skype is popular. It works on Linux. I use it on a regular basis.
Video conferencing
May depend on your company's systems. Again if they allow this type of thing , they will have systems. It it's Skype, well that works. Video conferencing tends to be somewhat vendor specific. So if you need to talk to clients, the company will probably have / use generic / standards compliant software so that it works for everyone.
Web application
Should Just Work (TM). Unless they are particularly badly written
In the case of 2. They will either provide copies of the professional software to use at home, or there will be some form of remote access system.
Linux can handle RDP, Citrix, Teamviewer, VNC etc
I now work in a Windows shop, but have had a Linux desktop since last Millennium some time. It is a pretty trivial task to work from home.
Actually I can do a bunch of my work from my Android tablet if I desire. That's how trivial this stuff is now days (and has been for quite a while in reality)
Ever stop to think
-Messaging, calls, desktop sharing you can try jitsi wich has mac/linux/windows client and you can use it with a google account. Alternatively you can use ekiga, but I think it doesn't have all the function of jitsi
-If you have your server you can install owncloud for file sharing with a team, svn/git for file sharing with version control
-If don't have your server you can use google docs for document sharing with a team and services like dropbox for file sharing with version control.
I've been doing the telecommuting thing for nearly a decade now, focusing mainly on emebedded linux kernel and driver developent as well as Android work more recently. I not only get my job done from home, I sometimes work on the road in an RV. I mostly use an Ubuntu laptop, Verizon MyFi, and a cell phone. I also have a Tektronix oscilloscope and a BDI3000 hardware debugger... but that is more specific to my kind of work than most people will need I suppose. On the software end, I mostly use gmail for email (though I have used Thunderbird in the past). LibreOffice does everything I need in document department. I trade Word and Excell docs with Microsoft users all the time with no complaints. Gmail also seems to handle the calender thing pretty well, including interoperting with Microsoft calendar messages. I've occasionaly had to work with clients with a very Microsoft centric infratructure, and that has meant using the web interface to their Outlook server and other such hastle... but I've always manage to get by.
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The Bolachek Journals