Working Remotely on Linux

The beauty of remote access is that nobody knows or cares what operating system you use, as long as you have client software that can access your firm's server. Most of my work is done remotely, so that means I get to use Linux all day long! There are several clients available for Linux; this post discusses the ones I have found to work best.

Remote Desktop Clients

For the richest remote access experience, it's hard to beat Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services (fka Terminal Services), which has been available on Windows Server for as long as I can remember (at least back to Windows 2000 Server). I recently set this up for our law firm on Windows Server 2008 R2. All of our software, from office applications to law-specific programs, have been installed on our Windows Server, and multiple users can log in to the server remotely with full access to everything they would have on their in-office desktop.

To access Windows servers running RDS from Linux machines, the rdesktop command line program is unparalleled. There are many GUI-based RDS clients, but most of them are simply front ends for rdesktop, and none that I have tried have the power and flexibility of using rdesktop from the command line. If you have command-line phobia, it's not nearly as hard as it seems, and this post explains how to use it. But if, after reading this post, you insist on using a GUI-based client, try Gnome-RDP. It doesn't have even 15% of the options available on the command line, but it has the most of any other Linux RDS client I've tried.

The beauty of using rdesktop is that once you decide on your optimal settings, you only need to enter the command once, and then you never need to see the command line again. It does require some extra time up front to figure out what settings you like, but that initial work will ensure that you have the best possible experience. The list of options for rdesktop is extensive, but most of them are not needed. Here is the basic command format, followed by a description of the most common options:

Basic Command Format:

rdesktop -u [network user name] -p [network password] -d [network domain name] [options] [server IP address]:[server RDS port number]

Command Options:

-a [8, 15, 16 or 24 sets the color depth; use 8 for 8-bit color for fastest speed; 24 for richest color]

-x [experience; m disables all desktop effects for faster speeds; l enables all effects]

-f [use fullscreen mode]

-g [desired height x width of RDS screen, e.g., 1910x1100]

-z [enable compression, but only works with 8bpp color depth]

-P [enable bitmap caching to speed access]

-r disk:remote=[path to a local folder to use for sharing files with RDS]

-r sound:local [directs sound to my local PC] [server IP address]:[server RDS port number]

Sample Command:

So here is the full command I use to access our firm's server:

rdesktop -u [my network user name] -d [our firm's domain name] -p [my network password] -a 8 -x m -g 1910x1100 -z -P -r disk:remote=[path to a local folder on my computer to use for sharing files with RDS] -r sound:local  [server IP address]:[server RDS port number]

Once you've figured out your best settings, simply add the command to your menu or panel or whatever. In Ubuntu 10.04, go to the System menu, Main Menu, and then add your RDS command wherever you want. To add it to your panel, just right-click on the Panel, choose "Add to Panel," and then enter the command.

VNC Client

With RDS, your access is invisible to someone who is working on the physical server; they cannot see what you are doing. If you want someone to be able to observe what you are doing (such as for tech support), VNC is helpful. Special software on the Windows host machine is required. I use RealVNC, but there are many other options. On the Linux client side, many, if not most, of the RDS clients also support VNC. I prefer to use the GUI-based Remote Desktop Viewer tool, aka vinagre. It is simple, but adequate.

General Tips for Running a Law Office on Linux

After over two years of running Linux, I'm never going back to Windows. The flexibility, reliability, speed, and instant availability of free software has become addicting.

I first tried Linux out of frustration with the copy-protection practices of Microsoft and other Windows-based programs. Every time I upgraded my computer, I had to re-validate my copy of Windows, which sometimes required a phone call to Microsoft and other vendors. There are few things more frustrating than begging a vendor for permission to use a product that I already paid for! Now when I upgrade my computer, Linux magically recognizes my new hardware, and I'm up and running again.

That being said, running Linux for my law office is not without challenges, because law-specific applications for Linux are almost nonexistent. Here are the solutions that I have found.

Word Processing Solutions

OpenOffice

OpenOffice (or its new cousin LibreOffice) is a great, free, open source office application that has matured over the past few years. I use it as much as I can. However, it still lacks 100% compatibility with Word and WordPerfect files. (In fact, while it can import WP files, it cannot save in WP format.) Because I am constantly exchanging editable documents with Word and WordPerfect users, I am forced to continue using both of those products. I have encountered no compatibility issues with OpenOffice's spreadsheet program. It appears to be perfectly compatible with Excel files.

WordPerfect

There was a version of WordPerfect for Linux at one time (v8), and it is still available for free download on the Internet. Unfortunately, the libraries that it relies upon are very outdated, and despite hours of tweaking, I have never been able to get it to work. Fortunately, WordPerfect 10 for Windows runs almost flawlessly under wine. (Wine allows Windows programs to run seamlessly under Linux.) The bad news is that the WP 10 installer doesn't work under wine. Therefore, the only way to install WP is to install it on a Windows box, using a program like regshot to capture all the registry changes, which can then be imported into the wine registry. Once installed, however, it runs almost perfectly. I've been using it daily for the past two years and the only glitches I have found are:

1. WP always forgets its window location after exit. Each time you load WP, the program is not visible until you load it again. (Yes, you have to load it twice.) Then the title bar appears at the bottom of the screen. You simply maximize the window or drag it to the desired size, and you're off and running.
2. Occasionally, the publish to PDF feature doesn't work, sending the document to the default printer instead. My solution has been to set the PDF printer as my default printer in Linux.
3. Occasionally opening the Find dialog freezes WP. I just load the Find dialog right after I load WP, place it somewhere out of the way on the screen, and then click in the Find box when I need it. As long as keep the Find dialog open, it has no problem.
4. The enhanced file open/save dialogs do not work and must be disabled.
5. The compare function does not work. I use OpenOffice to compare WordPerfect files.

WP 10 is very outdated now, but it retains document compatibility with the latest versions of WordPerfect, and it has all the features I need. Although I have not tested them, versions 11 and 12 are supposed to work well under wine as well.

Word

I use Word 2007, and it installs and runs perfectly under wine.

Indexing Word and WordPerfect Files

The free Tracker search tool will index Word and WordPerfect files, with the aid of plugins that are freely available. This allows instant searching of the content of word processing files.

Email/Calendar

Ubuntu 10.04 is still my favored Linux distribution, and the built-in Evolution works well for email and calendaring. It must have some form of indexing built in, because its email search function is instantaneous.

PDF Editing/Scanning/OCR

Acrobat

It is disappointing that while Adobe Acrobat feigns to be a multi-platform program, only the reader is available for Linux (not the Standard or Professional versions). However, I have an old version of Acrobat for Windows (5.0) that installs and runs perfectly under wine. Interestingly, the older standard versions of Acrobat include a very sophisticated and fast indexing feature that is now found only in the much more expensive professional version, so it may not be such a bad thing after all. More recent versions of Acrobat are supposed to work under wine also, but I have not tried them.

There are other PDF editors available for Linux, but their functionality is limited.

Scanning

Scanning in Linux is probably more of a hardware support issue. I have a Brother multifunction, and the free "Simple Scan" program works fairly well with it.

OCR

There are some free OCR programs for Linux, but they seem to be very rudimentary, and I have not tried them. I run OmniPage 15 for Windows under wine, and it works without a hitch.

Timekeeping/Billing/Trust Accounting

To date, I have not found a viable solution for timekeeping, billing, and trust accounting under Linux. I had previously used Time Matters and PCLaw, but neither runs under wine. One option is to use a cloud-based service such as Clio, but I still prefer to run all my software locally. I run Windows XP inside a VirtualBox so I can continue to use PCLaw. Klok is an alternative I used for a while to do time-keeping. Klok is a free Adobe Air time-tracking application that will export to an Excel file. (Adobe Air is a platform that allows programs to run independent of the platform. It is based upon Flash, so it is very inefficient. You need a fast computer, but it works.) The problem with Klok is that it does not have a link to PCLaw, so you must copy and paste your time entries from Klok into PCLaw.

Web Browsing/Remote Access/Java Support

The Internet experience under Linux is very mature. Firefox is a popular and fully functional browser. I prefer Chrome, as it is addictingly fast. For remote access, there are a variety of VNC-compatible programs. Java support is also excellent. Flash support is (finally!) on par with Windows and Mac. I am using the 64-bit version of Flash and have had no problems with it. Skype also works well under Linux.

Backup

Despite the name, Simple Backup is actually a sophisticated free backup program. I backup to Ubuntu One, which is a free cloud-based data storage system that runs under Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows, so you can synchronize files across systems. (There is a charge if your online storage needs exceed 5gb.)

VirtualBox

A possible solution to virtually all of the application unavailability problems is to run Windows in VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a free program that emulates a separate computer within an operating system. You decide how much of your computer's resources to allocate to it (memory, processor cores, video screen size, USB devices, etc.). Multiple operating systems can then be loaded within VirtualBox, such as Windows, OS/2, or other versions of Linux or Unix. When I was initially setting up my law office, I steered clear of VirtualBox because I felt it would be difficult to set up and cumbersome to use. I wanted to use native Linux apps or wine-friendly apps as much as possible. I eventually gave VirtualBox a try, and it is actually not too bad. I loaded Windows XP on it, and almost any Windows program will run under it. Nonetheless, it is a bit of a resource hog, and it is more convenient to use wine, which runs Windows programs seamlessly, as if they were Linux programs.