IE 6 on Linux

IT has rolled out Outlook Exchange calendar replacing Meeting Maker in our office. However, most of the Engineers in our office use non Windows workstation. Outlook exchange over web interface (Outlook Web Access light) from non-Windows platform was painful. Here are the shortcomings that I have encountered:

1. No pop-up reminders about meeting
   
2. No weekly view
3. User interface is not intuitive (Microsoft! Are you listening?)

Please note most, if not all, of these problems are not applicable if you use IE on Windows machine.

If you are put up with (or forced to) a similar situation, here is what you could do to save your life. Please note that for brevity I am keeping the instructions simple. It is very easy to follow the instructions that accompany these softwares and install them.

1. Install Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator). [Wine 0.9.9 was already installed on our Linux machines!]
   
2. Download and install IE for Linux. The software can be downloaded here.
3. You are not done yet. You need to edit the registry to set the User agent parameters. [Courtesy: PC Tools]
   
• Execute wine regedit
• Create the following key if it does not exist
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
• Create the following string values and set the value as shown below
  
• Compatible - "compatible"
  
• Platform - "Windows NT 5.0" or "Windows NT 5.2"
  
• Version - "MSIE 6.0"
• Change the "Default" value to "Mozilla/4.0"
• Exit regedit
4. Start IE, access and enjoy the feature rich Outlook Exchange Calendar using your browser.

In case if you have issues, you may have to try the following.

1. From IEs 4 Linux forum
   
• Download the missing registry settings from here
• Export WINEPREFIX= (e.g., set WINEPREFIX to /home//.ies4linux/ie6)
• wine regedit.exe
  
• Import the downloaded registry settings (Registry\Import registry file)
• Restart IE.
2. Try creating following registry entries
• [Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings\\User Agent\\Post Platform]
• “Windows NT 5.1″=”This String Doesn’t Matter I think”
• [Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings\\User Agent\\Pre Platform]
• “Windows NT 5.1″=”This String Doesn’t Matter I think"

PS: Though I haven't tried, I believe it should work on any Unix/MAC platform that supports Wine. Use at your own risk :-)

Ciao,
Sudhagar

Hello, World!!!

This is my maiden post at blogspot. I started writing blog, well some form of blog, on my home page since March 2006. However, I wrote once in a blue moon. Yes, so far I have written only twice :-) Well, I am sure you would have gotten a glimpse of "Who am I?" in the "About me". For those, who find that cryptic, here is the version 2.

I am Sudhagar Chinnaswamy, born on 21 Aug 1977 (Sun sign 'Leo'), in a South Indian city called Tirupur. I started my academic journey at Gandhi school and continued at SIV school till standard XII. I did my undergrad in Computer Science and Engineering at Government College of Technology at Coimbatore and currently doing my MBA at Santa Clara University.

My professional journey began at Wipro Technologies with few stopovers at Network Appliance (Consultant from Insight Solutions Inc), Mobility Networks, and Azaire Networks. I am currently working for Redback Networks (an Ericsson company) in software development team.

A word or two about my family. I am a son of two parents (Foster and Biological parents). I am married to Vidhya and a proud father of cute little princess Kirti. Kirti has brought lot of good things in my life. Though she was inside my wife's tummy, she was the ultimate reason for starting my MBA journey. After her birth, I switched jobs. The new company, Redback Networks, got acquired by Ericsson. After her first birthday, I started doing meditation (Art of Living) and engaging myself in spiritual path. In short, she is my Angel.

Well, I believe, that should suffice for now. My current plan is to blog about my MBA courses, Toastmaster speeches and other interesting stuff.

Ciao,

Sudhagar