LINUX IMPLEMENTATION – PLANNING THE BUILD

I’ve used Linux for some years, not cutting edge, just enough to be usable, surf the web, send annoying emails and generally keep up to speed with the latest in that arena. This year however Linux is coming of age. Maybe the Windows Genuine Advantage fiasco has forced the users to re-examine the situation. The fact is that there are many mainstream applications and facilities for Linux which exceed the Windows platform. And secure. And no annoyances. Apache, MySQL, PHP, Open Office, Firefox, Opera, NVU, The Gimp, Evolution etc. All except Evolution are open source and cross platform, and I use them on the Windows boxes as well.

In my compact workshop there are currently two Linux boxes – the oldest being Xandros on a Tiny PC which was “rescued” last year, this replaced my original and ancient Linuxbox which had seen Suse 7 & 8, Corel Linux, PC Linux, Mandrakes, Slax, DSL, Puppy and a couple more tried and tested. My other Linuxbox is a MaxData “Slim desktop” PC which was on offer from my distributor at a ridiculously cheap price. I snapped it up, with a “clearance” 17” TFT VDU. On this box I have UBUNTU 6.06 LTS. It’s small, not much bigger than a lever-arch file, and has 512Mb RAM onboard, integrated audio & video, 80Gb HDD, DVDRW and a multi-card reader / floppy drive. Its cool. Easy to setup, not too demanding on the complex stuff such as file & folder sharing and even has the abilty to print to my Samsung laser hosted on the other linuxbox.

Ubuntu has other “flavours” which make it more Windows like ( Kubuntu ), easier to run on older hardware ( Xubuntu ) and even an educational version ( Edubuntu ). These all share the same core system and provide a common platform for other open source software. The beauty is of course that a huge library of free software is available, and can be freely updated automatically using the Synaptic facility in the operating system.

So now its time to sit back and plan again, look at the whole picture and decide that there was a lack of strategy in the implementation of the workshop hardware, and consider a “great rebuild” so that it all works better. This only happens once every five years or so. Last time I produced a network map diagram and promptly stopped. The Windows days are drawing to a close. This time the workhorses for file storage and printer hosting are going to be the Linux machines. Maybe I’ll wipe Xandros and install Ubuntu Server and create a web server for some new projects I want to look at. Online SQL database with remote users access - worldwide. A content management system to allow the user control of his website instead of the web-designer. An accounting application which is simple to use and very user-friendly, and also looks good.

At this stage then there is only one thing to do – get the big sheets of paper out and start drawing the structure. If I can visualise it, I can make it work.

MAY 2007 UPDATE - I've just spent the last week doing the latest "FIESTY FAWN" UBUNTU upgrade to the wee box and the HP Laptop. Needless to say both worked perfectly without a hitch. I also installed the BERYL utility which gives fancy desktop features, animated menus and such, eye-candy like what VISTA has but better...... B-)