Final Draft 6 on Linux -- got it working.

[Randall_Oelerich]

Okay maybe not of much interest to most of the world, but I have been wanting to get back into booting into Linux more so than Windows. But screenwriting software has been the Achilles heel. I just do not want to use Celtx (let's not go there, been there done that), I prefer more professional software such as Movie Magic or Final Draft. I have been using MM but am likely on the verge of switching to FD.

Kyle was kind enough to give me his copy of FD6 since he upgraded, because I was searching for a copy of FD6 which reportely runs in Linux using Wine. Well, today I finally got FD6 running in Linux. Should anybody be in the same fix, here is how: I actually installed Virtual Box in Ubuntu Linux. Virtual box lets a person create virtual machines-- so I installed Windows XP inside of Linux. Now Windows XP runs inside a resizable window inside of Linux. Cool.

I installed FD6 into the virtual machine WinXP. The problem is, FD6 wants the original FD6 cd disc in the cdrom drive in order to work, because I can not validate FD6 using Linux, some odd quirk, even though it is legal (I have the license key, etc).

I made an ISO image file of the FD6 disc, then copied that to ~/.virtualbox and then told the virtual machine to mount the FD6 iso instead of mounting the actual CDROM drive during WinXP boot. Presto! Now when I run FD6 inside of the virtual WinXP in Linux, it runs great, and I do not need any FD6 cd in the drive!

Okay I likely geeked out a few people, or put some to sleep reading this. But for Linux enthusiasts it will make sense, perhaps someone googling for a solution.

EDIT: Incredible, I also downloaded FD8 into WinXP in the virtual machine and it installed great, of course it would be a gamble to try the non-demo commercial version, but I just might, although that means beaucoup bucks.

The downside of running the software inside of Linux is that the application window size is rather limited, although I might try to get it to run full screen yet. But for now it is frustrating a bit not to have full screen which is nice for text editing.
~randall

 

[crhobbs42]

Thanks

Thanks

Being completely fed-up with Windows (yea, xp was nice, till you got the bsod), I've recently converted to Linux, and there's no turning back. But, I can't LIVE without Finaldraft... There's no other program that even comes close. (Celtix was a really nice try, but...) with FD I type... the program is so intuitive... (no fix yet for over-use of ellipses...)... Thank you so much for this; excellent for a n00b like me

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Well I struggle too with Windows, want so much to return to Linux. But now I have so much software that I paid a bundle for that only works on Windows (Cubase, Sibelius, Movie Magic, Sony Vegas Pro, Sony ACID Pro), I have put Linux by the wayside, for now. But as of late I have had thoughts of returning to Linux, although I am hearing really good things about Windows 7. And even with Vista, one can download Powershell, which is the command line terminal for Windows that actually allows many linux / unix commands.

That said, yeah, I found that FD6 installed and ran pretty good in Linux (Ubuntu) using the method I described. Best of luck! I might to rethink this, consider going back to a dual boot system, I really miss the elegance of Linux.

FD7 installed even easier. I believe if I recall that I was able to download the FD7 demo version and install/run it with a simple double-click once Wine was installed as a linux package; the FD7 setup program (the download) would install under Wine, run under Wine (Wine for those who do not know, besides being a tasty intoxicating beverage, is a Windows API interceptor to allow Linux to run many Windows software programs; Wine stands for Wine is not an emulator, because many people mistakingly think Wine is a Windows emulator, which it is not; it simply intercepts calls from e.g. FD and the provides the equivalent in linux).

I see FD8 is out, no idea how that functions in linux; maybe try the demo trial download, see how it installs with Wine in linux.

Being completely fed-up with Windows (yea, xp was nice, till you got the bsod), I've recently converted to Linux, and there's no turning back. But, I can't LIVE without Finaldraft... There's no other program that even comes close. (Celtix was a really nice try, but...) with FD I type... the program is so intuitive... (no fix yet for over-use of ellipses...)... Thank you so much for this; excellent for a n00b like me

 

[Nathan.Buxton]

you don't need virtual box or anything besides basic WINE (in my experience) to get FD6 to run in Ubuntu. I just installed and it was golden.

A word of advice tho: You'll have to download microsoft font packs to get the page count to be accurate.

 

[El Director]

I too am a Linux guy, so I use Linux for PrePro, and and Windows for Post since I use Vegas. I actually really like Celtx and I don't think it get's the credit it deserves. Sure some things are missing, such as WYSIWYG and page 8ths, but FOR ME, it's better than FD. I like being able to have my script, schedule, and breakdowns in one software without virtual machines or emulators. And as long as my laptop is online (which is always is), I can get my page layout in a few seconds if I need to know what my count is. I've written three out of my five feature scripts in Celtx and couldn't be happier. Also, the cross platform nature is nice. One producer uses Apple, the other is strictly Windows. I'm Linux. I converted them to Celtx, and now I can just email the file so they can make notes, or do whatever they need to do on their end. I guess it just depends on what your needs are.