Month On Linux

As I am working my way through my first month on Linux it has become increasingly apparent to me that Linux has a huge amount of potential but is unfortunately not as widespread as Windows. This is unfortunate but I believe something can be done about it. One of the main things that keep people away from Linux is much the same as one of the things that keep many away from Macs.

General computability with anything and everything.

Most things are designed for Windows computers. You go out and buy a web cam and it says "designed for Windows XP / Vista" and it often says things like "works with MSN and Yahoo". The same thing goes from printers and other devices such as mics. The simple fact of the matter most of the time these devices work just the same in Linux. Admittedly some distrobutions aren't designed to "just work" as much as other distributions but I have found Ubuntu has worked with everything that I have thrown at it and it's been relatively easy to get working.

The next major problem lies in the ease of use. Windows has to be one of the most idiot friendly operating systems on the planet. It allows any old fool to do basically anything, including wreck the system if they happen to be that way inclined. Linux on the other hand has been traditionally harder to work for newbies than Windows. Ubuntu has bridged this gap somewhat. Its easy and free to work with Ubuntu.
There are many equivalent programs out there that will allow you to just get one with your work with out having to worry about your xorg.conf file or some other subsystem configuration file. Most of these applications are bundled into Ubuntu on install and if its no you can just go to the "add remove software" section and add any software that you need and it will download and install it from the internet.

I want to set up a site, and I will be working on doing so for the next little while that can get people who are new to the field of Linux set up with the distribution that they need and can try Linux out for a month. I have a box to my left which I will be using to host this site. I will be using Fedora 7 to host it as that would probably be my best choice for a server. I will post my experience in getting it to work as I go and I hope that it can help people out.

Vision

I didn't post anything yesterday as I was bussy seting up a wireless network at my house and getting all the computers (Windows Vista, Ubuntu, Windows XP) all working happily on the network. There are two XP machines on the network but only one of them is wireless (its my mum's laptop). I secured the network with WEP (was going to use WPA but I decided to go with 128 bit WEP encryption as it was easier to make "just work" but I am thinking of possibly using WPA PSK.) I noticed however that I could restrict access to a few MAC addresses making very hard to just get into the network it you happened to be outside in a large van kitted out with all the equipment to break into my network. (Yes I know I am paranoid).

While working on it I happened to notice that I could set up port forwarding and and I had a working XP Professional box so I decided to try my hand at getting IIS working. I got it working and started editing the source from gedit in Ubuntu. (I had the source on a share so I could access it over the network).

I have a DNS service with no-ip.com for free. I got a site working (just as a bit of a test bed) at monthonlinux.no-ip.org. Don't expect it to work all the time, or at all for that matter as I am trying out ASP.NET which I know seems a bit of a contradiction that I running "Month On Linux" on a Windows box with a Microsoft technology but as I said its a bit of a test bed just to get my hand into site administration.


My Software design teacher made me aware of a distro of Linux which is called "LAMP". If I could get that working on one of my boxes I might consider running an evangelical site for Linux.

The aim of the site (and organisation) would be to get individuals and organisations to try out Linux for a month and provide support for the organisations and individuals making the switch. If I were to set this up I would make my primary recomended distribution Ubuntu just because of its ease of use for people who havn't otherise been working in the field of Linux.