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Thursday, November 9, 2000TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean’s Notes
2) Linux News
IBM Rolls out Small Business Suite for Linux
IBM in a 15,200 Linux Server Deal
Dell loves Linux
2.4 nears release3) Linux Resources
Software RAID
The bad RAM patch
Traffic Graphs
How to use a floppy
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1) Sean’s Notes
As someone who used Microsoft Windows before my transition to Linux, I’ve run into a few problems trying to make the change. Although applications you currently run are probably not available under Linux, there may be an equivalent.
The web browser is the easiest transition of all. As a Netscape user before the move, I found that the Linux version was just as good. Some plug ins (including Flash) have even been ported so that your web browsing experience is the same.
I used to be a big fan of Word Perfect, so I thought that using the Linux version would be right for me. This didn’t turn out to be true, mostly because I wanted the ability to embed spreadsheets into a text document. I also found the interface to be a bit clunky compared to what I was used to at the time. Eventually I found out about StarOffice, and immediately took a liking to it. With StarOffice, I can do all of the word processing and spreadsheets I need, and in the rare event that I need to do a presentation it’s got that built in too. It’ll read and write MS Office files, which I’ve used on several occasions to read attachments that were sent to me. I wouldn’t recommend the mail reader (I’m still a fan of PINE), since Netscape’s is much quicker.
I’ve got a Palm Pilot and I use it to keep my life in order. StarOffice has Palm Pilot integration, but that would mean I’d have to fire it up whenever I wanted to look up a phone number. It also doesn’t handle all the functionality of the Windows Palm Desktop. Since I’m a GNOME user, I installed the gnome-pilot and pilot-link packages, which allow me to easily HotSync to the GNOME address book and calendar, along with keeping track of my memos and the like. When I upgraded to Helix-GNOME, it was all built-in, so now I can easily keep up on updates via the Helix System Updater.
My favorite news reader was Forte Free Agent. Not wanting to give that up, I found out about the WINE project (http://www.winehq.com). WINE is an implementation of the Win32 API. Many applications run on it, including Free Agent and Gnutella. There is some good documentation out there on how to get WINE going. I was even able to play a game of Red Alert on my Linux box using WINE.
Unfortunately, WINE doesn’t do everything. One such example is Quicken 2000. There are reports of Quicken 98 working under WINE, as long as the Internet features aren’t used. Since I use this to update my balances and investments, I couldn’t make do without the Internet aspect. One alternative is GNUCash, which is a very good personal finance application. If GNUCash could handle online updating of account balances, I think I’d ditch Quicken in a flash.
At the moment, I’ve installed VMWare (www.vmware.com), running Windows 98. It is fairly slow on my K6-233, but it gets the job done. I’ve also used VMWare to do some testing of Linux in a separate environment.
So, for those of you looking to make the jump to Linux, I hope that you learn from some of my experiences. It is a viable desktop OS, and it has been much more reliable than my old Windows configuration.
Let’s hear your thoughts on this:
http://boards.brainbuzz.com:80/boards/vbt.asp?b4
Long live the Penguin!
Sean swalberg@brainbuzz.com
2) Linux News
IBM Rolls out Small Business Suite for Linux
IBM has bundled Lotus Domino, the WebSphere Application Server, and DB2 Universal Database into a suite, and priced it at the $500 mark rather than the $3,600 the components would cost if bought separately. The catch is that they’ll only license you up to 100 users, but that’s OK for the multitude of small businesses out there that want some great software at a low per-seat cost.
http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/linux/0,12249,2649962,00.ht ml
IBM in a 15,200 Linux Server Deal
Busy this week, aren’t they? A Japanese convenience store chain is replacing Windows machines with Linux machines in 7,600 stores. The servers will be connected to touch screen terminals that provide information and Internet services to customers. No news on what distribution will be used though.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/03/ibm.linux.japan.idg/in dex.html
Dell loves Linux!
Dell has joined the growing number of computer distributors that have embraced Linux. In a series of press releases, Dell announced that they’ll be shipping RedHat 7 pre-installed on some of their servers and workstations. They also announced some impressive web serving performance on an 8-way box. It’s running custom developed code, but it should hit mainstream soon enough.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/topics/products_alls_pedge_000_redhat .htm
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4 nears release
The next major release of the kernel, 2.4, is getting closer to completion. 2.4-test10 was just released, with a note from Linus saying that there are no show-stoppers in this one. 2.4 promises better support for SMP (multiple processors), an area where Linux has traditionally been weak.
Once again, they’ve redone the networking code to be more robust, so if you just got the hang of ipchains, get ready to learn iptables!
http://freshmeat.net/news/2000/10/31/973025893.html
3) Linux Resources
Software RAID
RAID is a technology that lets you increase the reliability of your disk system by storing data in a redundant fashion, to expand the capacity by combining several disks into one larger volume, or a combination of both. You can buy an expensive RAID card, or you can get your operating system to do it for you. This document explains how RAID works, and how to implement software RAID on your Linux box.
http://www.osfaq.com/article.php3?sid’
The bad RAM patch
One of the things that can go wrong with a RAM chip is that a certain memory address will get “stuck”, i.e. always show the same number. Usually it means the whole chip is junk. This is a patch that allows you to specify where the RAM is bad, and the kernel will work around the address. Even with the relatively low cost of RAM, this can have some interesting applications. Regardless, it’s another example of the benefits of open source (and that some people never sleep).
http://home.zonnet.nl/vanrein/badram/
Traffic Graphs
Anyone who manages more than a few switches and routers knows how helpful SNMP can be. MRTG, the Multi Router Traffic Grapher, is a collection of PERL scripts and C code that will graph traffic utilization, or any other SNMP variable. It also has the capability to graph other things, such as load average, hits/second on a web server, or proxy usage. What would you expect to pay for this amazing software? Nothing, of course!
http://ee-staff.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/mrtg.html
How to use a floppy
One of the more common questions I’ve seen from people is “How do I access a floppy disk?” It’s not quite as easy as putting it in and typing “A:”! That’s because a filesystem has to be mounted before it can be used. This article, courtesy of linuxnewbie.com, is an excellent introduction to disks and filesystems.
http://linuxnewbie.com/articles/tutorials/7,1/
Controlling access via TCP Wrappers
TCP Wrappers are one of the simpler ways of controlling access to your computer. Through two text files, you can control who can connect to most of your services. Pretty much everyone ships with them pre-installed, but you have to know how to use them effectively. This article will set you on the right foot so you can keep the bad guys out.
http://itresources.brainbuzz.com/tutorials/tutorial.asp?t=S1TU792&t n=How+to+ use+TCP+Wrappers&pi=S1C1&pn=How+To%27s
(C) 2000 BrainBuzz.com. All Rights Reserved.
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