Changing from Windows Xp to Ubuntu

[Liam Proven]

On 10 August 2014 09:29, Peter Goggin <petergoggin at bigpond.com> wrote:
> gI need help with several problems. I have a laptop running XP which I wish
> to convert to Ubuntu. I do not wish to have a dual boot syustem but intend
> to get away from windows completely.  I have fully backed up the XP system
> to an external drive and I have installed Ubuntu on a spare laptop and
> checked that Linu box can access all of the data files in the backup.
>
> I have several applications and data I need to transfer.
> 1. E-Mail  - I have been using Thunderbird for e-mail. Presumably it should
> be possible to transfer my accumulated e-mails and address from XP to
> Ubuntu.  I presume that I have to install Thuderbird on the Linux box and
> then locate the profile data on the XP backup and copy it to th apprpriate
> place in the Linux system.

Yes, that is correct.

>  Has this process been documented?

I just Googled "transfer thunderbird messages from windows to linux" and got:

http://fosswire.com/post/2008/03/migrate-your-thunderbird-emails-from-windows-to-linux/

http://askubuntu.com/questions/316834/moving-thunderbird-from-windows-seven-to-ubuntu-12-04

And many more.

To succeed with Linux, you will have to learn to use your own
initiative like this! :¬)

> 2 A number of Excel spreadsheets need to be transferred.  I have checked
> that these can all be opened in Linux using LibreOffice spreadsheet
> functions. So far as I can tell these transfer perfectly. Are then "gotya"
> that I need to be aware of?

Macros will not work. If you don't use macros, you should be OK.

> 3. Some powerpoint displays. I believe these can be read and used by
> LibreOffice Presentation. I have been using these presentations in teaching
> with an interactive white board. In PowerPoint it is possible to direct the
> output to an external display and track it on the laptop,  Is this possible
> with LibreOffice Presentation?

Yes.

If something does not display perfectly, Microsoft give away free
viewers for Word and Powerpoint that will run under Ubuntu using WINE.
I don't think there is one for Excel, though.

> 4.  A Microsoft Access data base. This dosen't seem to open properly with
> LibreBase.  I have tried LibreOffice under windows and this fails to display
> the forms and regards views as tables. Since there are a number of
> ineracting forms in the Access application I want to preserve their
> fuctionality. Are here any other Linux data base programs which would be
> better.

Not that I am aware of, no. Access is a complex, proprietary tool and
there is no other program from any vendor on any OS that is totally
compatible with it, including on Windows.

> Some years ago I developed a system using MySQL with forms written
> in HTML and PHP. Is this still a viable option?

Yes.

> Is Oracle and Oracle form
> still available on Linux?

I don't know. Google might help.

> If so then this would be my preferred approach.

Another is to run Access under WINE. I myself run MS Office Word under
WINE with good results. I use an old version (Word 97 on my previous
machine, Word 2000 on this one) as this is an easier target for the
WINE compatibility layer, and because by modern standards it is very
small and fast. Even Word 95 does all I need and much more, but it
cannot handle the Word 97 to Word 2003 file formats.


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