Monday, June 23, 2008

Linux in Business

I am a network administrator, now I am in a position where I have to administer a mainly Windows environment. So what I am doing writing a Linux blog? Well, we have been incorporating Linux into this environment as well, and what we are finding is that Linux is a very powerful and flexible platform to run many applications needed by our users. The most amazing thing is that the users don't even know they are using Linux to accomplish their day to day tasks. What we are attempting to accomplish is to eliminate as much licensing management as possible. Now I am a firm believer in letting the users to be comfortable with the desktop they are comfortable using, since Windows is such a popular choice we let the users use Windows as a front end, but may of the network applications that they are accessing are sitting on a Linux server. Eventually we are going to be web base our applications so that we don't have the need to run solely Windows.

So where does Linux fit in the desktop arena in a business environment? Well that is a little tricky, administrators are used to adapting to new technology and so learning how to navigate and use Linux comes a little more easier. Users on the other hand tend to resist change a little more, because they just want to do their jobs as quickly as possible, Windows for so long has filled these shoes, but at higher cost of ROI, Linux can solve this problem. First lets look at what Window users use on average, on a daily basis. Users generally use a web browser, email, and an office suite. There are probably some custom applications that they may also use that only run under Windows but there is a way to solve that problem as well.

Linux can provide all these functions, but there may be some program rewrites involved so it is not necessarily the cheapest rollout but in the long run you can save a lot of money. Most Linux distributions come bundled with Firefox web browser which is W3C capable, Evolution which is an Outlook equivalent, and OpenOffice which is Sun Microsystems open source equivalent for Microsoft Office. This is where the word "free" comes to an end, because now we have to look at the custom applications that were written for Windows specifically. With the emerging web technologies we have been able to take applications that used to be required to be installed on the desktop can be rewritten to run in a web browser. Of course this could be a pro and con, the pro is once the program is written for the web its done other minor changes and maintenance. The con is that there is a cost tied to rewritting programs, but the investment is well worth the cost of rewrites because now your organization can be platform independent.

With the advances that Linux has made in the last few years it has become a very viable platform to use as not only backend servers but it has emerged as a viable desktop for the enterprise user. The days of Linux being used by hobbiest has long since passed and it is evolving by leaps and bounds. Microsoft may still be the dominant platform in the enterprise environment but distubtions such as Red Hat Enterprise Desktop, Novell Suse Linux Desktop, Ubuntu Linux, and Fedora Linux gaining popularity it won't be soon before organizations will adopt Linux as their platform of choice.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Fedora 9 Review

I have listened to a lot of podcasts and they frequently review new distributions of Linux operating systems. These podcasters do a great job of doing this, but when Fedora releases their updated distributions I feel like they always get the short end of the stick when it gets reviewed. Fedora is one of those distributions that believe in using only open source software. You can always install proprietary software and codec after then installation has been completed, but from the core installation you have a pure open source based operating system.

An example is out of the box you will not have MP3 support, this is because MP3 codec is not an open source codec and there are licenses regarding using the MP3 codec. You can install this codec simply using a few mouse clicks but the core believe of using open source software instead of proprietary software was what was in mind when the developers did not include MP3 support. Again, you can always install this after you have installed your Fedora operating system.

One feature that always seems to get overlooked is during the anaconda installation, when you are partitioning your hard drive it asks you if you would like to encrypt your Linux partition. I was intrigued to say the least, I have never seen a desktop OS ask me if I would like encrypt my hard drive before. So I went ahead and checked the box to encrypt the Linux partition, it asked me to supply a password and I did, clicked OK and proceeded to finish the installation. When the computer rebooted as it was going through the startup sequence it stopped as it was loading the Linux partition and asked for the password I had supplied during installation. I entered the password and the boot up process continued. I thought this was a great feature to have, because not only does it stop someone from booting up my computer and hacking away at my user account but it stops them from ever even getting to the login screen. It is just one more level of security that you have available as well as now your data is also encrypted.

When I saw that Fedora 9 was coming in like 29 days I couldn't wait for the release. I was really excited to see what was new to it over Fedora 8. I had problems with Fedora 8 but I was able to conclude it was mostly my hardware configuration that was causing the problems. Once I was able to download and install Fedora 9 I was completely blown away from the login screen to the Fedora theme! It was smooth and very customizable. It came loaded with software that I used, from OpenOffice to Eclipse IDE, and many other distributions come with this same exact software but Fedora for example has the full suite of OpenOffice already installed instead of just the four basic applications.

All in all Fedora 9 is very stable platform, and very easy to use. I am not a hardcore programmer so I am not able to contribute in a way that can improve the software bugs, but I can submit bug reports to help developers fix what needs to be fixed. By doing this I think we can build a distribution that can compete even in the corporate environment. I find that distributions like Red Hat and Novell Suse have been able to tap into this market because they offer premium support, and since Fedora is a project of Red Hat I think with a little more refinement it can become a major competitor in a market that has only a few choices.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

If your building a supercomputer, what would your OS of choice be?

Apparently IBM made the choice and oh what a choice it was, this article blew my mind. Read the full article here. Not only is Red Hat Linux making waves in the Enterprise world, they also made their way into the nuclear missile industry as well, tracking safety and reliability of our nations nuclear missile stockpile. IBM was tasked with the job of building a supercomputer that can safely test nuclear missile for their reliability and safety, this was their answer.

IBM built a supercomputer that not only broke the petaflop boundary, but blew it out of the water. IBM created a blazing 1.5 petaflop, which is one thousand trillion calculations per second. Even more amazing it is encased in the IBM Blade Center technology and using AMD processors, 6,948 processors to be exact. As I was reading this article I was asking myself, okay what platform is it running? Red Hat Enterprise Linux of course, this says a lot for Linux in general.

If Linux was not as mature as it has become I would think the platform would have to be some UNIX based system or even some proprietary OS that could manage such an enormous system. So next time you think supercomputer, don’t just think Cray Supercomputer’s, now you can say Linux is managing the fastest current supercomputer in the world and it is managing nuclear missiles which is keeping us safe.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Linux is Everywhere

My life is pretty boring, and I figured that I couldn't come up with enough content to fill a blog about myself so I decided to start one with something I am enthusiastic about, Linux and all its wonders. I have found that wherever you turn Linux has somehow found its way into my life, for example my cell phone, navigational system in my car, on my desktop computer, even on Mars.

Now I have tried various distributions of Linux, from Debian and all it variants to Red Hat, OpenSuse, Fedora, Gentoo, CentOS, and so many others. I don't have a favorite distribution, all though I am running Fedora 9 currently and I am really enjoying its interface. I really like the whole open source community and what it stands for, a community that shares software to improve it and make it available to everyone. Now I am not going to get into Microsoft bashing but to make a comparison from a consumers point of view lets break down the cost of ownership of Microsoft verus Linux for a basic home user that wants to type up documents, spreadsheets, surf the web, and send email.

To buy a Windows machine to do all this it will cost you roughly $383.00 with Microsoft. If you want to download Ubuntu Linux, which is designed for users moving from Windows to Linux, you can all this for FREE. This is the beauty of Linux and the Open Source community. This is what I will try to focus on in the blog, and occasionally post news articles that I come across that I find interesting, like this one which is about the Mars Polar Lander which use a Linux OS.

More to come.....