Difference between pages "Arch" and "Class software"

From the Linux and Unix Users Group at Virginia Teck Wiki
(Difference between pages)
Jump to: navigation, search
imported>Ram
(Add criticism of the lack of package signing.)
 
imported>Pew
 
Line 1: Line 1:
−
== Introduction to Arch Linux ==
+
TODO: Change name to "Class software"
−
Linux users tend to become fan boys of their favorite flavor of Linux. [[Ubuntu]], [[OpenSUSE]] and [[Fedora]] tend to lead the distributions lists ([http://www.distrowatch.com/ Distro Watch]), because of their ease of installation and use. The other type of distribution targets users who desire a highly customized and fine-tuned system, an example of which would be [[Gentoo]]. While both extremes have their pros and cons in terms of customizability and ease of use, neither group targets users who desire easily customized systems that expose the lower-level workings of Linux. Arch Linux fills this void with a distribution that uses the bare-bones approach of Gentoo, but without requiring every package be compiled from source. It also shies away from GUI-based configuration tools in favor of directly editing text files, although GUI-based configuration tools do exist. This makes Arch an excellent distribution for older or low-end hardware. Although the installation lacks the glitz of Ubuntu or OpenSUSE, it still detects nearly all modern hardware and automatically installs drivers. [[Mirrors|Virginia Tech's mirroring]] of the Arch repositories also benefits VT Arch users, because it ensures fast installs and updates.
 
  
−
== When to Use Arch Linux ==
+
This page includes information about both libre and non-libre software, rather than having it fragmented in a ton of separate pages across the wiki.
−
Arch Linux targets enthusiasts who want to better understand the
 
−
Linux Operating System. It maintains a level of abstraction above
 
−
Gentoo and Linux From Scratch by reducing the amount of manual
 
−
configuration. Also, the distribution excels on lower-end machines,
 
−
because it installs only the packages required to boot and install
 
−
additional software. It does contain excellent package management
 
−
software in the form of ''pacman'' archives, which are officially
 
−
supported packages and works similar to Debian's apt-get program.
 
−
Community maintained packages for more esoteric software can be found
 
−
in Arch's AUR repository.
 
−
The distributions command-line installation limits its appeal
 
−
for first-time Linux users, so this is not a distribution to use when
 
−
trying Linux. Also, there is a slightly steeper learning curve in
 
−
understanding the package management, which could deter users used to
 
−
Ubuntu's GUI-based package management. That stated, Arch Linux is
 
−
overall an excellent, easy-to-use distribution, and could be
 
−
recommended to any Linux user who understands the command line.
 
−
<br />
 
  
−
== Getting Started with Arch Linux ==
+
== Libre Applications ==
−
You can find documentation and mirrors of Arch Linux on their homepage at [http://www.archlinux.org/ http://www.archlinux.org], although using their local mirror at [http://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/iso Virginia Tech]
+
* [http://freshmeat.net/projects/jarnal Jarnal] - Java based PDF annotator
−
would be much faster. The ftp-based installation is recommended as it
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okular Okular] - KDE Document viewer
−
installs the most up-to-date version of Arch with all the updates. Be
+
* [http://xournal.sourceforge.net/ Xournal] - GTK+ inking application
−
sure to remove the default mirror if you choose to install Arch Linux,
+
* [https://gnuradio.org GNURadio] - "Provides signal processing blocks to implement software-defined radios and signal-processing systems."
−
as it caps upload speeds.
+
** Used by the Hume Center for research
−
Following their [http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide "Beginners Guide"]
+
* [https://www.latex-project.org/ LaTeX] - Markup & typesetting system for producing high-quality documents
−
painlessly walks you through the process of setting up your system and
+
** The [https://github.com/josephwright/beamer Beamer] is used to create slides/posters
−
getting into X. There are also more targeted installation guides that
+
* [http://www.mono-project.com/ Mono] - Cross platform .NET compiler and runtime
−
can be found through Google for specialized hardware, such as the Eee
+
* [http://pygments.org/ Pygments] - Source code pretty-printer that outpus to many formats
−
PC. Because Arch Linux uses a command-line based installation, it is
+
* [https://www.r-project.org/ R] - The programming language for statistics
−
highly recommended to either have another computer nearby or print out
+
* [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/spim.html SPIM] - MIPS R2000 & R3000 simulator for educational purposes
−
a copy of the [http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide "Beginners Guide"].
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox VirtualBox] - Virtualization software
−
<br />
+
* [https://libvirt.org/ LibVirt] - API for manaing virtual machines under QEMU, KVM, or XEN
 +
** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Machine_Manager virt-manager] is a GUI for libvirt
 +
* [http://xmonad.org Xmonad] - Haskell based windows manager
 +
** [https://linx.li/ackthetxmonad.txt Ackthet's] configuration
 +
* [http://bluej.org/ BlueJ] - Simple Java IDE
 +
* [https://github.com/Rip-Rip/clang_complete Clang Complete] - Popular Clang addon for vim
 +
* [https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/ Screen] - Popular terminal multiplexer
 +
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tmux Tmux] - Popular terminal multiplexer
 +
* [http://xoscope.sourceforge.net/ Xoscope] - Oscilloscope program
 +
* [http://xournal.sourceforge.net/ Xournal] - Notetaking/Sketching/Journal App
  
 +
== Non-libre Applications ==
 +
{| class='wikitable'
 +
|-
 +
! Software
 +
! License
 +
! WINE?
 +
! VM?
 +
! Native Linux?
 +
! Equivalent FOSS
 +
! Notes
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html MATLAB]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&amp;iId=49 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| [[QtOctave]], [http://freemat.sourceforge.net/ FreeMat] (stale?), [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Octave] (console), [http://www.scilab.org/ Scilab] (not syntax-compatible), [http://sagemath.org/ Sage]
 +
| [http://computing.ece.vt.edu/wiki/Matlab#Using_the_MPI_parallel_toolbox Parallelize number crunching] using the [http://computing.ece.vt.edu/wiki/Main_Page CVL]
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.dyknow.com/ DyKnow]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Garbage
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [https://up.ucsd.edu/ Ubiquitous Presenter] (Free for academic use), completely free version a work in progress
 +
| Contains malware.
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/labview.html LabView]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
|
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/default.mspx Microsoft Visual C++]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=11210 Garbage]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [http://gcc.gnu.org/ GCC] + [http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/ GDB] + [http://valgrind.org/ Valgrind], [http://www.kdevelop.org/ KDevelop], [http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/ eclipse-cdt]
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| Microsoft Excel 2007
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=12812 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/ Gnumeric]
 +
| Absolute values ( such as "1" or "0") can not be used for constraints. Multiple cell ranges can not be manipulated at once, making Gnumeric unusable for transshipment problems and goal programming. Cell ranges can only be compared to ranges of equal length and width in constraints. Nonlinear programming is not yet possible.
 +
Reports are dated in UTC.
 +
|-
 +
| [[w:PSpice|PSpice]]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: silver" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&amp;iId=1026 Silver]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [[Qucs]]
 +
| You can probably replace the Tront PSpice book with the [http://qucs.sourceforge.net/docs/workbook.pdf Qucs workbook].
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.zeitnitz.de/Christian/scope_en Zeitnitz Soundcard Oscilloscope]
 +
| ?
 +
| style="background: gold" | Gold
 +
| ?
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [[xoscope]]
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?country=us&lang=enu&id=524708 PCLab]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: rgb(225, 172, 110)" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/screenshots.php?iAppId=2456&iVersionId= Bronze?]
 +
| Kind of
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| none, if you want to use this hardware
 +
| bwr is supposedly working on a linux driver so that this 'scope might also work with [[xoscope]]
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.logicworks5.com/ LogicWorks]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&amp;iId=4944 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [[Qucs]]
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[w:MPLAB|MPLAB]]
 +
| ??
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&amp;iId=403 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| [http://piklab.sourceforge.net/ Piklab]
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[MicroBlaze|Xilinx tools]] (parts GPL'd)
 +
| ??
 +
|
 +
| Sometimes quirky
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
|
 +
| Use 9.x natively with [http://rmdir.de/%7Emichael/xilinx/ libusb-driver].
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2759 WinCupl]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&amp;iId=2480 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
|
 +
| Needs MFC40.dll:
 +
<pre>wget http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vc/mfc40.cab
 +
cabextract mfc40.cab
 +
wine mfc40.exe</pre>
 +
|-
 +
| [[w:Microsoft_Visual_C_Sharp|MS Visual C#]] + [[w:.NET Framework|.NET]]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| ??
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [[MonoDevelop]] + [[Mono]]
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[VMware]] products
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| ...
 +
| Some
 +
| Virtualbox, QEMU
 +
| VMware's tools can generally be used to convert images between VMware and VirtualBox/QEMU formats.
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.microsoft.com/project/ Microsoft Project]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: rgb(225, 172, 110)" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=18152 Bronze]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [http://live.gnome.org/Planner GNOME Planner]
 +
| Planner lacks resource levelling or constraints
 +
|-
 +
| [http://usa.autodesk.com/ Autodesk Products]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Garbage
 +
| Buggy
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
|
 +
| Success in Wine depends on the Autodesk product used and revisions of all software involved.
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.microsoft.com/visio/ Microsoft Visio]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: gold" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=16692 Gold]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [http://live.gnome.org/Dia Dia]
 +
| Lots of add-ons for circuit shapes and logic for flowcharts
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us Microsoft Visual Studio]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=892 Garbage]
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [http://gcc.gnu.org/ gcc], [http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/ eclipse-cdt]
 +
| Compiling C++ in g++ is okay, but testing in a Visual Studio environment is recommended to make sure that the project will work correctly before turning it in.
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.microsoft.com/powerpoint/ Microsoft PowerPoint]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| ?
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
| [[LibreOffice]] Impress, [[Beamer]]
 +
| Some instructors may require PPTX files, but some may also accept PDF; your mileage will very depending upon your instructor.
 +
|-
 +
| [http://www.sibelius.com/products/scorch/index.html Sibelius Scorch]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| ?
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html Adobe Flash Player]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| ?
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
| style="background: LightGreen" | Yes
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [https://www.respondus.com/products/lockdown-browser/ Respondus LockDown Browser]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | Proprietary
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | [https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=13078 No?]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | [http://support.respondus.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/201/25/students-see-the-warning-the-browser-cant-be-used-in-virtual-machine-software-such-as-virtual-pc-vmware-and-parallels No]
 +
| style="background: LightCoral" | No
 +
|
 +
| Integrates with Scholar, Canvas for testing; prevents access to other tabs, perhaps other apps (by blacklist), resists running in virtualized environments and some releases of Wine, <em>must be run as administrator</em>
 +
|}
  
−
== Arch Linux at Virginia Tech ==
+
== Course management software ==
−
[[Arch Tablet Functionality]] - Configuring your tablet PC [http://www.eng.vt.edu/academics/comp_require.php required] by the Engineering Department.
+
* [http://www.blackboard.com/index.html Blackboard] - ??? - 2010
 +
* [https://scholar.vt.edu/portal Scholar] - 2010 - 2017
 +
* [https://canvas.vt.edu Canvas] - 2017 - Current
  
−
== Criticism ==
+
== Distributions ==
−
Arch does not currently support package signing.[https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/5331] As a result of this, an insecure mirror (including any mirrors upstream of the one you are synching from) or a untrusted connection (such as a man in the middle attack between you and the mirror, or any hops between mirrors) could result in your system's security being compromised. There has been some work towards adding package signing functionality to Arch[http://projects.archlinux.org/users/allan/pacman.git/log/?h=gpg], however there have been claims that the developers are not concerned with the security implications and are reluctant to accept improvements from outside of the core team[http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/archs-dirty-little-notso-secret/].
+
''See [[Mirrors]] for VT Mirrors containing several of these
  
−
[[Category:Linux distributions]]
+
* [https://www.gentoo.org/ Gentoo] - Compile everything yourself
−
[[Category:Round 2 migration]]
+
* [https://www.debian.org/ Debian] - Popular for servers & desktop use
 +
* [http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu] - Beginner friendly, based on Debian
 +
* [https://archlinux.org Arch Linux] - Easier than Gentoo, Harder than Debian; very popular with club members
 +
* [https://theiotlearninginitiative.gitbooks.io/embedded-linux/documentation/Artoo.html Artoo] - Uses btrfs
 +
* [https://getfedora.org/ Fedora] - Bleeding edge, based on EL
 +
* [https://www.openbsd.org/ OpenBSD] - Free, BSD OS
 +
 
 +
== Related Resources ==
 +
* [[Example LaTeX Chem Lab Report]] - An example lab report for CHEM 1045 written in LaTeX.
 +
 
 +
== See Also ==
 +
* [[Computer requirement]]
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Software]]
 +
[[Category:Featured content]]
 +
[[Category:Needs restoration]]

Revision as of 02:40, 4 January 2018

TODO: Change name to "Class software"

This page includes information about both libre and non-libre software, rather than having it fragmented in a ton of separate pages across the wiki.

Libre Applications

  • Jarnal - Java based PDF annotator
  • Okular - KDE Document viewer
  • Xournal - GTK+ inking application
  • GNURadio - "Provides signal processing blocks to implement software-defined radios and signal-processing systems."
    • Used by the Hume Center for research
  • LaTeX - Markup & typesetting system for producing high-quality documents
    • The Beamer is used to create slides/posters
  • Mono - Cross platform .NET compiler and runtime
  • Pygments - Source code pretty-printer that outpus to many formats
  • R - The programming language for statistics
  • SPIM - MIPS R2000 & R3000 simulator for educational purposes
  • VirtualBox - Virtualization software
  • LibVirt - API for manaing virtual machines under QEMU, KVM, or XEN
  • Xmonad - Haskell based windows manager
  • BlueJ - Simple Java IDE
  • Clang Complete - Popular Clang addon for vim
  • Screen - Popular terminal multiplexer
  • Tmux - Popular terminal multiplexer
  • Xoscope - Oscilloscope program
  • Xournal - Notetaking/Sketching/Journal App

Non-libre Applications

Software License WINE? VM? Native Linux? Equivalent FOSS Notes
MATLAB Proprietary Gold Yes Yes QtOctave, FreeMat (stale?), Octave (console), Scilab (not syntax-compatible), Sage Parallelize number crunching using the CVL
DyKnow Proprietary Garbage Yes No Ubiquitous Presenter (Free for academic use), completely free version a work in progress Contains malware.
LabView Proprietary Yes Yes
Microsoft Visual C++ Proprietary Garbage Yes No GCC + GDB + Valgrind, KDevelop, eclipse-cdt
Microsoft Excel 2007 Proprietary Gold Yes No Gnumeric Absolute values ( such as "1" or "0") can not be used for constraints. Multiple cell ranges can not be manipulated at once, making Gnumeric unusable for transshipment problems and goal programming. Cell ranges can only be compared to ranges of equal length and width in constraints. Nonlinear programming is not yet possible.

Reports are dated in UTC.

PSpice Proprietary Silver Yes No Qucs You can probably replace the Tront PSpice book with the Qucs workbook.
Zeitnitz Soundcard Oscilloscope ? Gold ? No xoscope
PCLab Proprietary Bronze? Kind of No none, if you want to use this hardware bwr is supposedly working on a linux driver so that this 'scope might also work with xoscope
LogicWorks Proprietary Gold Yes No Qucs
MPLAB ?? Gold Yes Yes Piklab
Xilinx tools (parts GPL'd) ?? Sometimes quirky Yes Use 9.x natively with libusb-driver.
WinCupl Proprietary Gold Yes No Needs MFC40.dll: 
wget http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vc/mfc40.cab
cabextract mfc40.cab
wine mfc40.exe
MS Visual C# + .NET Proprietary ?? Yes No MonoDevelop + Mono
VMware products Proprietary No ... Some Virtualbox, QEMU VMware's tools can generally be used to convert images between VMware and VirtualBox/QEMU formats.
Microsoft Project Proprietary Bronze Yes No GNOME Planner Planner lacks resource levelling or constraints
Autodesk Products Proprietary Garbage Buggy No Success in Wine depends on the Autodesk product used and revisions of all software involved.
Microsoft Visio Proprietary Gold Yes No Dia Lots of add-ons for circuit shapes and logic for flowcharts
Microsoft Visual Studio Proprietary Garbage Yes No gcc, eclipse-cdt Compiling C++ in g++ is okay, but testing in a Visual Studio environment is recommended to make sure that the project will work correctly before turning it in.
Microsoft PowerPoint Proprietary ? Yes No LibreOffice Impress, Beamer Some instructors may require PPTX files, but some may also accept PDF; your mileage will very depending upon your instructor.
Sibelius Scorch Proprietary ? Yes No
Adobe Flash Player Proprietary ? Yes Yes
Respondus LockDown Browser Proprietary No? No No Integrates with Scholar, Canvas for testing; prevents access to other tabs, perhaps other apps (by blacklist), resists running in virtualized environments and some releases of Wine, must be run as administrator

Course management software

Distributions

See Mirrors for VT Mirrors containing several of these

  • Gentoo - Compile everything yourself
  • Debian - Popular for servers & desktop use
  • Ubuntu - Beginner friendly, based on Debian
  • Arch Linux - Easier than Gentoo, Harder than Debian; very popular with club members
  • Artoo - Uses btrfs
  • Fedora - Bleeding edge, based on EL
  • OpenBSD - Free, BSD OS

Related Resources

See Also

Retrieved from "https://vtluug.org/w/index.php?title=Arch&oldid=491"