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I have seen a few posts on the forums (through searching) about using AC on Linux. I am currently experimenting with Linux and am kind of new to it. I am running version 4.0.45 of AC and since it deals with SQL is this something WINE can handle or would I need to continue running Windows to use AC? Thanks

Do not even think about WINE with a SQL server install. You are asking for trouble especially since you may have corruption in the database and not even know it. Unfortunately SQL is tried and true on windows. While it may work the risk is probably too great.

I tried to use AC 4.0 client on WINE with .Net 2.0 and the AC application but it would not work. .Net 2.0 has a silver rating on WINE for small applications but is known not to work for larger apps. Even Crossover will not support .Net 2.0. I am not smart enough to say whether the Novell Mono (the linux .Net translation) would work, I am not sure if the application would require a rewrite (or touch up) or if it would work out of the box. I would defer to a developer.

Most of the postings on linux are with 3.x and running the Jet and AC app in Wine. The file storing the AC database just has to be shared to work. You could set up a linux server as your domain controller with Samba and share the files to Windows clients that would run the AC. With AC 4.0 and SQL you have a completely different situation where the database processing is occurring on the server side. It is not just simply sharing the database file across the network.

Geoff

Thomgeo, to the best of my knowledge AC is written in Access. I do not believe MS-Access uses the .Net platform at all. SQL Server 2005 requires .Net 2.0 however.

This is how it was explained to the users at the user conference: AC 3.x is written in visual basic and the database uses Access. In the new AC 4.x the database is run through SQL server and the client runs on a .Net platform. I am not an developer nor am I for sure about the particulars of the programing platform.

I do know that AC 4.x does not work in WINE on ubuntu 8.10 since the .Net will not install or work properly, that is where it hangs up. I tried installing the .Net manually in WINE which does complete the install but the AC will not load because of missing libraries (probably native to Windows). I have not spent a lot of time on this. I am only assuming that since .Net is poorly supported in WINE (and Crossover) that AC 4.x will not work. I am not using the 3.x but from other postings it appears that some people have been able to make the AC work in Linux.

The point that I tried to make in my post was that there is a big difference in how AC 3.x works and 4.x. While AC 3.x can be made to work in Linux (some have reported success) the situation is different in AC 4.x. Reviewing the posts in the forum refer mostly to 3.x.

If someone has been able to get AC 4.x client to work on Linux, I would love to know how to do it. That would enable me to use my netbooks to run AC which are great little computers for simple tasks like vital signs, etc.

Geoff