Linux Install Atlantis w/ Wine -- General Instructions

[Colorwheel]

Note: Although these instructions are done with Xubuntu, they work with any version of Ubuntu-- and with almost no modification, any modern version of Linux. Because of the forum limits with images, this is in three parts. I think. So far.

Atlantis is a Word Processor for Windows a masterpiece of raw coding power at 4MB for the full version and 600KB (yes, you read that correctly) for a full featured free word-processor and has been a staple on many writers' desks for years. (Atlantis Nova is the freeware version of Atlantis. The installation is virtually identical.) However, it's largely unknown in the GNU/Linux world because Atlantis is a Windows program. The good news is that installing Atlantis is a snap with Wine. (The "why" is at the bottom of this post.) These guidelines are largely written for Ubuntu Linux users, and the pictures come from Colorwheel 1, my very own remaster of Xubuntu 12.04. Full disclosure. (The menus are standard Xubuntu menus). However, experienced Linux users know that if it's in a .deb file, it's just a matter of finding the .rpm, and Wine is very cross-distribution handy.

1. Download and Install Wine 1.4 or 1.5 if You Don't Have it Already

Most modern Linux distributions have easy access to Wine 1.4 in their software repositories, and Ubuntu distributions are no different, with many versions having them pre-installed. Wine can be downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Center, as well as the other major software centers available for a one click download. If not, following the download instructions at WineHQ will get you set up for Ubuntu, as well as other distributions. Or you can use Synaptic Package Manager and search for "Wine".

If you want to use Wine, are using Ubuntu, don't have Wine, and would rather just download from a terminal window, just type:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine

And say yes when it prompts.

2. Configure Wine for the Install

Configuring Wine is usually fairly easy. In Ubuntu Unity, you can look up "winecfg" in the Dash. In Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and menu based distributions such as this one you can simply go to the "Wine" menu and choose "Configure Wine".



Once you get to the Wine Configuration screen, click on the Graphics tab as below, and check off Emulate a virtual desktop. I leave it at the default 800x600, but you can make it bigger or smaller to suit your screen. The key is we want it to be about half the size of your current screen.



Now we're ready to breeze through installing Atlantis!

3. Download and Install Atlantis

Go to the Atlantis Website and download the Installer (if you are using Nova, find the Download screen for Nova). In this case, you want to save the file; don't open it with any suggested program.



Once it downloads, find the file and right click it. In most cases you can left
click it, but it never hurts to make sure you are opening the file with Wine.

To be continued--

[Colorwheel]

Sorry I have to divide it up-- the forum only allows three images per post. We continue!


...Once it downloads, find the file and right click it. In most cases you can left click it, but it never hurts to make sure you are opening the file with Wine. Simply make sure you open it with "Wine Windows Program Loader".



From there you will see the Atlantis Install Screen.



At this point you can simply click through the prompts after reading. Both Atlantis and Atlantis Nova have terms and conditions. As Linux users it's always good to look them over; they are fairly short. Atlantis is shareware, and Atlantis Nova is freeware; neither is open source, so if this is important to keep in mind as a principle, know what you are installing.

Atlantis Nova has fewer options for install because it is freeware-- it doesn't include a spell checker, for example; and only works with .rtf documents, whereas Atlantis works with .rtf files, .doc files, and .docxfiles. As you can see, the installed space is an incredibly low 4.6MB.

If you've breezed through this part, congratulations! You probably didn't uncheck "Start Atlantis Now" so you are seeing success in the 800 x 600 screen now! Just go back to Wine configuration and uncheck the virtual desktop if you wish to use Atlantis at full size (unless you like working in virtual desktops, not my thing, but hey). From here on in you can Atlantis either from the desktop icon or the Wine folder:



To be concluded--

[Colorwheel]

Finishing Up: Setting Your File Types (Ubuntu distributions-- this works whether in Unity, Xfce or Lxde)

Once you follow through it will install and ask if you'd like to make it the default for listed file formats. However, this feature of Wine is not always successful. It is sometimes, but obviously for the sake of this tutorial, it didn't work (of course!)

Of course, we love Atlantis, so we make it the default for all the file formats. And then, after downloading a nice 171-page copy of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (I haven't read it, so don't spoil the ending!) from one of these lovely "Free e-books on .doc" sites, we click the file...


...and get LibreOffice. (Obviously that's not supposed to happen.) Humbug! There's another three minutes we're not getting back closing that thing....

So we need to fix our file types, which is easy.

Let's go back to our Angela's Ashes file in our download folder and right-click it. Go to "Properties". We simply change it from "LibreOffice" to Atlantis Word Processor" as below.



Close the Properties dialog and click your document again, and-- success! Now your .doc files open up in Atlantis!

Hope this was helpful for new Linux users and seasoned users looking for a good, straightforward word processor. I've used Atlantis Nova since 2006. When I switched completely to Linux in 2009, I figured I'd lost all my programs. Wine has grown up a lot then, so don't be surprised if your favorite Windows programs work just fine now.

Happy writing!

[Colorwheel]

I am sure a couple of Linux users might ask: why use a Windows program instead of a native program like AbiWord?

In this case, it is simply because the design of Atlantis is definitely appreciable to people who like to maximize the value of their computing power. In word-processing, especially for good-sized documents, there's simply little that compares. In the FOSS world, there's virtually nothing that compares in fact.

Take that 171-page copy of Angela's Ashes, for example. I purposely downloaded it to use for benchmark load testing against LibreOffice (about 250Mb installed), the most popular program in Linux for word processing, and AbiWord, long and undeservedly heralded as Open Source's "small" word processor (usually a 10 Mb download, with dependencies, it's conservative to say 15-20Mb minimum installed.) I am on a double-Atom 1.6GHZ machine with 250GB hard drive space. In other words, my little computer can easily handle any of these programs.

All three programs handle .doc files. But the results were, to say the least, surprising.

Keep in mind that Atlantis is a Windows program running on a software layer. In its defense, LibreOffice, like its proprietary Microsoft counterpart, is built on mixed dependencies and common files with five different programs. AbiWord is less than 1/10 the size of LibreOffice. We're using the latest versions of these systems in the repositories. Atlantis Version is 1.6.5.11. AbiWord is version 2.92. LibreOffice is 3.5.

The numbers, on a stopwatch, run twice.

RUN 1
Atlantis: 6.560 seconds
LibreOffice: 14.972 seconds
AbiWord: 1 minute 39.468 seconds

To see how these programs would adapt after a run, we did a "second chance" run on them.

RUN 2
Atlantis: 8.844 seconds
LibreOffice: 41.483 seconds
AbiWord: 1 min 55.127 seconds

And that's just loading the program. The speed with typing, page movement, editing-- there is no comparison. People who write and use Linux should just use Atlantis-- because it works.

I hope that the raw numbers are sufficient for any Linux user (as in general we're known for efficiency with system resources) to realize the value of downloading and using arguably one of the best word processors today, especially since it's readily available through Wine. I do admit that AbiWord is designed to be a GNOME program, but until someone can show me the benchmarks that it improves signficantly under GNOME, I'd rather use Atlantis in Wine.

It works perfectly.

[PictureThis]

Thanks for your explanation. I am just switching to linux and succesfully followed your instructions using wine.

But I still have to get used to Wine and also the Terminal to start programs.

How do you do that?

All the best

JPW

[Colorwheel]

Thanks for your explanation. I am just switching to linux and succesfully followed your instructions using wine.

But I still have to get used to Wine and also the Terminal to start programs.

How do you do that?

All the best

JPW

I usually start Wine from my menu and create a Desktop shortcut, so that's not how I usually do it-- so I am cutting and pasting the info from WineHQ. Take it for what it's worth. Basically the recommended way is to change to the directory path and run the program. So....

If you just did a standard install of, say, Atlantis Nova, Atlantis should be in Program Files. So you would run these two lines:

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cd '.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Atlantis Nova' 
wine Atlantis.exe 

And that would run it from terminal!

Full info on using Wine programs with a terminal can be found here. http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#run_from_terminal

Depending on your Desktop Environment, adding a menu item or a shortcut is fairly straightforward if you want to make it easier. Sorry I took so long with a response!