Random Thoughts

I’ve recently installed the release version (which now has been officially released) of Hardy Heron which is the name given to the latest version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The installation went almost without a hitch except that it initially did not recognise my wireless networking card. I found the solution in one of the fora related to Ubuntu.

I know for a fact that it is possible to run MS Windows-based applications in Linux through the use of an application called Wine. It then occurred to me to find out if VeriTime can run properly in Linux through Wine. Well, there’s only one way to find out.

I copied the VeriTime installation program to the appropriate folder as required by Wine and started the installation process. The installation went without any problems, it even added the VeriTime icon to the desktop. I then proceeded to start the program by double clicking on the desktop icon.

VeriTime started normally with the usual pop-up windows (which you can disable in the options). My excitement was short-lived as this message box came up:

I thought the whole process will be smooth as silk but it was not meant to be. So I fired up my Firefox browser and typed in the search terms ‘fbclient+hardy+heron’ in the space provided for by Googlebar Lite (a Firefox add-on). After going through some entries of the search result I came across one that gave me a hint as to the cause of the error message. I was missing a file called msvcp60.dll.

The current installation of VeriTime did not include this file. I have to remind myself to revise the setup program and include this missing file. Fortunately, this file resides in the c:\windows\system32 folder of another machine that had Windows XP installed. I copied this file into the VeriTime installation folder. Restarted VeriTime and held my breath. Will VeriTime successfully run this time or will there be another gremlin lurking? VeriTime ran OK! Success! Here is a screenshot:

Wow, this is great. I then proceeded to enter the name of the company of my friend that I am doing some work for. I also added a project. Everything worked perfectly. I then proceeded to try the other functions such as printing, exporting, setting the options and they all worked.

This means that for those of you who are using Linux machines you now have an excellent time tracking application at your disposal. You now can continue working on your tasks/projects assured of the fact that you will be able accurately record the time you spend on them because VeriTime Time Tracker works in Linux.