LINUX NEWS
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Thursday, March 28, 2002TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean’s Notes
2) Linux News
Practical PostgreSQL
GNOME on a Low End Machine
SUN Unveils Star Office Pricing
SE Linux to Undergo Certification3) Linux Resources
DRBD - RAID 1 Over IP
Console Codes
Extend the Star Office Beta
Programming With libpcap
Basic X Tweaks4) App o’ the Week
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1) Sean’s Notes
Several discussions on the Linux-General board in the past week have centered around the question “Will Linux Prevail?” The word “prevail”, according to the dictionary, has many meanings, from “influence”, to “gain superiority or overcome”. So when we ask the question, “Will Linux Prevail?”, what are we really asking? If you haven’t joined in, I encourage you to do so:
http://boards.cramsession.com/boards/vbt.asp?b1
To some, it’s nothing less than total world domination. A penguin on every desktop and Bill Gates sleeping on the street, or Linux is doomed for failure. Others separate servers and desktops, and define success factors for each. Still some base the answer directly on the health of Linux-related companies.
We can wave financial statements showing that those Linux companies are tanking, complain that our mothers could never use it, and declare it dead. After all, if it will never destroy the Evil Empire, then why bother trying? The thing is, Linux and the Open Source ideals are pretty new to most people, and the needs of commercial vs. free, and users vs. developers are still being sorted out.
On the other side, we can realize that Linux is all about offering choice. As long as it remains a viable alternative, I think it has done its job. Before Open Source, security bugs were discussed in closed circles, and vendors would take months to release patches. In the meantime, crackers were distributing exploits, yet systems remained vulnerable. Open Source raised the standard that vendors had to adhere to. Publication of the bugs forced quicker patches, thus more secure systems. Even recently, Microsoft dedicated a whole month (at least on paper) to finding security bugs and patching them up. Without Linux and its method of sharing and communication, I don’t think that this would have happened.
On the server side, we may not have Linux running every critical system, but I see a lot of it acting as “glue”. Reporting, network services, web servers, mail relays, and security sensors are all popular applications of Linux that most people don’t even see, but rely on. As established companies like IBM, Oracle, and Compaq fund development, CIOs will hopefully be more confident in Linux’s abilities.
On the desktop, we’re plagued by the litmus test of usability, “Can my mother use it?”. Perhaps the average home user won’t yet be up to the task of maintaining a Linux box for day-to-day use, but I think that Linux will be a real hit in the corporate environment. The ability to lock down the user environment, update and troubleshoot systems, and maintain security from one chair is outstanding. Take the common complaints of incompatible hardware and complex administration away from the user, and Linux becomes the perfect business tool. Already I’m seeing fewer .DOC files being broadcast, and being replaced with more universal formats such as PDF and RTF, showing that companies are realizing that the reader having Microsoft Word isn’t a given anymore.
Total world domination isn’t a necessity, and in my humble opinion, not a desired outcome either. Macintosh and Novell enjoy a strong user following, yet play second chair to Microsoft, and the calls of their demise aren’t as loud as those of Linux. Even if Red Hat folded, and all the major vendors dropped their support for Linux, we’d still have the following that got us from the early 90’s to the dot-com boom.
For Linux to continue competing, though, it has to grow. If you haven’t installed it yet, now’s as good a time as any to give it a shot. If you’ve already got it installed, try some of your daily tasks with it. Sooner or later you may find that Linux is the perfect way to scratch an itch, such as filtering incoming mail for viruses and spam, conserving your Internet usage with a caching proxy, or watching over your network as an intrusion detection box. You never know, you just might find yourself preferring the environment to your current setup. If you already count yourself in the ranks of the Linux savvy, then help out someone who isn’t. Ultimately, if Linux builds a community of users working toward a common goal, and continues to offer a high quality alternative, I don’t see how it can’t prevail on the desktop, server, embedded device, or anywhere else.
Long live the Penguin,
Sean mailto:swalberg@cramsession.com
2) Linux News
Practical PostgreSQL
Interested in using PostgreSQL, a powerful relational database for Linux? This book has everything you need, from installing the product, programming and writing queries, to basic care and feeding. A one-stop book for any PostgreSQL user.
http://infocenter.cramsession.com/techlibrary/GetHtml.asp?ID79
GNOME on a Low End Machine
Default installations of GNOME have become very heavy, leading to extended waits to start a session, and sluggish performance on anything but the most modern hardware. This article looks at this trend, recounting the author’s experience in getting Linux running on a palmtop.
http://www.linuxandmain.com/tech/xibretto.html
SUN Unveils Star Office Pricing
They’re still a little vague on the actual cost, but it looks like the numbers are in the ballpark for the average home user. I’ve been using Star Office 6.0 beta since it came out, and despite a few bugs, I’ve been quite impressed.
http://www.silicon.com/a52154
SE Linux to Undergo Certification
The NSA (the American Spy Agency) has been working hard to add Mandatory Access Controls to Linux, which will allow an administrator fine-grained control over what the user can and can not do. Now they’re looking to certify the product against the internationally recognized Common Criteria. Microsoft is trying to get Win2K to the same level, so this may be a key factor in trying to get Linux into government departments.
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid/03/22/1716241&tid#
3) Linux Resources
DRBD - RAID 1 Over IP
RAID 1 is mirroring, such that two disks are identical clones, ready to take over for the other in the event of a disk failure. It’s no good against the host hardware crashing, though. DRBD steps in to perform disk mirroring over an IP network.
http://drbd.cubit.at/
Console Codes
When trying to figure out how to send a break key from the console, I found this complete list of escape sequences. It also lists the commands to change colors, so if you were wondering how to jazz up your shell prompt, start here.
http://www.rt.com/man/console_codes.4.html
Extend the Star Office Beta
When SUN offered SO 6.0 as a trial, it told you that it would expire on March 31. That day is fast approaching, and no product is forthcoming. This patch extends the life of the software to June 3. Uncompress the tarball (tar -xzf whatever.tar.Z) and copy the soffice.bin over your current copy.
http://www.sun.com/staroffice/so6beta_patch.html
Programming With libpcap
libpcap is a library that lets you sniff packets. There are several uses of this other than the obvious packet sniffer and decoder. If libpcap is what you need, this tutorial will guide you through its basic usage.
http://broker.dhs.org/pcap.html
Basic X Tweaks
Even though there are tools to help you with the initial install of X-Windows, it is helpful to know how the configuration files work in the event that you want to make a couple of small changes without going through the whole setup process again. Here’s a look at some of the settings specific to XFree86 4.0.
http://www.linuxorbit.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file
4) App o’ the week
PXES is a distribution that allows you to create network booting thin clients out of of regular PCs, capable of accessing X-Windows servers or Microsoft Terminal Servers. The setup is graphical, and seems to keep scalability to large sites in mind.
http://pxes.sourceforge.net/
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