LINUX NEWS
Resources & Links From CramSession.com
Thursday, November 8, 2001TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean’s Notes
2) Linux News
Samba Team Responds to MS Settlement
Linux PDAs Reviewed
Amazon.com Saves Money With Linux
Hip to be Square?3) Linux Resources
Log Syslog to a Database?
Samba With 9x and ME
Ending Cross Platform Installation Disasters
The Ten Commandments for Debugging Perl
Apache Load Testing4) App o’ the week
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1) Sean’s Notes
“Thus it is said if you know your enemy and know yourself, your victory will not be imperiled” - Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
While not a regular reader of Linux Magazine, I do pick up the odd one that catches my eye. While perusing September’s issue, I saw a two page spread for Microsoft’s Windows Web Hoster program. Quickly checking the cover, I was indeed still reading Linux Magazine.
Unsurprisingly, the magazine received a good deal of negative feedback, from “You’re selling out” to ”I’m canceling my subscription”. I must admit my first impression was that someone in Redmond must have made a mistake.
Zealotry is unfortunately a trademark of the Linux movement, which I find hard to reconcile with its ideals of Freedom and choice. Those that chastise the editors of Linux Mag do a disservice to its readers by trying to limit their freedom to choose. Evil as you think they are, Microsoft is still a valid option.
The way to the desktop, to the servers, and everything in between is by providing a better product. Beating people over the head won’t make Linux fans of them. They just have to “see the light”, as it were. Argue the technical merits, but don’t resort to the low attacks. “Microsoft sucks” doesn’t have any place on a business case.
So why the gratuitous quoting of Sun Tzu?
When talking with other Unix administrators, I often find that the more capable ones also have a good backing in Microsoft products. After all, a 100% Unix shop is rare. When I worked as a Unix developer, we still had marketing and administration staff using Windows.
One of the strengths of Linux is its interoperability. Your corporation uses NDS for authentication and management? Not a problem, we can use that. It is almost the opposite of Microsoft’s “Embrace and Extend” strategy. Instead of adopting a technology and then extending it so that no one else can use it, the Linux way is to build it better, while still maintaining compatibility. One only has to look as far as the Apache web server. Almost anything in it can be extended by a module. You can choose to run ASP, or you can choose to run other, more capable software. The code should more or less run on either IIS or Apache (assuming you don’t start in with objects that only exist on Windows), so you never lose your choice. Using something like PHP for dynamic web content? It runs on Windows, as does Apache.
Or how about Samba? Need your Windows box to pick up some files? Not a problem. Want to run more Windows machines, but don’t want to fork out the big bucks for NT Server licenses? Samba has you covered there, it can act as a WINS server, or even a PDC. The choice is yours, the Samba team has put in a lot of work to make sure their software plays nicely with NT.
In order to get the most out of these compatibility features, though, you have to know the enemy. If you don’t know how it works on the real thing, how can you expect to swap in Linux? How can you expect to use the advanced features and stability that Linux offers if you can’t even satisfy the user’s basic needs? Or, when an application doesn’t work through your Linux firewall, you can understand enough about the client platform to troubleshoot the problem from both ends.
Comments like ”I’m dropping my subscription because you take Microsoft’s money” are from people who don’t understand the enemy. If they did, they would have said “Congratulations on being brave enough to offer me a technically valid choice, no matter how unpopular it might be with some of your readers.”
I’m not advising everyone to run out and get your MCSE, but I do strongly recommend that those wanting to become Linux gurus learn about the other operating systems out there. Not only will it make you better at your job, but it will enhance your credibility as someone who uses Linux because it is better, not just because they dislike Microsoft.
Long live the Penguin,
Sean mailto:swalberg@cramsession.com
Visit the Linux News Board at http://boards.brainbuzz.com/boards/vbt.asp?b2
2) Linux News
Samba Team Responds to MS Settlement
On the surface, the agreement reached by Microsoft is good, since it should open up the proprietary protocols that hinder integration with other software, both on Windows and Linux. The Samba team has a different take on this, though. It seems that buried within the details are restrictions that swing the balance toward Microsoft, severely limiting what protocols they have to open up.
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn 01-11-06-005-20-OP-MS
Linux PDAs Reviewed
For those that are looking for a PDA that runs Linux, this review covers the basics of several different models, and distributions. The final page includes references to more detailed information.
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2821294 ,00.html
Amazon.com Saves Money With Linux
On their latest filing, Amazon showed a 25% decrease in technology spending, which turns out to be around $17 million in savings. They attribute part of it to their increased usage of Linux in the back end systems. Will an increased usage of Linux help get this company in the black? Only time will tell.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011030/tc/retail_amazon_linux_dc_ 1.html
Hip to be Square?
KDE has an outstanding user interface in my opinion, but the author of this article finds it a bit too blocky for his liking. While he’s complaining, he’s got some other things to say about his distaste for desktops in general.
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/14650.html
3) Linux Resources
Log Syslog to a Database?
If you’ve got more than a couple of machines, you may know that syslog can redirect logs to one machine over the network. It’s still in a text file, though. If it were in a SQL database, then you would be able to analyze easier. This article explains how various syslog capable devices can securely dump their logs to a central database.
http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200111/syslog.html
Samba With 9x and ME
Readers of the Cramsession boards will recognize Guitarlynn, who has contributed a lot of useful advice to aspiring Linux gurus. I’m not sure how I missed this one before, but Lynn has written up a great resource for those looking to set up Samba. With this document in your hands, allowing your Windows machines to access files on your Linux box will be a breeze.
http://www.geocities.com/guitarlynn/samba9x.html
Ending Cross Platform Installation Disasters
With toolkits like Winelib and Qt, the reality of applications being targeted toward both Linux and Windows at the same time is coming closer. This article investigates the difficulties inherent with a cross platform installation program.
http://searchwindowsmanageability.techtarget.com/originalContent/0, 289142,sid33_gci778804,00.html
The Ten Commandments for Debugging Perl
Even though the language may appear simple, debugging Perl can be quite the nightmare. Follow these ten guidelines, and not only will you be a better debugger, but you’ll probably end up writing code that has fewer errors in the first place.
http://web.oreilly.com/news/perlmanagement2_1001.html
Apache Load Testing
It’s one thing to set up a web server, but it’s another to know how much load it can handle. This article looks at ways to benchmark your web server and plan for capacity. I apologize in advance, as it requires a free membership to read, unless of course you read it through Google.com’s cache.
http://www.8wire.com/articles/?AID#70
4) App o’ the week
Using the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), this authentication module allows you to authenticate passwords against an NT SAM, rather than a local password file. This is a great help if you have both systems, and are tired of keeping passwords in sync.
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~airlied/pam_smb/
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