Wine + e-sword

I have long searched for a Bible program on Linux on the same level of standard as e-sword, the freeware application for windows that has no equal.

After using Bibletime for KDE and looking at some offerings for Gnome I concluded that there is no equal on Linux either and I had to use my wifes PC for Bible study then. (If you never used e-sword you will have no idea how superior it is!)

After looking at the release notes of Ubuntu Christian Edition and reading through their mailing list I saw them getting e-sword running under Wine and that got me really excited, however I have had very limited success with Wine in the past and a couple of searches later I finally got e-sword running on my Gentoo box! Oh the joy!
We must really petition the creator of e-sword to release a Linux version as well!

Now, in as easy to follow steps as possible, here's how I got it running!

1. First off we need to install wine, I'm not going to go through this since all of us know how to do it.
2. Download the latest e-sword release here.
3. Type wine setup785.exe to install e-Sword.
4. Download the following files and put them in the ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32 directory:
   riched20.dll
   msls31.dll
   Overwrite any existing files.
5. Open winecfg and set riched20.dll to native for e-sword.exe.
   
   
   
   
6. Now cd to ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/e-sword/ and execute:
   wine e-sword.exe
   

The only problem you will have to install some of the modules, you will unfortunately need a Windows PC for this. Browse to the e-sword installation directory on said machine and copy the *.bbl files you would like to have.

And that is it, small simple and fast, enjoy e-sword on Linux!

KDE4 crash

Just found this on the net:

I received this picture today showing what happens when an application crashes in KDE4. Clearly it uses Beryl to make the pretty, but I have to be honest - if I was working on something and the application happened to crash, literally showing me what happened to x hours of work, I’d probably hang myself.

I don't know, it looks much better than the old "Terminate" button you get or some random crash that you have no idea why it happened....

You decide!

Pick your own OOo, there must be one for you!

Now it is no secret that I love Open Source and I'm currently bussy porting all our work to Open Source for one reason:

Cross Platform Compatibility



One of the tools that makes this a little easier is OpenOffice.org, and this article I found makes it almost impossible for you not to use it, because it is available for all the major platforms out there.



Have a look here:



Pick your own OOo, there must be one for you!

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MySQL warns Microsoft on open source credibilty | The Register

MySQL warns Microsoft on open source credibily

Microsoft must work with, not against, open source otherwise it risks sacrificing developer support and credibility among customers - even Windows loyalists.

That's according to the chief executive of a fast growing open source competitor to Microsoft's popular, but closed-source, SQL Server database.

Marten Mickos, MySQL chief executive, told The Register the secret to growth in Microsoft's core Windows franchise lies in working with open source.

According to Mickos: "If you won't work with MySQL, PHP and Ruby then you are lost - that's always been our message."

Microsoft is clearly aware it must ensure open source languages, middleware and applications run just as well on Windows as Windows-only languages, middleware and applications, otherwise open source developers will deploy on Linux.

As such, Microsoft has technology deals with SugarCRM, Zend Technologies, JBoss (now part of Red Hat) and Novell, while it's devised versions of Python and Ruby for the .NET Framework. MySQL, meanwhile, last year joined Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program and developed a Visual Studio plug in for developers building applications for its database.

There's plenty of scope left to help developers using Visual Studio for MySQL and to improve data, analytics and application interoperability between MySQL, SQL Server and other Microsoft server and Office applications.

Speaking in the wake of claims in Fortune by Microsoft's legal team that Linux and open source infringe on 235 of the company's patents, Mickos suggested, though, that Microsoft isn't going far enough in its efforts with open source, and that this will cost the company dearly.

"I don't think you can say Microsoft is pragmatic on open source - it's religious. It's categorical in a way it shouldn't be, and it's harming them," Mickos said.

"You must never lose the trust of the customer [even] customers who are not using open source. They are looking at Microsoft and asking: 'why are you doing that?' People have a sense of fairness, and you don't want to get hurt.

"It hurts their credibility with customers. The question that arises is if Microsoft is ready to sue Linux for patent infringement, what says they won't sue a customer? As an end user, I'd be worried if I was using a vendor that threatens to sue me."

MySQL is certainly leveraging the Microsoft fear factor. With 700 partners in the systems integrator, VAR and ISV markets, Mickos's company is promising that - unlike Microsoft - it won't end up competing with them, should they develop a lucrative business. Some 60 per cent of MySQL revenue comes form the embedded market, with partners OEMing MySQL's database.

"We are sticking to the knitting - the database," Mickos promised. ®

Now hows that for a wake up call, considering that most of the internet runs from Open Source programs, so in order to keep developers you will need to accommodate them!
Something to brew over...