A-Z Linux Guide

I have a little esoteric set of screen attached to my Linux Workstation. That’s three 20″ LCD screen which are all pivoted (rotated 90 degrees incase you’re not familiar with this word). Now I need to use the nvidia binary only kernel package with this computer, because nothing else would work. I know, since I’ve tried Matrox cards, and they didn’t cut it, and you can’t use two ATI cards in the same linux machine with either the xorg ati driver or the binary only fglrx driver. There didn’t seem to be any problem with the nvidia driver at all for the longest time. Then one day when I came home, the machine had halted, I rebooted, an thought it’s probably nothing, but this started to happen more frequently, and now we are at the point where it will stay up for a few hours and then livelock the computer. The xorg nv driver doesn’t work for all the screens in the setup, but it doesn’t crash or anything, so I tend to think this is a driver releated bug. And the thing is, I’m giving up this computer as a windows workstation in the very near future, so I don’t want to waste time trying to fix things.

Having a fresh Ubuntu Edgy Eft installation on a moderately or very powerfull PC makes up for a pretty complete and comprehensive machine. The problems begin when you have some other rather unusual setup to run, like for example my 3 monitor system. I really hope the driver doesn’t regress when I start using it in the near future, once the good people at verkkokauppa.com deliver my machine and parts.

Ok, these are the moments for which I have a tv. The classic movie Sneakers just came on mtv3. I missed the first 45 minutes of the film, because I wasn’t aware that it was airing.

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Many people, daunted by Vista’s hardware requirements and product activation issues, claim on various boards how they plan to “switch to Linux.” We spend 30 days using nothing but Ubuntu Linux to find out if this is truly a viable alternative for the consumer.

Introduction

Complaining about Windows Vista is a national past time on Internet forums these days. Windows Vista “costs too much,” “has onerous product activation,” “requires too much hardware,” etc. These complaints are often followed up by a very simple boast: “I’m just going to switch to Linux (or Mac).”

But in today’s landscape, how viable is that statment? Is the threat to switch to Linux an empty one, or is it entirely possible? Linux on the desktop has been viable for years, especially for programming gurus who can solve their Linux problems by simply writing new software. It also seems to be viable for “Mom and Pop” end-users who just want a machine to write letters, send email, and browse the Web (although, admittedly, a guru will probably have to set it up for them).

But what about power users, such as the typical audience of HardOCP - those who know how to build their own computers, but not compile their own programs? Or people who may not know how to do something, but aren’t afraid of taking the time to figure it out? Is Linux truly an alternative? Can they do everything they did in Windows? The truth is, we didn’t know, but we very much wanted to find out.

To properly explore these issues, we took a cue from Morgan Spurlock and made the decision to use Ubuntu Linux as our home operating system for 30 days.

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The problem with answering this question is that those asking it know only OSes where viruses, trojan-horse programs, worms, nasty Javascripts, ActiveX controls with destructive payloads, and ordinary misbehaved applications are a constant threat to their computing. Therefore, they refuse to believe Linux could be different, no matter what they hear.And yet it is.

Here’s the short version of the answer: No. If you simply never run untrusted executables while logged in as the root user (or equivalent), all the “virus checkers” in the world will be at best superfluous; at worst, downright harmful. “Hostile” executables (including viruses) are almost unfindable in the Linux world — and no real threat to it — because they lack root-user authority, and because Linux admins are seldom stupid enough to run untrusted executables as root, and because Linux users’ sources for privileged executables enjoy paranoid-grade scrutiny (such that any unauthorised changes would be detected and remedied).

Here’s the long version: Still no. Any program on a Linux box, viruses included, can only do what the user who ran it can do. Real users aren’t allowed to hurt the system (only the root user can), so neither can programs they run.

Because of the distinction between privileged (root-run) processes and user-owned processes, a “hostile” executable that a non-root user receives (or creates) and then executes (runs) cannot “infect” or otherwise manipulate the system as a whole. Just as you can delete only your own files (i.e., those you have “write” permission to), executables you run cannot affect other users’ (or root’s) files. Therefore, although you can create (or retrieve), and then run, a virus, worm, trojan horse, etc., it can’t do much. Unless you do so as “root”. Which it’s simple to avoid doing.

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In January, Chicago native Katie McAuliff, who has worked for Novell Inc. for 13 years, took over as president of Novell Canada, replacing Don Chapman. Ms McAuliff will oversee all facets of the Canadian organization including sales, marketing, consulting, support, training, finance and operations, with a focus on expanding and strengthening Novell Canada’s partnership model.She sat down with Jack Kapica of Globetechnology.com to explain her company and its plans.

JACK KAPICA: Novell has been shifting its image recently. What markets is the company focussing on?

KATIE McAULIFF: A lot of people don’t really know who we are and what we do today. We’re in five markets — data centre, desktop, security and identity management, resource management and workgroups. Novell is firmly behind all these markets.

The Linux desktop is a complete blast. This market just went to a million downloads. It’s hot, it’s cool, it’s a lot less expensive, the kids are loving it. School systems have some great desktop operating systems — it’s also in kiosks, retail systems, point-of-sale systems. A lot of those systems are being refreshed now, so the best thing now is really lowering the cost of ownership, increasing return on investment. This is a great space, very strong selling. We’re 95 per cent there as a viable alternative to anything else.

These are huge growth markets for us, enjoying double-digit growth.

A lot of people don’t even realize that Linux runs on a mainframe, and that we do a lot of business on mainframes with Linux partitions. My sense here is that the potential has not yet been realized in the Canadian market.

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01. People will ridicule you for using Ubuntu

I have been sat at work and had people actually laugh out loud at my laptop running Ubuntu. I’ve had people pick up the free professionally-made official Ubuntu CDs, sneer and throw them back at me. Once people try it out though, they often change their opinion. Even if they don’t use it daily, their respect for Ubuntu goes up after at least trying it.

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Source: http://popey.com/The_Truth_About_Switching