Tips or Tricks for working with a Linux Laptop in a Windows NT enviroment- Request for help or advice

[Zoki@linuxix.2y.net]

Today Shane A Broomhall was heard saying:

->Hi All,
->
->I have managed to persuade my work to allow for me to have Linux as my
->operating system on my laptop, and I have convinced them that this will
->still allow for me to do my job as before.  I am hoping that some one


*** I would still advice you to keep a copy of whatever Windows you used 
installed on your laptop just in case.


<snip>

->My laptop has Red Hat 7.2 on a A20M thinkpad. Nice machine.


*** I have an A22e and had some trouble finding a distrib which would run 
on it. RH 7.2 definitely did not but luckily the 7.3 came out just in 
time. Everything works OK at this point, all the hardware is recognised 
except for the Lucent Winmodem, but there seems to be a driver for it.

The only problem at this time is the sleep and suspend which do not work 
the way they should.


->
->I will be wanting to log on to a Windows nt4 domain, access network
->shares and printers.


*** I am using a little utility called LinNeighborhood, which is a
GUI to smbclient and smbmount. It scans the network for samba or
windows file servers and shows all the shares. It works as a file manager
and allows you to mount whatever share you want.

I mostly use it to see what is there to be mounted and then create my own 
script to mount all the shares I need in one stroke. The script are just 
several lines of

	smbmount //server/share /local/dir -o username=[user]%[password]

There are other utilities which do the same but LinNeighborhood has the
smallest footprint, it does only one thing - browse network shares - but
it this well, it does not care for the eye-candy like KDE and GNOME and I
have tested it in different network environments where it never told me
"do it your self".  Which is something that still has to disappear from
KDE's & GNOME's vocabulary. :-)

Goggle for it or if you prefer I can mail it to you. It is only 134Kb. 
That is right, a GTK interface of less than 140Kb. MS eat your hart out! 
;-)


<snip>

->client evolution, I have heard it will work well with the work exchange
->server.


*** I think you will need the Exchange plug-in. Look for it on their web 
site.


->For any appllications that need windows I have a copy of Vmware that I
->will put on, but my quest is to be able to replace windows as much as
->possible and hopefully completely, and learn linux by using it at work
->and at home.


*** Depends of your needs. Unless there are valid alternatives to your
Windows software you will be able to change completely, but my advice in
your case is to keep a possibility to run windows progs at any time.

Just do not forget you have decided to take a direction which can 
be bumpy at times. For one, you will have to defend your choice at any 
time, any place. Just make sure you are prepared for it.

Some of the list members are the living proof all Linux can work in a
professional environment and I for one can confirm that even if you work
for different clients, which by definition means heterogeneous 
environments with preponderation for Windows, you can do it with a 100% 
Linux portable.

What better proof is there to be given for Linux' all round usability!?

Cheers,
Zoran.
--
If you find me, please return me to my $HOME: my address is 'cd'.