# Need some softwares for ubuntu (CALL OUT TO THE EXPERTS)



## mafia97 (Oct 10, 2012)

HI all,
In my college we have very weak computers, so the Computer Lab administrator asked me for advice(I am a computer science student in the college), i recommended them to use ubuntu or meego on the systems as they would be faster on weak spec systems.
So as a trial they have given me 3 systems to run ubuntu and setup them for LAB use.
So since i only used ubuntu for running UNIX commands, i dont know much about other softwares so please help :
1)MS office type software, which can run all MS office files on ubuntu.
2)UNIX (i know they can be run from comand prompt directly) but still my LAB administrator asked.
3) ORACLE
4) TURBO C(for C and C++ coding)
5)COBOL

please help me find software that fulfill these things
thanks in advance.


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## Frick (Oct 10, 2012)

1. LibreOffice.

2. Bash.

The others I don't know about. What are the specs for the computers? Ubuntu can be a bit needy nowadays actually. Also, you might want to take a look at Edubuntu, which is Ubuntu but for schools (is the aim anyway).


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## mafia97 (Oct 10, 2012)

Thanks for quick reply.
they are core 2 duo with ram 256 to 768 to 1gb (different computers, some are quad core too )


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## Kreij (Oct 10, 2012)

You can get a version of oracle that runs natively on Linux

Turbo C is a 16 bit app that has not existed in some time.
You can install G++ and a COBOL compiler on Linux and code to your hearts content.


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## Capitan Harlock (Oct 10, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> Thanks for quick reply.
> they are core 2 duo with ram 256 to 768 to 1gb (different computers, some are quad core too )



ubuntu have a program like app store with very different categories go and take a look xd.


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## mafia97 (Oct 10, 2012)

Kreij said:


> You can get a version of oracle that runs natively on Linux
> 
> Turbo C is a 16 bit app that has not existed in some time.
> You can install G++ and a COBOL compiler on Linux and code to your hearts content.


Can you tell where i can find these? do i have to pay for them, because this work is not for me , but for college


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## mafia97 (Oct 11, 2012)

Hi guys , there is a new requirement, i also need ubuntu to run TASM(turbo assembler)
will i be able to find that on store?


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## fox102383 (Oct 11, 2012)

*hi*

I don't know if this will help much,it's some stuff about TASM on ubuntu.


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 11, 2012)

If You need an assembler there, either use YASM or GAS (GNU assembler).

If You installed GCC for C & C++ (the only sane choice for C & C++, really), then You should already have GAS.
But I assume YASM is probably the one You would want to use. You can install it with

```
sudo apt-get install yasm
```

P.S. And Yes, as Kreij said: Turbo C is horribly outdated. So is TASM.
If You _REALLY_ need to run exactly those for some reason (not a sane choice, no matter what), then You would need to use DOSBox to emulate DOS and run it there.


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## mafia97 (Oct 11, 2012)

i need to run those because they are in my study syllabus .
and my college PC are quite slow thats why i recommended ubuntu to lab administrator


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## 3870x2 (Oct 11, 2012)

Why so little RAM on dual core systems?  Even pentium D had 1GB + usually.

lol Turbo C.


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## mafia97 (Oct 11, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Why so little RAM on dual core systems?  Even pentium D had 1GB + usually.
> 
> lol Turbo C.


I dont know they are college systems, and we have preety antique ones as well.
like pentium 1, i was thinking of entering the techpowerup competetion using one the pentium 1 system , but none had a GPU 

anyways back on topic ,can you help me find all the softwares needed for my college work ?
thanks


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 11, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> i need to run those because they are in my study syllabus



Let's get this straight, which is the case:


The course is specifically on Turbo C and TASM and the focus is on those programs, NOT the programing languages.
*OR*


The course is on C and ASM, just that the "tools of trade" to work with them are specified as Turbo C and TASM.

Because depending on which is the case, the approach on how we should help You differs greatly. And we don't want to be "tossing red herrings" to You here...

EDIT:
Also, You say You do not know the specs of those computers. You can easily check the info on the CPU, memory amount, and the VGA adapter by:

For the CPU

```
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "model name"
```

For memory size

```
cat /proc/meminfo | grep "MemTotal"
```

For the VGA adapter 

```
lspci | grep "VGA"
```


Please check them out and tell us


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## Peter1986C (Oct 12, 2012)

Indeed, I suggest answering Vinska's questions first.


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## mafia97 (Oct 12, 2012)

we have to write programs in turbo c++ TASM, cobol, and make databases in oracle and run queries on them


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 12, 2012)

It looks to me as if You would be referring to Turbo C++ and TASM as programming languages.


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## Aquinus (Oct 12, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> we have to write programs in turbo c++ TASM, cobol, and make databases in oracle and run queries on them



Interesting post. As a CompSci student, maybe some clarification is in order.

Turbo C++ is only a suite. You're writing C++ so if the course is based on the language itself and not the environment being used any old C/C++ compiler should work. In that case I would just grab build-essential.

The problem with some of the things you're asking for is not that they don't work, but that they were not built for Linux. Your use of terminology is also very strange.

Vinska has some great points and I think we need clarification on what the professor really wants. You're making it sound like they want very specific applications for everything, but on the other note you're referring to languages as applications which throws that assumption up into the air.

So just answer this: Do the machines have to be able to just compile C, C++, COBOL, Assembly, and be able to run an Oracle database or do the professors want particular software to work with these languages?


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## Kreij (Oct 12, 2012)

Oracle is not free for any version. It's quite expensive. Always has been.
If they have Oracle n the syllabus I assume they already own licenses and have an Oracle server?


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## Peter1986C (Oct 12, 2012)

To clarify what Vinska means: he thinks that you regard Turbo C++ as a programming language, while it is a development tool (for the purpose of programming and compiling C++ programs). The text editor Gedit does support colour coding for various programming languages, while Ubuntui should have the GCC (GNU C Compiler) already built-in.


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## Aquinus (Oct 12, 2012)

Chevalr1c said:


> Ubuntui should have the GCC (GNU C Compiler) already built-in.



It doesn't.

```
sudo aptitude install build-essential
```
Will do the trick, though.


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## Peter1986C (Oct 12, 2012)

Did not use Uby for a while


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## Aquinus (Oct 12, 2012)

Chevalr1c said:


> Did not use Uby for a while



I manage a number of servers with Ubuntu.
I also use Ubuntu, but not the Ubuntu that everyone is used to.
I use i3 with a lean, clean, Ubi machine.


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## Mindweaver (Oct 12, 2012)

Aww..  You're going to use Linux, and you don't have *Perl* on your list! :shadedshu As for a good IDE for linux.. You need to think about it differently then using Windows. You need to start out by setting up Bash(_Unix shell_) and a GVIM environment. Also, learn your toolchains (_GCC, binutils, glibc_). No IDE can touch that if you take the time to learn it.  Oh and here is a good tut on setting up MS Office 2010 on linux.

Here is just a list of IDE's (_But what I listed above is a more powerful solution._) Good Luck!

NetBeans
Eclipse
CodeLite
CodeBlocks
KDevelop4


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## Easy Rhino (Oct 14, 2012)

Kreij said:


> Oracle is not free for any version. It's quite expensive. Always has been.
> If they have Oracle n the syllabus I assume they already own licenses and have an Oracle server?



oracle database is absolutely free. all versions are free for educational purposes and do not come with support. if it is for an institution then yes they will have to pay for expensive licenses but like you said they probably already have those for their existing systems. they can always use the express edition which is license free and is recommended for home use.


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## mafia97 (Oct 14, 2012)

sorry guys, been busy fixing my PC and organising fest for my college.
I should have said i need compilers for the above mentioned languages that work on ubuntu
and need oracle for running queries.
Thanks guys


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 14, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> I should have said i need compilers for the above mentioned languages that work on ubuntu
> and need oracle for running queries.
> Thanks guys



As it was noted, Turbo C++ and  TASM are NOT languages. Those are IDEs.

But then, I can see You need compilers for C, C++ and ASM (_those_ are languages).
GCC with YASM should be all You need.
You can install them all with:


```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc gcc-doc g++ yasm
```

If You need any help running those compilers, tell us 

P.S. It would be nice if this forum would support attaching shell scripts


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## mafia97 (Oct 14, 2012)

thanks vinska , i would try them and surely report them
please tell for cobol and oracle


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## Kreij (Oct 14, 2012)

You can get a free version of Oracle called Oracle Database XE, but it only works on Linux x64 and only allows 1 database per machine that it is installed on, so I do not know if it will meet the requirements of your school.


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## xvi (Oct 14, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> 1)MS office type software, which can run all MS office files on ubuntu.
> 2)UNIX (i know they can be run from comand prompt directly) but still my LAB administrator asked.
> 3) ORACLE
> 4) TURBO C(for C and C++ coding)
> ...




LibreOffice (not OpenOffice because Oracle is the devil)
Ctrl + Alt + F1 (or plain ol' terminal)
Migrate to MySQL or PostgreSQL
Code::Blocks (As others have said, Turbo C is an IDE.. and ancient)
http://www.opencobol.org/ (First thing to come up in Google)

If you absolutely, without a doubt, *NEED* to use Turbo C, try running it under WINE. Code::Blocks has worked just fine for me. I have a Turbo C++ book sitting on my shelf. I think the code should be compatible, it's just how it's interpreted.

The idea of GNU/GPL is that software shouldn't just be free, it should be open. "Free as in free beer." Anything you can "apt-get install" will not cost anything.

Also, Core 2 Duos aren't slow. I'm willing to bet they'd be plenty fast if you wiped them and reinstalled Windows, not that I don't like Linux.

Remember that Linux on the desktop is only user friendly when you're doing things that Ubuntu has preconfigured for you. Anything after that is going to be a long day of "sudo chmod 755" this and "./configure; make; make install" that. (..and the occasional "sudo rm -rf /" when you hate everything.)


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 15, 2012)

xvi said:


> http://www.opencobol.org/ (First thing to come up in Google)



*sigh* why are You using google for that...


Spoiler





```
vinis@g44:~$ apt-cache show ^.*cobol.*
Package: open-cobol
Priority: optional
Section: universe/devel
Installed-Size: 581
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Bart Martens <bartm@debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 1.1-1
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14), libcob1, dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info, libcob1-dev (= 1.1-1), libgmp3-dev, libltdl3-dev, libdb-dev, libncurses5-dev
Filename: pool/universe/o/open-cobol/open-cobol_1.1-1_amd64.deb
Size: 239068
MD5sum: aa6ef3f096dbb0c2bbe4ed480682a1ed
SHA1: aaad2fc1ad5d16d98491a4759d3d31845d867e06
SHA256: 9482987a60d1740f39e5e561d3c316c345ead40c299cb8ad8e28acb6d9061182
Description-en: COBOL compiler
 OpenCOBOL implements substantial part of the COBOL 85 and COBOL 2002
 standards, as well as many extensions of the existent compilers.  OpenCOBOL
 translates COBOL into C and compiles the translated code using GCC.
Homepage: http://www.opencobol.org/
Description-md5: 18e57e364b19546b8b96a83e1db8017d
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
```




mafia97, You can get a COBOL compiler with this:


```
sudo apt-get install open-cobol
```
Sorry that I forgot about this one when I wrote my previous post.



xvi said:


> Remember that Linux on the desktop is only user friendly when you're doing things that Ubuntu has preconfigured for you. Anything after that is going to be a long day of "sudo chmod 755" this and "./configure; make; make install" that. (..and the occasional "sudo rm -rf /" when you hate everything.)



Don't write such things. That will only give FUD for most non-veterans. And writing about "sudo rm -rf /", without explaining it's just a joke, is just plain wrong. As someone might just try to run it.
NOTE: *DON'T* run "sudo rm -rf /". It *DELETES* Your whole filesystem. i.e. it *WIPES* your HDDs!!! So *DON'T* do it!!!


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## Aquinus (Oct 15, 2012)

Vinska said:


> NOTE: DON'T run "sudo rm -rf /". It DELETES Your whole filesystem. i.e. it WIPES your HDDs!!! So DON'T do it!!!



I also wouldn't recommend running 
	
	



```
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
```


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## mafia97 (Oct 15, 2012)

Vinska said:


> *sigh* why are You using google for that...
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



Vinska and others thanks alot guys, i would get access to college computers i think day after tomorrow , i will try these things and would report back to you guys
thanks alot
you guys are amazing 
well i knew rm * -f command , as i am a mischievous UNIX student


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## Aquinus (Oct 15, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> well i knew rm * -f command , as i am a mischievous UNIX student



You can be super mischievous and learn all there is to learn about rm.

```
man rm
```

It will give you...

```
RM(1)                                                                                                        User Commands                                                                                                        RM(1)

NAME
       rm - remove files or directories

SYNOPSIS
       rm [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page documents the GNU version of rm.  rm removes each specified file.  By default, it does not remove directories.

       If the -I or --interactive=once option is given, and there are more than three files or the -r, -R, or --recursive are given, then rm prompts the user for whether to proceed with the entire operation.  If the response is not
       affirmative, the entire command is aborted.

       Otherwise, if a file is unwritable, standard input is a terminal, and the -f or --force option is not given, or the -i or --interactive=always option is given, rm prompts the user for whether to  remove  the  file.   If  the
       response is not affirmative, the file is skipped.

OPTIONS
       Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).

       -f, --force
              ignore nonexistent files, never prompt

       -i     prompt before every removal

       -I     prompt once before removing more than three files, or when removing recursively.  Less intrusive than -i, while still giving protection against most mistakes

       --interactive[=WHEN]
              prompt according to WHEN: never, once (-I), or always (-i).  Without WHEN, prompt always

       --one-file-system
              when removing a hierarchy recursively, skip any directory that is on a file system different from that of the corresponding command line argument

       --no-preserve-root
              do not treat `/' specially

       --preserve-root
              do not remove `/' (default)

       -r, -R, --recursive
              remove directories and their contents recursively

       -v, --verbose
              explain what is being done

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       By default, rm does not remove directories.  Use the --recursive (-r or -R) option to remove each listed directory, too, along with all of its contents.

       To remove a file whose name starts with a `-', for example `-foo', use one of these commands:

              rm -- -foo

              rm ./-foo

       Note that if you use rm to remove a file, it might be possible to recover some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time.  For greater assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.

AUTHOR
       Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS
       Report rm bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report rm translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright Â© 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)

       The full documentation for rm is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and rm programs are properly installed at your site, the command

              info coreutils 'rm invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU coreutils 8.12.197-032bb                                                                                 September 2011                                                                                                       RM(1)
```

man pages are your best friend. 

It's also customary to put your flags before your arguments.

```
# Weird
rm * -rf
# Normal
rm -rf *
```

Both work but the first reads weird imho. So if I write a command it looks something like this (i put long opts after short opts.)


```
rsync -av --checksum ./some/dir/* some.remote.host:/some/remote/dir
```


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## Easy Rhino (Oct 15, 2012)

xvi said:


> Migrate to MySQL or PostgreSQL





if oracle is the devil then you should not recommend mysql at all.


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## mafia97 (Oct 17, 2012)

Sorry guys,
there is a bad news
The computer department head denied ubuntu said it is tedious to work with
really sorry that your efforts went waste.
but atleast i learned something
thanks for that 
mod please close the thread


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## librin.so.1 (Oct 17, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> The computer department head denied ubuntu said it is tedious to work with



Too bad...
But it's a little odd - one could say Ubuntu is the epitome of "ease of work" these days. Hmmm....


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## Derek12 (Oct 17, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> [...]
> The computer department head denied ubuntu said it is tedious to work with
> [...]



Maybe they didn't used it much, Ubuntu (I prefer Xubuntu) is a very nice piece of OS and is very easy. I use it on my netbook along Windows.


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## mafia97 (Oct 18, 2012)

YA i also think they dont use it much


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## Aquinus (Oct 18, 2012)

mafia97 said:


> Sorry guys,
> there is a bad news
> The computer department head denied ubuntu said it is tedious to work with
> really sorry that your efforts went waste.
> ...



A: You can close your own threads.

B: A computer science department said that Ubuntu is too hard to use?! Might want to change schools.


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## Peter1986C (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks, I did not know I can close threads I started. No mod inrtervention needed.  
@ mafia97: the option is under "thread tools".

I think that it is more complicated in reality, when it comes to IT departments and Linux. Employees are simply not in a position to "learn Linux" because they must "function" at high level immediately when doing a roll-out of Lionux systems.


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## Aquinus (Oct 18, 2012)

Chevalr1c said:


> I think that it is more complicated in reality, when it comes to IT departments and Linux. Employees are simply not in a position to "learn Linux" because they must "function" at high level immediately when doing a roll-out of Lionux systems.



You find time for things that are important. I question the competence of system admins who don't think that linux is worth knowing, at least to some reasonable level. I'm willing to bet you that a system admin who doesn't think Linux worth knowing and works with Windows machines doesn't know how to use PowerShell. The most powerful tools are the ones you have to learn if you want to truly good at what you do. It's not a good sign when you need to do something fast and you're browsing through an interface and attempting to "find" what you have to do.

Also linux is a great tool in education for students who are going into computer science or IT. It would be a shame not to use it.


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## mafia97 (Oct 18, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> You find time for things that are important. I question the competence of system admins who don't think that linux is worth knowing, at least to some reasonable level. I'm willing to bet you that a system admin who doesn't think Linux worth knowing and works with Windows machines doesn't know how to use PowerShell. The most powerful tools are the ones you have to learn if you want to truly good at what you do. It's not a good sign when you need to do something fast and you're browsing through an interface and attempting to "find" what you have to do.
> 
> Also linux is a great tool in education for students who are going into computer science or IT. It would be a shame not to use it.


I am very sad to say the tech knowledge in India is very dissapointing, people just want to get their job done, they dont want to know how it is done or what happens when you do it other way round.
people just have bare minimum knowledge to run computers(teachers in most cases have even less), recently a well know company came to give seminar in our college, and you wont believe what the representative said, she said HULk is green because the green color in RGB while redering hulk was turened off by mistake, red and blue resulted in gree, thats why hulk is green.I thought of killing myself at that moment.
Though the tech knowledge is bad, teacher know how to teach their subject and can answer any question in syllabus, plus my college is best in the region, so i wouldnt change it 
sorry guys for the rant. CLOSING THREAD NOW


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## Easy Rhino (Oct 18, 2012)

i think you should leave the thread open. lots of good discussion here. this sub forum always has the best discussion.


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## mafia97 (Oct 18, 2012)

well i couldnt find thread closing button, so it is open for now .
anyways i want to thanks you guys for all the help


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