Monday, May 19, 2008

Internet Explorer in Ubuntu Hardy Heron

In my previous post, I was wondering whether to go in for a clean install after the final release of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). I decided not to do clean install, since I had installed many applications and configured them to suit my needs. It would be laborious to reinstall all applications and reconfigure them again. Further, I have to work around again in resolving bugs reported in my previous post. I am happy just updating to the stable version. I have added quite a few applications by now. I would list and discuss them in my future blogs.

Since I have a dual boot system with Windows XP and Ubuntu as alternative operating systems, I was using Windows and Internet Explorer combination for the sites that do not open properly in other browsers. I also used this combination to acquire some data from the net to Microsoft Excel. Data acquisition does not work well with FireFox and OpenOffice combination as of now.

I wanted to use Internet Explorer in Ubuntu so that I can stick with only one Operating System. I found that ie4linux is the software that would allow me to use internet Explorer in Linux (Ubuntu). I required both Wine and Cabextract applications before installing ie4linux. Cabextract was found in my system already and I installed Wine. Then I installed ie4linux.

I had a hiccup during installation of ie4linux. ie4linux could not download a dll file from the net. I had to manually copy it from my Windows system files. Installation was completed after copying this dll file to ie4linux folder.

Though this software provided both versions of ie6 and ie7(beta), ie7(beta) does not work at all. Even in ie6, the screen flickers a lot, when flash files are used to open a site. It is also slow. Though I am happy that I am able to open Internet Explorer in Ubuntu, the surfing experience is not pleasant.

I am back to using Internet Explorer in Windows XP.