Monday, November 12, 2012

Finally a good MySQL client for Linux, using WINE Crossover


If you've been running Ubuntu 11.04 and up, you will notice Canonical no longer provides support for the classic MySQL Query Browser and Admin. Instead, you are relegated to using MySQL Workbench or use an application like Emma.

Well, some people are set in their old ways and do not like to use something monolithic as Workbench. For example, if all you need to do is query, why go through the steps of making profiles to connect to random MySQLservers?

During the Election, Crossweaver gave away copies of Crossover for Linux and OSX. Crossover is a proprietary commercial version of Wine and works quite nice. It is not an OS virtualization tool like Vmware or Virtualbox. It is more of a run-time, application compatibility layer to allow you to run (some) Windows apps inside Linux or OSX. Instead of launching a heavy weighted OS, you launch a Wine Bottle and run your Windows app inside Linux with full access to the native filesystem.

How does it work? Quite fantastic. I installed the classic MySQL windows tool, HeidiSQL (a popular Windows MySQL client), Komodo Edit and Notepad++ with no problems.

HeidiSQL is so far superior to Emma.

Installation couldn't be easier. Build a bottle and select your .exe or .msi installer.






Like I wrote earlier, the app works within the OS. You can access your services locally like you do on any other native application. File-system is visible as well as networking




Pay attention to the screenshot below. I am connected to localhost (127.0.0.1). My local server is Ubuntu and my local client is WindowsXP. Cool. Dual identity.






Crossover works great on Mac OSX as well. However, I don't have applications deficit on Mac OSX so I wont be using it much on a Mac.





If you don't want to use Crossover, WINE is freely available.




Links:
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/
http://www.heidisql.com/
http://www.winehq.org/

1 comment:

  1. I have tried it but never got any reg keys after signing up. I've been using Squirrel a lot lately under Linux.

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