Linux Magazine: CentOS 5.6 Finally Arrives and is suitable for Business Use

I stopped using Ubuntu 10.10 because the network driver for an Atheros Gigabit Ethernet card was flaky. It would come and go. I had an older but very hot 3.0 gigahertz gaming MB left over from one of my children. After working out some BIOS settings, I tried loading both the current versions of Ubuntu Linux and Linux Mint without much success,

Linux Magazine had arrived with a CentOS 6.2 disk. CentOS is the community rebuild of of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and it rocks.  It loaded the first time and had none of the pesky bugs that have to be worked out after Ubuntu is installed.

Ubuntu got upset with the Gnome developers and developed the Unity interface which didn't earn it new followers.

CentOS is amazing. First, the flash and video CODECS work if you install the "third party" option, a problem with Fedora Linux. The network driver works flawlessly and downloads and Linux updates are at warp speed. It is a bug free installation that is far faster than Windows 7. the OS loads in less than 10 seconds and the connections to the Internet are immediate.

Some other good news

Canon has release Linux drivers for the Imageclass MF4570DN printer.  This printer has worked flawlessly and I much prefer it to comparable Brother MF printers that have front panels that come and go to voltage issues. Linux printing on this machine is incredibly fast. This laser multifunction printer costs $200 or less. 

In addition, AVAST has a great anitvirus/malware program for Linux without incident. I prefer AVAST over CLAM AV because Clam installs frequently bomb out even using the Synaptic package manager, You also have to install the CLAMTK front end if you wish to avoid command line virus scans.

Bottom line

CentOS 6.3 is superb. It is faster than Windows 7 and, of course, the software is free.  

CentOS 5.6 Finally Arrives: Is It Suitable for Business Use? | Linux Magazine:

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Wikipedia: Linux Mint

Linux Mint is a computer operating system based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution, which in turn is based on Debian.

Linux Mint 10, based on the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat”, will be released in November this year under the codename “Julia”.

Origins: the Julias were one of the most ancient Patrician families in ancient Rome, and the famous Gaius Julius Caesar was their most famous family member.

 

Linux Mint provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. It is recognized for being user-friendly, particularly for users with no previous experience in Linux.

Rightardia agrees. It is easy to install and the Desktop is intuitive although it is a departure form previous versions of Ubuntu Linux.

Linux Mint is composed of many software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license (also known as open source). The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software.

Linux Mint is funded by its community of users. Individual users and companies using the operating system act as donors, sponsors and partners of the distribution. The financial support from the community and advertising on the website helps to keep Linux Mint free and open source.

One of the writers needed a laptop so Rightardia purchased a $100 barebones HP NC8000 and gave it to Wirehead, out IT writer, to work on. The laptop had a DVD ROM and 512mb of RAM.

Wirehead added another 10GB 2.5 inch hard drive from an old Compaq laptop after ordering a hard drive caddy from China and a new NiMH laptop battery. He has also ordered another 1GB of RAM.

If a computer user is not in a hurry, there are excellent bargains from China on Ebay for laptop parts. Be prepared to wait two weeks or longer for delivery.

Amazingly, Linux Mint functioned well on a Hp NC8000 laptop with a 10GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM. Wirehead will eventually to upgrade the HD to 60GB and the RAM to 1.5Mb to speed the laptop up, but this would not be necessary for a home user.

Many small businesses and corporations should consider software upgrades to Linux versions rather than the the standard three to five year lease upgrade cycle of PCs and Windows software. The point is that Linux is not the resource hog that Windows is and small businesses don't need the latest most powerful Intel i7 machines to make the the new Windows operating system work.

If you're running a years-old commercial operating system (such as Microsoft Windows XP, which is rapidly approaching being a decade old) you should definitely be impressed with a Linux Mint upgrade. Just backup you data and pop the CD or DVD into the tray and boot up. An install icon will appear on the Live CD screen.

Rightardia backs up user data to either one of our servers or a large capacity thumb drive. We have also been impressed with the Firefox add-on, X-Marks, that backups and restores browser bookmarks.

Rightardia also noticed improved improved wireless performance in Linux Mint. 

Rightardia would like hearing about your experience with Linux Mint.

the Linux Mint home page is http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php. You can download Linux Mint at http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

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Comments on the Linux face off article between Red hat and Ubuntu

by Wirehead

Paul W. Frields said...
Fedora does indeed have the Pan newsreader available. You can use the Package Kit installer to install it, or do 'yum install pan'. There are third-party repos such as rpmfusion that carry the Nvidia drivers, and installation is point-and-click simple.

Finally, there's even a flash page on the Fedora wiki that tells you how to make flash work perfectly. (Google "Fedora Flash" -- pretty easy!) :-)
July 27, 2009 9:00 AM

Bob said...
You apparently did not read enough to know that Fedora is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), which means you'd have to enable RPMFusion to gain the Third party drivers for audio and video. That Totem plug-in and Pan is available; I'm looking at it.

And in Fedora, as in most distros, you'd use a root password (su or su-) to handle installing packages. It's considered more secure than having an open sudo. Remember that Linux is all about security. Of course, if you prefer, It's very easy to set up sudo on Fedora as it is on any other Linux distro. Keep in mind that under the hood, they're all Linux.

As to ClamAV, yes, it will update just fine, if you read enough to know to add 'freshclam'. That's what 'manual' pages are for, my friend.

Fedora's a US distro and Ubuntu's a S. African distro. Different laws apply. Remember reading that disclaimer on not using copyrighted codecs if you're in the US?

There's tons of info available if you take the time to look and read, rather than jump in without research.

I hope that anyone reading your blog will realize that millions of people have success where you've fallen short.
July 27, 2009 9:24 AM

Tom said...
Nice post. You are totally right. Ubuntu is way easier than Fedora (although they can be equally buggy. Debian beats them hands down in the stability department.)
July 27, 2009 10:00 AM

Bob said...
One additional comment: next time you install it, use AutoTen: http://www.dnmouse.org/autoten.html to add many of the things you've been confused about.

Tom's right about Debian and stability. The packages are older, but rock-solid. Fedora's a testing distro and cutting-edge breakage must be expected.
July 27, 2009 11:32 AM

Sid said...
I resorted to Fedora 11 KDE because Kubuntu had so many problems. But Fedora 11 has the screen resolution problem, it can find automatically fix the resolution to 1280x1024. I have to do it every time manually using "display". Then finally yum was so totally screwed that I could not fix it. I tried the help from the Fedora forums but everything failed.

Even a humble distro like PARDUS can do things better than mighty Leonidas of Fedora. I had only bad experiences with Fedora all the time. Now I think I will be back to buggy Kubuntu because at least Kubuntu has fixes that work. Fedora is broken beyond fixing.
July 27, 2009 8:00 PM

In summary, if you are a Linux savant, Red Hat may be the way to go. I usually don't read the manual until I run into a problem. If you are a noob or newbie, Ubuntu may be the kinder, gentler way to go. I do plan to try Debian Linux that Ubuntu is based upon the next time I have to reload.

I resolved the video problem by removing the the Nvidia video card and replacing with an ATI PCI Express card. An ATI Catalyst Control Center appeared on the menu when I rebooted.

Regardless of what Linux distro you choose, Linux is a smarter and more economical way to go than Windows 7. You do need a little more technical skill than the average Microsoft Windows bear. Give it a whirl and Rightardia hopes that some of the reader comments will help you with your next Linux install.

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Face off with Fedora and Ubuntu Linux

by Wirehead

While I was working, the screen froze up and I noticed the hard drive thrashing away. After powering the PC down, I noticed it could not find a a working Linux image to boot off of. I had trouble restoring Ubuntu Linux 9.04 so I loaded a copy of Fedora which is the open source version of Red Hat Linux.

After working with Fedora 11, code named Leonidas, I started to notice some idiosyncrasies. First there was no third party driver for my Nvidia PCI video card. The Ubuntu driver didn't work perfectly because I had to reset the video resolution to 1600 x 1200 dpi every time I rebooted. In the case of Fedora, there was no third party driver at all. I even looked for one on the Nvidea Linux page but there was only a .bin driver that Fedora couldn't use. So I was stuck in 1024 x 786 dpi resolution.

I also noticed that Fedora had a CD-burner but it was buried in Places | Computer rather than as an Accessory. The Take Screenshot (print screen utility) was crippled in Fedora. I could grab the entire desktop or current screen in the foreground, but I could not grab a selected area by framing it. When you publish a blog, this is an essential function because tables and graphics can be easily copied. That was a real bummer.

When I tired to download a third party application from the command line using the Terminal function, the command would not run because it did not consider my user name to be an administrator. I ran into this problem months ago and there is a work around, but you have to edit a file and change permissions to fix it. This was bummer number 2.

I also post my best articles in a couple of Usenet conferences. Again , when I tired to use Yum Package Manager to download the Pan newsreader, the application was not available. I searched on the web for Pan but there was no download in the .RPM format that Fedora uses. This was bummer number three. I was never able to get any news reader to work on Fedora although I found some alternative newsreader aps. None showed up in the Fedora menus, however.

Having some background in network security, I tried to download the CLAMAV antivirus/malware utility and its front end, CLAMTK. I was able to download both, but I could never upgrade the CLAMAV antivirus signature, even after a reboot. This was bummer number 4.

However, the Fedora firewall front end for IPTables was a nice surprise because Ubuntu dos not come with a a firewall front end. I have to download GUFW using the Synaptic Package Manager for the AV front end in Ubuntu. So chalk up one kudo for Fedora.

I also ran into problem playing You Tube videos with Fedora. A Totem movie player plug in was missing that could not be downloaded. In Ubuntu, you are prompted to download Flash to see the You Tube videos. I embed videos in my blog and the Flash download worked fine for viewing videos.

Printing was also problematic with Red Hat. It was missing Canon PIXMA drivers that Ubuntu provides that was bummer number 5. I also notice that themes, backgrounds (wallpaper) and OpenGL screensavers were missing in Fedora. I was able to download OpenGL screensavers using YUM. I would venture to say that Red Hat probably dumbs down Fedora because it is the free version of it it commercial product, Red Hat Linux. I have used Red Hat in the past and it is more robust. It also comes with technical support for one year when you purchase it.

After continuing to play with Fedora for a couple of days, I backed up my data and reinstalled Ubuntu. Clearly Ubuntu has an edge over Fedora. Ubuntu supports third party video drivers, the screenshot utility is not crippled, The administrator account works when you login for the first time, the package manger provides an excellent newsreader that can be downloaded, the antiivirus utility didn't not work in Fedora and I could not view Flash online videos. The Canon Pixma printers are very popular because of the print quality and the low cost of ink jet cartridges. The missing print drivers were really irritating.

It is possible that over time I could have fixed many of the problems with Fedora. But why waste the time since Ubuntu had all of these problems resolved.

If you are going to try Linux, Rightardia recommends Ubuntu. You will get up to speed faster with Ubuntu.  

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Windows 7 is the same as Ubuntu?

Editor's Note: I liked this article because it asks a fundamental question: Is Windows 7 good enough to pay for. In my opinion, it has few new features that Ubuntu or Red Hat (Fedora) do not have already. Once you have invested $100 plus dollars in Windows 7, you will also have to update Microsoft Office and and your Windows utilities such as Nero Burning ROM which allows you to burn DVDs and CDs. Linux comes with free DVD/CD burner software.

Eventually, you will also need an an anti-virus and malware scanner, but Microsoft is now providing a free one. Over time the Microsoft OS nickels and dimes you. You have to upgrade to specialized applications and utilities. Oh, I hope you never have to swap the hard drive out. You will have to call Microsoft to reactivate the OS.

In Linux, you can upgrade your OS and the applications during the the same free upgrade. Open Office is free. I don't need to purchase the latest version of Microsoft Office any more. In the life cycle of the OS, I am saving hundreds of dollars with Linux.

Obviously, this isn’t true. Their underlying architectures [of Linux and Windows] are quite a bit different, Gnome looks different than the [Windows] 7 User Interface, but to an average 17-year-old, there just wasn’t any meaningful difference between the two operating systems.

The other day, I posted a blog titled “Windows 7: Good enough to pay for?” I described how I’d installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my son’s computer for his take on the OS after living with Ubuntu 9.04 (and 8.10 before that) for a few months. It’s summer break, so he basically spends every waking moment when he’s not actually interacting face-to-face with friends on the computer. No better time to have a kid do some serious testing, right?

I asked him last night about his initial impressions of Windows 7 and, in typical teenage fashion, as he was bouncing between Meebo windows and browser tabs, he said it was “nice.” I managed to extract from him that his favorite feature was that he was able to use his Zune with it, something that had never worked terribly well with Ubuntu. Otherwise, he said,

“Windows 7 is the same as Ubuntu; there just really isn’t anything different about them.”


Of course there isn’t. He lives in a web browser. The underlying OS is irrelevant. He has no need for Office 2007 and I expect his next portable music player will be platform independent.

For some, Windows 7 may, indeed, be good enough to pay for, especially if they are power-users of Windows-only software. For my oldest son, if he gravitates to any machine, it’s to my Mac because it’s so easy for him to create and share video content. For the average student, though, the old Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux debate may finally be dead. For someone who “hated Linux” a year ago to now happily switch between Windows 7 and Ubuntu in a completely transparent way certainly signals an end to that age-old flame war.

Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.

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Windows 7 issues may make Linux a better way to go

American home users and enterprise networks are at a a crossroads. Should it upgrade to Windows 7 after the failure of Window Vista? What are the pros and the cons. Are there any alternatives?

Fist of all, there is no upgrade path from XP Pro to Windows 7. If you have not already installed Windows Vista, you would have to backup your data reformat the hard Drive to install Windows 7.

Windows 7 also has compatibility problems. Microsoft developed XP Mode (XPM) emulation so that Windows 7 can be backward compatible with XP Pro applications like Microsoft Office 2003. This feature is only available in the enterprise versions of the software so home users are out of luck. In addition XPM is not compatible with many Intel and AMD CPUs. Even some modern laptops do not support XPM.

It is also interesting that Microsoft will continue to support XP Pro until 2014, but will abandon updates for Vista in 2012. This seems to be an admission on the part of Microsoft that Vista was a failure.

For the home user, Windows 7 is problematic. The XPM mode is of no value. Even if the home users upgrade to an enterprise version of Windows 7, they may run into compatibility problems with certain Intel and AMD CPUs. This means all of the older XP Pro applications will have to be upgraded on home PCs. This will be expensive for Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) users.

For the enterprise, there is a migration path for machines that have Vista installed and also have CPUs compatible with XPM. Otherwise, the IT staff would have to replace all of the client side PCs and servers that are not XPM compatible to run the older XP Pro applications.

In most cases, enterprises would buy or lease new PCs and servers with Microsoft Office 2007 bundled. Microsoft does not plan to immediately upgrade Office 2007. It will publish a service pack that should run on Windows 7 without XPM emulation. By the time a corporations, pay for new PCs. Servers, OS and applications, the cost could be a minimum of $500 to $600 per unit for anew XPM compatible PC that is bundled Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2007.

I view of the limitations of Windows 7, what are the alternatives? Taking a close look at Linux for a desktop operating system replacement would save home and business users hundreds or thousands of dollars. In some cases it may be necessary for certain users to stay with a Microsoft operating system (OS) if they are running a specialized business or data base applications.

Microsoft servers are another consideration. Many IT people prefer the Microsoft server to the free Linux server versions. Most colleges and technical schools train their IT students on Microsoft servers. Jumping into the Linux server world will a bigger problem than moving from the Microsoft desktop to the Linux desktop. The Microsoft servers work fine with Linux clients.

Both the current Fedora Linux and Ubuntu Linux distributions are excellent. Fedora is the open source version of Red Hat Linux. Ubuntu is strictly open source. There are no commercial Ubuntu servers or desktop versions. This is one of the decision an IT staff would want to make. Would they want the low cost commercial version of Linux so they can call a help desk for support or do they want to go it alone with Ubuntu Linux?

Ubuntu is little more robust than Fedora. It comes with most applications that a user would need such as the Firefox browser. Evolution email which has most of the feature of Microsoft Outlook and Open Office which include a word processor, a databases application, a spreadsheet, a drawing program and presentation software. In addition, there are numerous free downloads that can be used to add features that users need.

Ubuntu comes with CD/DVD burner software, a remote desktop viewer and a terminal server client. Users can download free anti-virus and malware software called ClamAV and a AV front end called ClamTK that simplifies AV scanning. There are a variety of firewalls that can also be downloaded. One that is equivalent to the Microsoft firewall is Gufw which uses the command line IPTables firewall that is built into most versions of Linux.

In addition, there is a Wine download allows users to run many Windows applications. You can browse the applications that are supported at appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse%20Applications&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true

Of interest, Wine also supports many games that run on Windows XP Pro.

There are also many commercial server based Linux business applications that do exactly what the Microsoft application do but usually at a lower cost.

In the past printing was problem with Linux, but that has been resolved with the current releases of Linux. Today Linux has a much broader base of print drivers.

In summary, Windows 7 will offer little functionality that is not already built into Linux desktop versions. The enterprise version of Windows 7 will run the older XP Pro applications, but the home versions do not support XPM. In addition, many late model Intel and AMD CPUs do not support XPM.There is no upgrade path from XP Pro to Window 7. If you haven't installed Vista, you will have to backup your data and reformat your hard drive to install Windows 7.

www.ubuntu.com

fedoraproject.org/

www.ditii.com/2009/05/04/does-your-intel-cpu-pass-windows-xp-mode-test-in-windows-7/

news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10235329-64.html