Status of OneNote compatibility Linux (wine/CrossOver)

While both wine and CrossOver have claimed support for Microsoft Office running on Linux, the reality is more mixed and depends on your definition of what is included in Office.

Yes, the core applications Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint work. But in my interpretation, Microsoft OneNote is also definitely part of the Office suite and support for OneNote is unfortunately still very limited. My experience with OneNote under Linux is as follows.

OneNote 2013 installation bug on wine (is now fixed).
Version Status 
Compatability
OneNote 2016 Limited It will install and run, but it will not allow you to use notebooks stored on SharePoint servers or on OneDrive. Collaboration is therefore limited and you can only use locally stored notebooks.
OneNote 2013 Limited It will install and run, but it will not allow you to use notebooks stored on SharePoint servers or on OneDrive. Collaboration is therefore limited and you can only use locally stored notebooks.
OneNote 2010 Limited It will install and run, but it will not allow you to use notebooks stored on SharePoint servers or on OneDrive. Collaboration is therefore limited and you can only use locally stored notebooks.

Update Dec. 2019:  updated the table to reflect that OneNote 2013 and 2016 will now actually start, as announced here. I’ve also tried anbox as seen below.

Anbox is an android container environment for Linux. Therefore, it can also run the free OneNote app that Microsoft publishes in the Google Play Store.

Installation of Anbox is simple (I used the instructions on the ArchLinux wiki, but there is also a snap package). If you install the version that includes the Google Play Store, then you can easily install the free OneNote app:

My experience was, however, that it’s not yet a replacement:

  • Typing is not instantaneous
  • The app crashes often

I did not yet fully test copy pasting functionality (plain, HTML, images).

Transferring 4K video files from a Sony action cam (FDR-X3000) to an iPhone

When using Sony action cameras that are capable of recording in the XAVC-S format (e.g. FDR-X3000), especially in 4K, it is not immediately obvious how to transfer these files to an iPhone.

When using the Sony PlayMemories app, the option to transfer the files to the iPhone is grayed out (the middle icon in the below toolbar):

The solution is to use a different app, namely the Sony “Action Cam” app. In this app, click “Import”:

Then you will find that if you select a file, it will now even import 4K:

 

Note: in this approach the downloaded file will be downscaled, and you won’t have the full 4K video on your iPhone. However, this downscaled video can be useful for sharing on social media.

If you want full quality 4K transferred to the iPhone, you have this remaining option (besides using a PC, of course), which is to use the Leef dongle that has a micro SD card reader for iPhone. (If you have a recent iPhone that supports 4K.)

Note that the Leef will also work for A7 cameras, but it only has a micro SD card slot, so you’ll need an adapter.

B-24 ‘Liberator’ bomber dive site, Togean Islands

One of the fascinating dive spots near the Togean Islands, Sulawesi, is the wreck of a B-24 ‘Liberator‘ bomber.
Photo’s of the full crash report can be found at Kadidiri Paradise. I’ve included them here for those that are interested in history:

The wreck lies roughly at a depth of 15 to 25 meters.
It had rained heavily the night before we dove and the visibility was poor. Nonetheless, it was a very interesting dive. The site is home to a lot of lion fishes, so be careful.

Org-mode and wide TaskJuggler HTML export

By default, when using the TaskJuggler exporting function in Org-mode, it will produce a web page that is too narrow by today’s standards:


(Notice the scrollbar underneath the GANTT plot.)

The solution is to put a tweak in your emacs init file that adds columns ... { width 1000 } to the TaskJuggler output.

(setq org-taskjuggler-default-reports
'("textreport report \"Plan\" {
formats html
header '== %title =='
center -8<-
[#Plan Plan] | [#Resource_Allocation Resource Allocation]
----
=== Plan ===
<[report id=\"plan\"]>
----
=== Resource Allocation ===
<[report id=\"resourceGraph\"]>
->8-
}
# A traditional Gantt chart with a project overview.
taskreport plan \"\" {
headline \"Project Plan\"
columns bsi, name, start, end, effort, effortdone, effortleft, chart { width 1000 }
loadunit shortauto
hideresource 1
}
# A graph showing resource allocation. It identifies whether each
# resource is under- or over-allocated for.
resourcereport resourceGraph \"\" {
headline \"Resource Allocation Graph\"
columns no, name, effort, weekly { width 1000 }
loadunit shortauto
hidetask ~(isleaf() & isleaf_())
sorttasks plan.start.up
}")
)

Also, some other tweaks that I found useful:

(setq org-taskjuggler-default-project-duration 999)
(setq org-taskjuggler-valid-task-attributes
'(account start note duration endbuffer endcredit end
flags journalentry length limits maxend maxstart minend
minstart period reference responsible scheduling
startbuffer startcredit statusnote chargeset charge booking))

The first sets the default project duration that I couldn’t seem to set in the org file itself. The second makes it possible to add booking clauses to tasks (so you can define those inside your org files).

Finally, I also found it useful to tweak the columns in the GANTT chart. I added the effortdone and effortleft fields, which are visible in the above screenshot.

Options for using Unity on Linux host

When using a Linux desktop, I often run into situations where I need Windows Office applications. While I am a fan of the Wine project, it does not support all the features that I need (for example: OneNote syncing with SharePoint/OneDrive).

As a result, using a Windows Virtual Machine is often unavoidable. The ideal situation is, however, that the virtualized Windows applications are integrated as much as possible within the Linux desktop environment. Recently I have been experimenting with the available options in this area.

Vmware Workstation 11 Unity (1) VirtualBox Seamless Virtual Machine + RDP (2) Wine (3)
HTML (formatted text) copy/paste No No Yes Yes
Image copy/paste Yes No Yes Yes
Guest windows in host taskbar Yes No Yes Yes
Stability Low (with Office 2016 a lot of glitches; unusable) High Low
(A lot of glitches. Also increased CPU load and lag)
Low
(Glitches / crashes are common)

(1) I am listing explicitly Workstation 11 here. The unity feature was removed from VMWare Workstation for Linux per version 12.
(2) For the Virtual Machine + RDP solution I ran a Windows Server 2016 VM and used xfreerdp in my Linux host. The amount of glitches was quite high and every time your suspend/unsuspend your host system the xfreerdp needs to reconnect to your VM.
(3) Office in wine is not feature complete; for example OneNote does not have SharePoint/OneDrive sync.

With regards to performance:
Initially I thought that the VirtualBox approach would be faster than the VM+RDP due to the networking overhead. In reality, the responsiveness on a large screen (UHD resolution) was better with the VM+RDP than the native VirtualBox display. I haven’t compared the CPU loads, but I did get the impression that the VM+RDP is more expensive in CPU load.

Of all the options, the VM+RDP comes the closest to Linux integrated with a Windows desktop, if you can handle the glitches and increased CPU load. There currently is no perfect solution.

P.S.: this post does not cover the other way around: Windows 10 + WSL + X-server.