Linux, and Macintosh 

Your Open Dental server can always be Linux or Mac; this has never changed. The discussion below pertains to running the Open Dental client on the workstations. Open Dental is probably not ready for a full network of Microsoft-free computers. It might be useful for you on one or two computers as long as you can tolerate a few little quirks. One downside is that you won't be able to use the 3D teeth, but only a simple 2D version of the teeth.

At one point, we had Open Dental running well on Linux and OS X workstations. Unfortunately, recent versions did not keep up support for Linux. We do have it somewhat working again, although not with the trial version. The instructions below pertain to version 5.6 or newer.

Open Dental runs on the dotNet Framework, a Microsoft technology. It will also run on the Mono framework, an adaptation of dotNet for Linux. So you will need to install Mono before installing and using Open Dental. The flavor of Linux shouldn't matter, but we tested it on Suse 10.3 with Mono 1.2.6. You will need to use that version of Mono or later. See http://www.mono-project.com/Downloads, or you can use the instructions here for a different way of updating Mono: mono.doc.

Installation of Open Dental itself simply involves copying all files in C:\Program Files\Open Dental from a Windows computer directly into a folder on a Linux computer (we used /usr/local/opendental/).

Launch Open Dental like this:
$ mono OpenDental.exe

Try these tricks:
* Make sure FreeDentalConfig.xml is present in the same folder as OpenDental.exe.  You might have to edit this file manually to define the connection.
* Use an ip address at the choose database window if the computer name isn't working.
* It won't be able to find the A-Z folder on a remote computer.  Your choices are:
1. Use Samba, mount a local directory, and point it to the real A-Z folder (at least that's the theory). You'll need to put two paths in the Path box, separated by ;
2. Check the box to not use the A-Z folder at all.   This applies to all computers for now.
3. Use a dummy A-Z folder.  Add that path to the Path box.

Pure Linux:

Frederik Carlier is a programmer who has been working on the build and installation process for Linux. In contrast to the above copy method for installation, his method uses the source code and does not require a Windows computer.

Here's his Ubuntu page:  http://opendental.carlier-online.be/ubuntu.html

Or you can use his build project that creates Debian packages for Mono and Open Dental.

You can find the packages here:
http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/fcarlier/

The build project itself is here:
http://build.opensuse.org/

A Linux "package" is very much like a Setup program.

Our understanding is that his installer is currently broken.