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RPM or DEB? Which do you prefer, and why? September 14, 2009

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In my opinion it doesn’t really matter. I am used to RPM, and now you have other package managing enhancements like YUM and ZYPPER which try and help package installation by automatically adding the dependencies for the package you are trying to install. FreeBSD and Debian-based Linux distributions do this quite well with their package managers (APT for Debian-based, and I forget what FreeBSD uses. Which do you prefer?

EnterpriseDB! Is it really a viable alternative to Oracle? September 14, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Appliances, Linux HOWTO, Linux Servers, Open Source, linux.
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I just recently took on a project at a major Chicago newspaper, and they are moving from Solaris to Linux. One of the pieces of this project will involve converting some of their Oracle applications over to EnterpriseDB (Postgresql+). From what I was led to believe, EnterpriseDB is a drop-in replacement for Oracle, and most applications can be run without any modification. Does anyone out there have experience with this? What type of issues should we expect?

New Direction March 10, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Servers, Linux Software, News, Operating Systems, Operating Systems Management.
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Dear bloggers and faithful followers:

Intelligent Linux Solutions will be 4 months old on March 18th, 2009! This was the first pilot blog produced by Intelliginix, so we decided to sit down and define exactly it is that we are trying to accomplish. Here’s what we came up with:

For starters we at Intelliginix we believe that any blog should have good content on whatever subject it represents, so we chose to define the type of content that will appear here in the future. Our articles will be formated to adhere to specific guidelines to ensure quality content, with a clear writing style that will standardize the look and feel of this site. Here is a general breakdown of the areas that we want to improve in the near future:

Article format

Initially we just started writing articles, but after looking at other choice sites, and doing a little research we decided on the following formats for our posts:

  • News – Information about recent and important events. These articles will consist of a brief synopsis of current events relating to virtualization. Events will include news from major software makers as well as product releases, updates, and patches.
  • Overviews – An overview is a systematic review and summary of a product or service at a high level that will introduce the product or service and answer the questions: What is the product or service? What the product or service is used for? Who uses this product or service? And how do businesses use this product, and for what?.
  • Technical Howto’s – Practical advice on a particular subject; that gives instruction on how to accomplish a specific task. A step by step guide to download, install, configure, and test a product or an on-line service.
  • Reviews – These articles are critical evaluations of products. We will compare and contrast feature product with other products and services in the same category. We will do our best to point out the pros and cons of using such products and services, as well as track significant changes to upgrades.
  • Tips and Tricks – Research on tools, methods, and techniques that save you time and effort. The things administrators just can’t live without.

Along with having guidelines and methods to conform our content to, this next month we will be re-working our categories and tags so that they make more sense, and comply with our long-term goals.

Authors and Contributors

In order to get great content we must have people in the industry that are knowledgeable, experienced, and abreast of different events. Since the virtualization industry changes quickly, we would like to recruit volunteer writers to contribute to the content of this site. Currently there are 2 people contributing here, and these are the subjects that we want to get more coverage on:

  • Hypervisor technology – Facts and features about Linux hypervisors (Type-1, Type-2) from different software makers and online services.
  • Network Products & Services – Technical overviews on new products and services that run on Linux and compare and contrast them with their proprietary counterparts.
  • Open Source Software Alternatives – Cost effective solutions that are viable alternatives to mainstream computing.
  • System Administration Tools – Facts and information on products used to aid the system administrator in managing Linux systems.
  • Scripting Tips and Tricks – Useful techniques that most system administrators can’t live without.
  • Desktop Products – Quality reviews on software we use everyday on our desktops.

Traffic funneling

We do get traffic, but we could do better. So we made some changes in order to fine tune search engine optimization. These changes will be on-going Our goal is to get indexed properly in all the major search engines within the next month. We plan on contributing to a lot of other blogs so we can get trackbacks to this site.

We are confident that if our short-term goals are met by implementing these few changes, we can can have great success. So far so good for the first quarter! All feedback is welcome.

All feedback is welcome.

Agward Turner – CEO
Intelliginix Corporation

Free 1 Year Subscription to Linux Journal Magazine! March 10, 2009

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Linux Journal is a magazine which has been focusing on Linux for around for around 15 years strong. This informative monthly magazine publishes articles on Linux and open source software that are considered to be a grade above it’s competition in terms of quality and content. A 1-year subscription will cost you just under $30.00 for 12 issues. Linux Journal is having a contest, so here is a chance for you to win a yearly digital subscription of this fantastic magazine for free.

Linux Journal has named this week the “Tech Tip Video Contest Week”.

Here’s what you have to do:
Watch Linux Journal’s daily tech video for this week starting from this one. That is one video a day.

All you have to do is watch the videos and look for any letter(s) that the hosts will announce, and jot them down. Once you have watched all the videos in order, and have collected all the letters, in the last video the host will reveal the email address to which you have to send the letters. Everyone who responds by 11:59:59PM Eastern DST, March, Friday 13 2009 with the correct answer wins a free 1-year digital subscription to Linux Journal.

START HERE!

-Netguru

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny Released March 10, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Distribution, Operating Systems, linux.
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Debian GNU/Linux namely releases version 5.0 aka Lenny. The last release (version 4.0 code named Debian Etch) was release almost 2 years ago!

Debian is infamous for its long release dates. It took almost 3 years for the jump for Woody to Sarge to happen. Though Sarge to Etch happened in a mere 22 months. Having said that, Debian is widely respected for rolling out a robust and secure Linux distribution that supports more architectures that other distributions. And the latest official stable release “Lenny” is no different.

Although Debian is a rock solid Linux distribution, it doesn’t come bundled with the latest versions of softwares. So if you are looking bleeding-edge or even leading edge you it will be up to you to install and configure the latest and greatest, but you can feel confident that you have a solid operating system to start from.

Lenny is the first Debian distribution with a Live system that allows you to try Debian without installing it on your computer’s hard disk. You can get Debian on Live CD, USB Sticks, or boot if of the net.

Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (Lenny) can be downloaded at Debian.org.

-Intelliginix

10 Open Source Companies Set to Dominate | The VAR Guy March 4, 2009

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10 Open Source Companies Set to Dominate 2008 | The VAR Guy

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I posted this because I I agree with him 8 out of 10.

The VAR Guy spent most of 2007 blogging about open source start-ups and open source business models. As he looks ahead to 2008, The VAR Guy knows hundreds of open source software providers are seeking to catch on in the corporate market. Here are the top 10 open source providers and platforms that are set to succeed in 2008.

10. Red Hat: An obvious choice, so let’s address them right from the start. Even as Red Hat pushes beyond Linux, the company’s core operating system business hopes to achieve 50 percent server market share by 2015. In its quarter ended August 31, Red Hat’s revenue surged 28 percent to $127.3 million and net income improved to $18.2 million compared to $16.2 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Upside: Oracle’s move into the Linux market has had little — if any — impact on Red Hat. And the Microsoft-Novell alliance pushed many open source advocates into Red Hat’s camp. Challenges: Unlike much of the open source industry, some CIOs applaud the Microsoft-Novell alliance, meaning that Red Hat could face increased competition at the high-end of the market. In the applications and middleware space, Red Hat needs to keep Jboss evangelists happy. And Red Hat’s on-again, off-again, on-again desktop efforts have allowed Canonical Ubuntu (#5 on this list) to gain momentum on the desktop.

9. Untangle: The San Mateo, Calif., startup develops an open source gateway that blocks spam, spyware, viruses and adware. Upside: Alas, plenty of open source firms now compete in the security space. But Untangle is one of the first open source specialists to launch a managed services partner program — which should pave the way for more customer engagements. Challenges: Untangle isn’t a household name yet, and traditional security appliance makers are also moving into the managed services space.

8. WordPress: You may not have noticed, but The VAR Guy, MSPmentor and a growing number of Nine Lives Media sites are hosted on WordPress — an open source blogging platform. Upside: For anyone seeking to launch a personal, professional or commercial blog, WordPress is rapidly emerging as the de facto standard. Challenges: One word… Google. They’ve got a popular blogging platform as well. And you should never underestimate Google.

7. OpenBravo: Enterprise resource planning (ERP). The acronym itself suggests complexity and big expenses. But what if ERP software had an open source foundation available for on-site deployments or hosted deployments? That’s where OpenBravo enters the picture. Upside: Recent acquisition pushes OpenBravo into the point-of-sale market. That’s a natural extension to ERP. Challenges: Headquartered in Spain, OpenBravo needs to ramp up its U.S. operations in order to gain critical mass in North America.

6. JasperSoft: Big companies like Oracle and IBM are buying their way into the traditional business intelligence software market. In stark contrast, JasperSoft is attacking business intelligence using the open source model. Upside: JasperSoft is a natural extension to SugarCRM and MySQL environments (see #3 and #1 on this list). Challenges: Business intelligence isn’t an easy sell for integrators and solutions providers, so JasperSoft will need to work hard to continually extend its partner network.

5. Canonical: Once upon a time, Red Hat and Novell ignored the desktop Linux market, leaving an opportunity wide open to Canonical–promoter of Ubuntu Linux. Upside: Dell now preloads Ubuntu on selected PC desktops. Even The VAR Guy has one. Dell also plans to certify its servers to run Ubuntu. (Yes, an Ubuntu server push is coming.) And Canonical backer Mark Shuttleworth has deep pockets. If you’re new to Ubuntu, here are 50 things you need to know. Challenges: Red Hat and Novell have rediscovered the desktop and are moving back into the market. It’s unclear how much money Canonical makes from Dell preloads. Plus, Canonical needs more VARs to support and evangelize Ubuntu.

4 . Google Android: Get ready for an open software and applications platform that runs across hundreds — or thousands — of different cell phones and smart phones. Sounds pretty ambitious — perhaps too ambitious for most companies. But then again, Android is backed by Google. Upside: Dozens of service providers, software developers, chip makers and other tech companies have vowed to support Android when it debuts in 2008. And a first look at Android (check out this video clip) looks pretty wild. Challenges: We’ve all seen multi-vendor alliances collapse before. And it will be difficult for the 1.0 release of Android to match the initial hype — and quality — of the iPhone.

3. SugarCRM: Annual revenue will double to about $15 million in 2007, cash flow is now positive and company insiders are focused on a longer-term plan for SugarCRM. Upside: Plenty of businesses are frustrated with traditional customer relationship management (CRM) software. And SugarCRM functions well as a traditional on-site application or hosted application. Challenges: Managing growth is the big worry within SugarCRM. Getting to $25 million or $35 million in annual revenue is a near-term annual goal. But longer term, SugarCRM worries about scaling its business to $100 million in annual revenue. The VAR Guy wishes he had such problems.

2. Digium: Take one hot market (voice over IP) and meld it with another hot market (open source) and you’ve created the perfect storm. Digium promotes Asterisk, the open source IP telephony platform. The company recently opened a new headquarters and is expanding its base of channel partners. Upside: Asterisk has gained incredible momentum in recent months. Challenges: Small businesses don’t understand open source and they’ve never heard of Asterisk. Plus, Microsoft and Cisco are busy promoting unified communications to small, midsize and enterprise customers. All of that unified hype could overshadow Asterisk. (But we seriously doubt it.)

1. MySQL: The world’s most popular open source database is an insanely popular — and fast — platform for running Web 2.0 applications. Rumors of MySQL launching an initial public offering have circulated for months. But 2008 could finally be the year that MySQL makes its mark on Wall Street. Upside: MySQL has a customer list — CraigsList, Google, TicketMaster, Yahoo — to die for. Challenges: MySQL also has a rival list — Microsoft, Oracle — to fear.

There you have it. The VAR Guy’s top 10 Open Source Companies Set to Dominate 2008. Sure, he missed a few obvious candidates. And he ignored dozens of potential names. But ignoring vendor hype is one of The VAR Guy’s greatest strengths — or so he claims.

Read more here at the VAR Guy | What’s Next in the IT Channel because Ii totally

Are you a PC or Mac? Does it even matter? February 14, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Operating Systems, Uncategorized.
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In my area of expertise it doesn’t matter! We run Windows and Linux on MacBook Pros! Oh yeah.. are you a Sun, AIX, or HP/UX?

Sooner or later you will have the MacOS running on a PC if someone hasn’t done it already.

Windows versus Linux.. Again!?! January 20, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Applications, Linux Servers, Operating Systems, Shell Programming and Scripting, linux.
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linux-versu-win-1Ron Barrett of Network World is claiming that “Windows 7 will crush Linux” because he like other Microsoft junkies doesn’t understand why people (like myself) use Linux. People like Ron are good a stating the obvious stuff like:

Windows 7 installs easier, has simpler configuration of user settings, greater availability of software, blah, blah, blah

Take a look at this one sided article that subtly points out most of the problems Windows has to begin with. Aside from the server operating systems which tend to be lean on a vanilla install (and I am being generous), the more mature Windows gets, the more bloated it gets; The more features it packs, the more resources it needs, and don’t forget the hassle of day-to-day upgrades as well as service pack releases. Mainstream Linux distributions are not oblivious to updates, and have methods of distributing updates as well, but receiving updates in most cases doesn’t depend on purchasing the “Boxed” version of the product.

Windows is including POWERSHELL and that’s great, but Linux has had multiple power-shells since the beginning. So way to catch up there Windows, Microsoft finally understands that scripting is important to the real IT administrators.

Notice that features of the “New” Windows GUI (Macs are guilty too) were simply stolen. A lot of the eye-candy that was implemented in Windows Vista existed for some time in Sun Microsystems Looking Glass, KDE, and GNOME. Virtual Desktops like the Compiz and Beryl project (Logical or 3D) have been solid on Linux for some time now. But enough with the look and feel business. Windows, GNOME, KDE, and Mac desktops can be made as glamorous as you would like them to be, but hands-down you have more options and more control on Linux. You have dozens of window management choices at your disposal on Linux and other UNIX operating systems. I will give Windows and the MacOS credit for being very integrated and cohesive operating environments, but this isn’t hard to accomplish when there is only one entity is setting the rules. KDE, GNOME, and others are cohesive as well, but a lot of the components that are the building blocks for these window managers come from more that one open source project. But as time goes by they are getting tighter and tighter by the moment.

As far as applications go, well I cannot tell you how much money my company has saved businesses by using alternatives to mainstream computing solutions (like Microsoft, Oravle, SAP<, etc.) by using their open source counterparts. These savings are across the board server and desktop, as well as development platforms. Just do some research for yourself, and see what kind of savings you well get if you replace something like Windows server/SQL server with Linux/MySQL or Linux/Postgresql. You can IIS, or Apache, both are mainstream solutions, but one is free. For the most part the former and latter do exactly the same thing except one will cost you more than the other. If it is in issue of expertise or support you will have to find that expertise regardless of what it you’re using if it’s proprietary or otherwise. Some businesses are scared of projects based on open source technologies because they fearful of having support issues, but those of you who are should take a look at companies that use mostly open source softwares like Google, Amazon, and Yahoo which are using open source applications for mission critical services. I bet you they saved a ton of money going this way instead of using proprietary solutions.

On the desktop Linux is close but has a ways to go, but in my view this is to be expected because there isn’t one entity that governs how the desktop should look, feel, and function unlike Microsoft and Apple, but projects like KDE and GNOME are getting there slowly but surely. I also think that a stable full-featured Windows emulator integrated into the Linux desktop will give windows users a better incentive to a the very least test Linux as an alternative desktop. I myself will admit to using Windows, but I use it primarily for Microsoft Office (mostly Word, Powerpoint, and Access), but with Crossover Office from CodeWeavers I can run those and more on Linux with few issues.

linux-versu-win-3

On another note I like the fact that I can pack a fully-functional version of Linux on a 512M USB Flash drive and take that as well as my data with me wherever I go. Try doing that with Windows 7! Or maybe you can even try ReactOS (which is in alpha now).

-Intelliginix

Welcome to Intelliginix! October 30, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Internet.
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This is all about the snazziest, gotta have, need to know, can’t live without linux tips, tricks, best practices, and problem solutions.

Ubuntu Mobile Linux on Intel Atom October 30, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Hardware, Internet, Linux Distribution, Linux Mobile.
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Well now that the ARM is mature and running in all types of portable devices, I am just waiting see the impact the Intel Atom will make on the cellular market.  I have been following this quite some time, and I can’t seem to find an advantage of using the atom on a mobile phone yet.  But Ubuntu Mobile will be running on an Atom processor, but only on Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).  Check this out…

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2403415870.html

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/ubuntu-linux-remix.html

Will Linux suffer under Obama? November 18, 2008

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This is one to look at.  Since President Elect Barack Obama promises change, and a result of this change will be more working Americans.  Is that going to have an adverse affect on the open source community?  Will they now have less time to develop software and the operating system pieces of Linux?

Change is here!

Change is here!

Kexi Visual Database Design Tool – Like Microsoft Access November 23, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Applications, Shell Programming and Scripting, linux.
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I have been looking for something to aid in database design for some time, and I came accress Kexi and I was pretty impressed with some of the features and ease of use.

 

Kexi is a database management application. It can be used for creating databases, inserting data, performing queries, and processing data.  Forms can be created to provide a custom interface to your data.  All database objects – tables, queries and forms – are stored in the database, making it easy to share data and design.

 

Kexi is part of the KOffice productivity suite for the K Desktop Environment.

 

In addition to storing your Kexi databases in files, Kexi can also store your data on a database server. Using a database server allows you to share your database with other people, and also allows more than one person to use the database at one time. Kexi supports MySQL, Postgresql, and SQLite databases.

 

I am going to so some more testing with it to see how robust it really is.  I will let you know what I find

Linux On Brazilian Voting Machines November 24, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Hardware, Linux Applications, Linux Distribution, linux.
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130 million Brazilian voters were turned into users of one of the largest Linux deployments worldwide: the 400,000 electoral sections in all of the 5,563 Brazilian municipalities were running electronic voting machines, and the Linux kernel was running on all of them. These voting machines have been used in Brazil since 1996, and are rugged, selfsufficient low-spec PCs. Technical details about this Linux deployment and implementation are available elsewhere (and more will come, for sure), but I thought it would be interesting to show some pictures and a movie – shown at the source link below – of Linux booting on these voting machines.

Source: http://br-linux.org/english/linuxvoting- machines/

Linux-based Unified-Communications, Microsoft Exchange alternative Free! December 21, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Linux Applications, Linux Servers, Microsoft Alternatives, Networking, System Administration, linux.
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New York based Unison Technologies debuts its Linux-based unified communications software. The client-server software package is targeted for businesses with 50-250 employees and includes Internet telephony, e-mail, instant messaging and shared contact and calendar features, which mimics some key features of Microsoft Exchange. Also has an Outlook-like client for Windows and Linux workstations.

It’s great that this runs on Linux (RedHat and Ubuntu) because that keeps the cost low. But if you want to use software for free, it will include advertisements. This sounds like something worth looking at, read more here. I am going to look into this and see what it’s all about.

Anyone using SkyOS or eComStation? December 23, 2008

Posted by intelliginix in Operating Systems.
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I was just browsing around and I came across these and it made me wonder.. Is anyone out there really using these?

eComStation is the successor (I guess) to the IBM’s OS/2 Warp which in its day used to be my favorite operating system of choice. But around 1996 after IBM’s failed attempt to port OS/2 to the PowerPC platform, and not adding key features like SMP to OS/2 that would have allowed them to compete directly with Windows NT right out of box. I gave up on it and made Netware and Unix my workhorse network operating systems. But since then I haven’t seen any businesses use it after 1999 with the exception of some of the Big Blue shops. Is anyone still using OS/2, or eComStation?

SkyOS used to be free, but now it is closed source and you will have to pay around $30 USD to be a part of the Beta program. I haven’t found anywhere I could download even an older version of this operating system, but you can bet I am still looking for it. Although I have never seen it with my own eyes, it looks interesting, however, at this point in the game it seems like this like reinventing the wheel. I mean, does this OS have any real special features? Does it target the desktop, server, or both? It does have some mainstream open source applications that run on Unix and Linux ported to it which is great, but I would just be interested in seeing what it does, and how it performs. I anyone can supply any insight on these two operating systems I would be greatful.

-Intelliginix

GRUB Defined! January 8, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Filesystems & Disk Storage, Linux HOWTO, Shell Programming and Scripting, System Administration, linux.
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The GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) is the mainstream choice for most Linux as well as other distributions. This very capable bootloader is taken for granted by most people who use it. Yes, this full featured package has been in the spotlight for sometime, but how much do powerusers actually know about it?

My experience for the most part is mainly using GRUB as a means to experiment on-the-fly with passing command line arguements to the Linux kernel as well as selecting an alternative to the default operating system. But, lately I have been searching for solutions that would make it easier to boot from certain types or media not configured inside of the GRUB menu.

I have been researching ways to boot a USB device directly from the GRUB interface similar to booting from say something like the first hard disk. But how do you do that when you don’t know what device the BIOS assigned the USB (or flash) disk? How do you actively seek information about disks that are currently recognized at boot time? Well, in my research I have been frustrated while googling many pages reading from blogs and forums that explain how to install GRUB on a USB stick which is relatively painless, then I came across one of the most comprehensive GRUB HOWTO’s I have seen to date. I have been playing with the examples since, and I find them extremely useful so I though I would share them with you.

This page goes through the every practical use of GRUB, and I found the examples a good resource for the Linux professional as well as the poweruser. If you use GRUB and you would like to get a little more intimate with it’s command feature set check out The Grub Page. You may want to bookmark this because it is an excellent resource.

-Intellignix

Do you have a favorite Linux distribution? What about this distribution makes it better than all of the rest? September 14, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in linux.
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I have been working with Linux since 1992, and I have seen hundreds of distributions. I personally like SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on the server side because I think the administration (YaST) is second to none. Also most of the server packages are compiled with options that allow you to do things like authenticate to LDAP, MySQL, Postgresql, AD, etc. without having to recompile the packages. OpenLDAP is at the heart of most services like DNS, Users, Samba, and others. It makes a good single sign-on platform, and central management system. Debian, Centos, and RedHat are also good distributions.

On the desktop I like Linux Mint. I believe that Linux Mint is the nicest distribution on for the newbie Linux user (yeah, it even beats Ubuntu). Out of the box you have everything included for your browser, and your multimedia player is configured with all the codecs you need to play all of your mainstream media. It has a nice selection of applications, and a serious choice of games. I also recommend Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS and Simply MEPIS. All of these you can run live, so if you like them you can then opt to install them to your hard drive.

There are others I like as well for other reasons, but these are the ones that (in my opinion) stood out.

Identi.ca with new features! March 5, 2009

Posted by intelliginix in Open Source.
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Identi.ca with new features!

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