Now lets take a look good look at Linux OS. Now here are few questions that I get asked about Linux.
1.
Why do I like Linux?
2.
What can I do with Linux?
3.
Is Linux hard to use? Isn’t it more for hackers
and geeks?
4.
Is there any support – hardware / techno
5.
Is it usable (is it stable, can it run as good
as MS Windows)
6.
Can I get software like Office for it?
I had my first experience with Linux back in 1998, and I
remember talking to few people about Linux at that time. Linux wasn’t that easy to use at that
time, but when it was installed it ran really nice. But everyone kept on telling me that I shouldn’t be wasting
my time on Linux. WindowsNT should
be the way to go, everyone was switching to all Windows based platforms. But I had said and I’ll still say, it not
good to stay with one platform, and in the future we could be looking a
multiple platforms and we would have to know how to get all these to
communicate together. And as the
years past, it has become more clearly I was right with this statement. Look what we have today, and the
challenge is getting devices to communicate together. It is very common now days to have a smart phone, tablet and
a computer (weather it’s a desktop or laptop). And now there are even more devices that have “Smart Tech”,
TVs, home theaters, cameras, and home appliances.
Now most people don’t thing Linux is very easy to, and they
don’t have any use for Linux.
However they don’t realize that they are using Linux everyday. For example if you are using a smart
phone that is running Android, with is using Google’s Linux. Or even the router that you use for
your home network is running a Linux … or what about your TV? Linux too.
One really nice thing about Linux, it can run small computer
like Raspberry Pie or in a Server Farm hosting web sites. So Linux can be very
flexible, depending on the needs.
Nice thing about Linux today is anyone can use Linux with
out being a computer geek. Now when you buy a new computer, it comes with
MS-Windows and Windows is not cheap.
You do pay for it, it’s included in the total price of the computer. Linux
is FREE, yes it free to down and use.
This doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with it, or there is
some kinda hitch to it. I find
that Linux is very stable. More
stable then MS-Windows, how many times has your computer locked/crash or you
got the “Blue Screen of Death” when you are using MS-Windows? Now, Linux isn’t
perfect, neither but it doesn’t lock up or “Memory Dump” like windows dose. It
just works great.
The last few years I have been testing different
software. I have made a decision
to switch from MS-Windows to something else. I have notice that there is some
really good software for MacOS and Linux.
The only thing that I really do like from Microsoft is MS-Excel. Other then Excel, I have found some
really good software.
Now I am planning on get some newer systems, currently I
have Windows 7 desktop and MacBook Pro (2,1) running Loin and iPhone 4S. So I am very happy with my MacBook Pro.
The only thing with it is, it is getting a little too old and I can’t upgrade
it any more. I have basically
stopped using my desktop; I find that my MacOS dose what I need it to do. Now
if you don’t know, MacOS X uses FreeBDS, witch is a UNIX base Operating System.
Now before making my decision on my home network I wanted to see MS-Windows 8
and to see if it can fit into my network.
Windows 8 user interface is so different and cumbersome to
use, Windows no longer fits into my network. So that will save me some big money from all the upgrades
and licenses for the server. Now
one may say you get what you pay for; so if I use say Linux server witch is
free or paying for anything 200 to 900 for just a server, and that you would
have great tech-support with the software.
Now some time ago I got a Windows Home Server. I can’t say enough and it wasn’t all
that good. It was very slow, and
it wouldn’t do everything that I needed it do. Two things that really bugs me about Windows is it requires
rebooting after some time to clean out the memory or after installing
updates. But the worst thing that
I had to do with MS-Windows, I upgraded my Windows 7 System and after
re-installing my Windows 7 I had to call Microsoft to reactivate my Windows. I
know that activation of MS-Windows is to help from people steeling their
software but they need to have an easier way then the system that they have
now. I end up spending ½ day on
the phone, that including the 3 times that some one in the call centre hanging
up on me. Great job on he Tech Support Microsoft!
So here are some points that I’m looking at while deciding
on what software that I am going to be running.
1.
All the systems are going to need to communicate
with each other with very little work or third part software
2.
Cost, on startup and upgrades
3.
I don’t want to spend too much time on
configurations on the systems.
4.
Easy to use and to add to it if I need to at a
later date with out costing more for licenses.
5.
Must be very secured
6.
Must be able to use newer technologies.
So I have a not bad desktop, it AMD x4 cores with 8 gigs of
ram. It also has 1 SDD 128 gig 1
SATA 500 gig and 3 SATA 1tb drives and 2 tb external drive. It is currently have Windows 7 running
in it. So I am going to be
converting this into my Linux Server.
I also just order a new TV, it’s Sharp Smart TV and Samsung Home Theater
witch is a Smart too. I have MacBook pro, iPhone and I have plans on building a
Hackintosh. With the Hackintosh I
will be install VBox witch I can run my Windows 7 in it.
Now For my Linux box, I have did a test run with a “Live
DVD”, to test out witch Linux would run on my system from “Out of the Box”. This
method work nice, you down and burn copy of a Linux. Then you reboot your system off of the DVD and WOW you are
running a fully functional Linux with out installing it. So now you can see what hard is working
and what one(s) that you need to get additional drivers for. You can also get the “Looks and Feel”
of the desktop. One thing about
Linux is you can choose what type of desktop that you like. Some will favor KDE or Gnome. I personal like the KDE. And so far the flavour Linux that I am
going to be picking is Mandriva.
Mandriva is a Partnership between Mandriva and Turbolinux, Mandriva was
Mandrake and started back in 1998 and Mandrake was based off of Red Hat Linux.
Just like any other Linux, Mandriva dose come with software
library with free software that you can download and install, witch is every
easy to do. And the type of
software is all different kinds, everything from office type, system, servers,
and even games. So now this is what I need my Linux box to do
1.
File server, for back up documents, pictures
2.
Multi media server
a.
To save movies, tv shows and music files
b.
To share out to my smart tv and any other
devices
3.
Web server, I do like to do some development
with HTML/PHP
4.
Database server
For the file server I will be installing and configuring
Samba Server. I will go through
the configuration files later. Samba will allow me to setup “Share Folders” on
my server. Some will be read only,
and some will be read and write. Any operating system will be able to connect
to Samba MacOS X, MS-Windows and other Linux as well.
Now for my Multi Media Server I haven’t decided one right
now, however I have been testing TVMOBiLi on my MacBook Pro, witch seems to
work pretty nice. I have connected
using Sharp and Samsung TV smart TVs, but I haven’t tested it on a Linux yet.
Now the Web Server and Database Server will be Apache Web
Server and MySQL for Database.
Just a side note, most of my Office documents and
development I do like using my MacBook Pro. I like MS-Excel and Dreamweaver witch I have for my MacOS X.
So Now, it time to start my new Linux Box and later a new
Blog on the install of Linux box.
