Linux (and tools)

Well, this one definitely isn't a rant :)

I'm constantly amazed how much Linux has improved in the last few years.

Right now I'm using SuSE 10.1, and more often than not I find that most of the peripherals I sometimes use (like a cheap digital camera, etc.) work better in Linux than in Windows :)

One of the best Linux programs I've been using for years is Hylafax - a powerful office faxing package, which I can heartily recommend to anyone who needs a robust office faxing solution. And, what's best, there's nothing like it in Windows world - well, nothing quite as robust, not to mention free.

The only thing I'm still missing is a simple replacement for FileMaker database. I keep my books in FileMaker - I developed my own accounting system in it, and have been using (and improving) it for years.

So far, I haven't been able to find something as simple and as compact as FileMaker. I don't need a full-blown MySQL or PostgreSQL installation, with dozens of directories, etc.. Something simple with an SQLite background would be quite OK, but the problem is that I also need simple and easy (visual) forms and reports creation... :(

I often need to change the reports I use, due to ever-changing legal requirements, and in FileMaker I can do it in a couple of minutes. No such luck with anything I've tried under Linux so far. However, I'm confident that I won't have to wait much longer, given that there are several promising Linux projects of that kind being actively developed...

Translation tools

As regards translation tools, there are many - but almost none that can be used "out-of-the-box" for any kind of "general" translation work.

By that, I mean there aren't many universal Linux translation tools - most are intended only for use with .po files - i.e. for localization of Linux software.

One Open Source exception is OmegaT - which I intend to test-drive soon.

There are other tools, like Heartsome XLIFF Editor - which isn't free, let alone Open Source, but still (somewhat) usable...

I've tried Heartsome XLIFF Editor (HXE), but wasn't exactly overwhelmed with it. I guess I'm spoiled by years of working with Trados, but HXE isn't exactly intuitive to use, and its Help is also very sparse...

Another thing is that it handles tags rather strangely. I tried to do a translation of an XLF file with it, but it didn't come out very well. Perhaps I did not configure it properly, but even after preparing a good TMX and importing old translations, the matches were rather strange. Combined with some segmentation problems, which I couldn't resolve quickly, I decided I didn't have the time to fiddle with it any more, and gave it up for that particular task. However, for simpler (non-tagged) texts, it should do OK, I guess.

I just wish there was a TM system under Linux that could be plugged into Emacs ;)