Use of Freeware on Shipboard Computers Part-2

Well I am back with second part of my last post.

Firstly let me apologise for a small error, you might have noticed if you had done some fact finding.
In the list of free office suites I had mentioned 'STAR OFFICE'. Well this office suite is not free, it used to be free few years back, but is not free anymore.
In this context, I would also like to mention that both Star Office & IBM Lotus Symphony are actually based on OpenOffice. So essentially they are similar with different interfaces.

Now let's get into few unanswered doubts of my last post.

First, even a die hard M$ basher will agree that life is not same without some windows applications. Everyone has his favourite programs which runs only on windows. So, what happens to those programs if computers are switched over to linux.
Some programs are sent from different companies which will only run on windows, so what can be done to run those programs on Linux computers.

Well following are few solutions that comes to my mind.
(1) Through Virtualization software
(2) Through Remote Desktop software
(3) Through Live Windows CD/DVD
(4) Through 'WINE' - it is not the one we drink

Virtualization software --
This is a piece of software that creates a virtual machine inside your machine and most of the operating systems can be installed on this virtual machine. Consider this - a virtual machine in a linux computer that runs windows xp and your favorite software runs inside that virtual machine. Any data created in virtual machine can be copied back to actual machine. So, your data can be made safe from windows virus and any virus attack on virtual machine - well it is virtual - isn't it - you can always erase & recreate one.
Several free and commercial softwares are available for this purpose, such as VMware, VirtualBox, Qemu, Parallels, Bochs.

Remote Desktop Software --
This software can be used to control another remote machine from a local machine. Consider this - you are sitting on master's cabin computer and you need exchange mail through satcom which is connected to bridge computer without leaving your seat. Well this software is your solution. Few of you must have already used this kind of software to control one windows machine from another windows machine. But same can be achieved from a linux machine to control another windows machine. For an example Bridge computer can be a windows machine and master's cabin computer can be a linux machine. Softwares such as UltraVNC or RealVNC can be used control windows machine from a linux machine.

Live Windows CD/DVD --
Consider this scenario -- there is no operating system installed on the hard disk of your computer, rather you start windows by putting a Live Windows CD/DVD with all essential freewares in your machine's CD/DVD drive. Now virus attack cannot penetrate a CD/DVD. Windows installation cannot crash as it is never installed. Now this looks like an ideal situation -- but there is a few problems though. Windows will loose its flexibility in this situation. Also, this is not a readymade solution -- this is kind of a hack -- though not totally illegal. For more information search google with keyword "BartPE". I would not elaborate further here. In case there is more interest I could post a separate blog.

WINE --
This is a software that allows to run most popular windows programs directly on LINUX. As most maritime windows programs are not that popular, so they are mostly untested. But, in my opinion most of them should work as they are less complicated than other commercial windows software. This is actually a beautiful piece of software - anyone who has a chance of using it, will swear by it. Results of windows programs running on linux with this program can be seen on 'WINE' website.

Now the above solutions are not mutually exclusive. They can coexist in a real life situation.

Just to get an idea, let's look at a problem of virus attack on board ships --

How does a virus reach a computer ?

(1) from Email attachments
(2) from Pendrives
(3) from CD/DVD
(4) from malWebsites

There could be more, but these four are major. Now option (4) could be excluded as mostly there is not direct connection to internet on board. So what can be done regarding the other three ?

Let's go one by one --

Bridge Computer is normally designated for Email handling and is Windows computer, which can not be substituted by a linux computer. So, usage of pendrive & CD/DVD can very well be restricted on this computer and Email attachments could be moved from this computer to a linux computer before opening them. So, there has to be a strict policy onboard regarding this. Also, physical access to this computer should also be restricted, so no one runs a malware unknowingly in this computer. So, by enforcing a strict policy all three sources of virus intrusion could be prevented along with antivirus & antispyware softwares from this computer.
Now, next question will be what to do with the Email attachments on the Linux computer ?
Well .pdf files can be opened without a problem. Most simple .doc, .xls and .ppt files could be opened by free linux office softwares without a problem. But few complex files will not open in this method. For these 'WINE' will come to rescue. You could run MSOffice on linux computer with 'WINE' and those complex files will open without any problem now.
A better policy will be to convert document, spreadsheet and presentation files to a format compatible with linux office softwares.

So what can be done for the .exe files. Well they can also run with 'WINE', but better solution will be to run them on virtual machine, so that in case of a file being virus it will not spread beyond that virtual machine.

Well, what we can see from above there is no single solution. Idea is to have a solution that is customised to a requirement for a company and also strict usage policy is required to have a trouble-free and least costly computing environment onboard.

Last, but not the least, a third part of this topic will come if I find anything that is not touched upon. Comments from others will also influence this. So, kindly post your comments once u go through above.


SIDDHARTHA BOSE
CHIEF ENGINEER
DMET (1991-1995)