Tech Forum

I'm a member of the Vegas Manor Ward in Las Vegas, and I have several active users of the Family Search Indexing app who I've moved from MSWindows to Ubuntu Linux. This was done as the machines they were using for indexing had acquired such a "crust" of malware that it was near impossible to clean the current install of Windows, plus neither one of the users had any system restore media. Neither machine was suitable for upgrading to Windows7, so I backed up their documents, deleted windows and installed Ubuntu, restored their data and installed the Indexing app, which worked just fine.

The reason why I'm posting here is I've recently become aware that the Oracle/Sun Java runtime is going to be dropped by Ubuntu in the immediate future, due to some obscure licensing issue. Not only is Oracle Java being deprecated by Ubuntu, but, for machines that are on automatic update, the Java RT will be automatically removed. Fortuantly, these two machines are not on auto-update, just notify. My question is then, does the Indexing application require sun-java6-jre to operate correctly or can we fall back to the openjre runtime? I realize this problem is not an issue for people running Windows, but due to all of the malware afflicting Windows now, I've been weaning as many people as I can off of Windows. These two machines are my first conversions for members of our Ward..

Thanks for any info...

Dave Frandin

dfrandin wrote:The reason why I'm posting here is I've recently become aware that the Oracle/Sun Java runtime is going to be dropped by Ubuntu in the immediate future, due to some obscure licensing issue. Not only is Oracle Java being deprecated by Ubuntu, but, for machines that are on automatic update, the Java RT will be automatically removed. Fortuantly, these two machines are not on auto-update, just notify. My question is then, does the Indexing application require sun-java6-jre to operate correctly or can we fall back to the openjre runtime?

The FS Indexing app is not tested with the OpenJDK JRE, so I doubt that you'll get a firm answer on this. However, it sounds like you're skilled with Ubuntu, and so it shouldn't be that hard for you to swap out the JRE and give it a try.

dfrandin wrote:I realize this problem is not an issue for people running Windows, but due to all of the malware afflicting Windows now, I've been weaning as many people as I can off of Windows.

I've been running Windows for many, many years, and never had any malware. I know some people have some problems in this area, but it's just a matter of putting proper protection in place, which is quite straightforward. I hope the people you are "weaning off of Windows" are totally comfortable with Ubuntu. In my experience, that's not an easy jump. As long as those users are making the change with their eyes wide open as to the consequences, then that's great -- but I'd be wary of talking people into a change they may not completely understand.

aebrown wrote:The FS Indexing app is not tested with the OpenJDK JRE, so I doubt that you'll get a firm answer on this. However, it sounds like you're skilled with Ubuntu, and so it shouldn't be that hard for you to swap out the JRE and give it a try.

As soon as the holidays are over, I'll get with the one user who uses Indexing the most and switch the JRE and have her exercise the program. Her system already has both, as Ubuntu ships with OpenJRE as a default, but I put Oracle/Sun on the system when I set it up, as I don't have a lot of experience with the Open version.

aebrown wrote:I've been running Windows for many, many years, and never had any malware. I know some people have some problems in this area, but it's just a matter of putting proper protection in place, which is quite straightforward. I hope the people you are "weaning off of Windows" are totally comfortable with Ubuntu. In my experience, that's not an easy jump. As long as those users are making the change with their eyes wide open as to the consequences, then that's great -- but I'd be wary of talking people into a change they may not completely understand.

I too, have been running Windows since Windows 3.1, and I, personally, have had almost no problems with malware, as I run malware checks/antivirus and most of all, am very careful WHERE I go on the Internet. I, however, am not your average non-geek user.. I'm sort of the defacto tech support for my neighborhood (and now my Ward too) and I've seen some infestations of malware that would curl your hair.. Especially on machines that have teenage users.

As for Linux, I have modded the default Gnome interface to look virtually just like Windows 2000 or XP/Vista/Win7 in the "classic" mode. In case you haven't looked at Linux lately, even without my UI tweaks, Ubuntu 10.04 looks very much like Windows, and according to the 20+ users I've set up on it, they have no problems with things working like they're used to with Windows. In a couple of cases, in the first couple of setups, the users had some problems getting their slightly odd multifunction printers to work, but I was but a phone-call away. One of them even had a need for Adobe Photoshop, which was simple to set up to run under WINE. Those issues were at least 6 months ago, and I haven't heard from any of them since with any issues. The biggest thing with the user in question was converting all of her MSWorks documents from MSWorks/.WPS to MSOffice/OpenOffice compatible .DOC files

I'm an unemployed computer support tech, and while looking for work, have started a sideline business buying up broken/offlease laptops/desktops, repair/refurbing them, installing Linux and reselling. Not doing a landoffice business, but it helps..

I talk to people all the time that think once they have a problem with malware they need to delete or reinstall Windows. I have always found this to be unnecessary. Re-installing or removing Windows is always an absolute last resort.

I have cleaned numeous machines for friends and members of the ward. I have had computers with over 500 virus and 500 spyware at the same time. It was almost impossible to run the computers or to even get online. But, I cleaned them up to good as new. It is not impossible. It might just take a few hours more.

I am not a certified tech. Just self-taught. I have no paid malware subscriptions. These may not be the best, but I use solely AVG, Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Adware, and Spybot. Though, I have not used Spybot for over a year. I am sort of like the On my own computer I use XP and have no Malware program running. I just run them maybe once per month, if I think about it.. or if I stumble across a web bug, which is rare.

This is not to take sides in the Windows, Linux, Apple debate.