Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 28, 2010
by sjvn01
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NAC decisions you need to make now

One important piece of a multilevel security defense for companies of almost any size is network access control (NAC), which lets you enforce policies for end-user machines.

The basic idea behind NAC — which can include hardware, software or a combination — is deceptively simple. Before any end user’s computer — an endpoint — is allowed on the corporate network, a NAC makes the computer prove that it complies with the company’s security policies. For example, you could set up a NAC to refuse to let a user’s PC on the company LAN until the PC reports that it has all the latest patches for its operating system and office software and that it has the latest updates for the corporate antivirus program. If it doesn’t have the goods, the device is not getting on the network.

Although the theory behind NAC is deceptively simple, the marketplace reality is anything but. It requires that network administrators piece together hardware and software from multiple vendors, unless you’re willing to go with an all-in-one solution and risk vendor lock-in. And, with NAC, whatever you decide to do, there are usually multiple ways to do it.

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July 27, 2010
by sjvn01
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Dell expands Ubuntu Linux desktop offerings

The latest panic in desktop Linux lad was that Dell would no longer be selling Ubuntu pre-installed on laptops and netbooks. Alas, for those who love drama, it wasn’t true. In fact, Dell is expanding its Ubuntu desktop Linux offerings.

Gerry Carr the marketing manager for Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, told me that the stories that Dell will no longer be offering Ubuntu pre-installed on its hardware were “NOT true .” Now, Anne Camden, a Dell PR manager, tells me that far from moving away from Ubuntu Linux, Dell is offering more Ubuntu choices than ever.

Camden said, “Ironically, we JUST added the Ubuntu desktop today [July 27th]. While the original plan a few months ago was to transition to the current generation Inspiron desktop, we changed direction. The Linux team decided that there might be more applications/better appreciation for a more powerful option, so we just released the Studio XPS 7100 desktop with Ubuntu Desktop 10.04 installed.”

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July 27, 2010
by sjvn01
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Calm down! Dell is not throwing Ubuntu Linux out!

People seem to love bad news. This last weekend, the ‘bad’ news was that Dell has stopped offering Ubuntu Linux pre-installed on laptops and netbooks. There was only one problem with the story: It’s not true.

While Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, won’t be making their official statement on the situation until tomorrow, July 28th, Gerry Carr Canonical’s marketing manager, told me today that the stories that Dell will no longer be offering Ubuntu pre-installed on its hardware “is NOT true.” In addition, a Dell representative said that “Dell has no plans to discontinue its Ubuntu offerings.”

So, calm down already with the headlines like “Get This Damned Ubuntu Out Of Dell’s Internets!” Or, it’s Digg variant, “WTF? Dell Drops All Ubuntu-Loaded Machines From Online Store.” Chill already.

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July 26, 2010
by sjvn01
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Desktop Linux: When and how to add proprietary software to your desktop Linux

Some people hate the idea of adding proprietary software to their desktop Linux. For these people, there are Linux distributions such as gNewSense that use only free software. For the rest of us, who use distributions such as Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu, there are times we either want to, or feel forced to, add proprietary programs such as Adobe Flash or Skype or the ability to play proprietary audio and video formats such as MP3 or commercial DVDs to your Linux desktop. Here’s how to do it.

Before taking this path though, you should consider that there are many open-source programs that can deliver the same goods as proprietary software. For instance, Gnash plays most Flash animations and videos just as well as Adobe’s own Flash does. For an overview of free and open-source software that can give you the same functionality as Windows software, check out the Ubuntu’s Free Software Alternatives page. You may well find that you can get by without proprietary software after all.

If you can’t though, some distributions make adding proprietary programs easier than others. Linux Mint and openSUSE, for example, both include a great deal of proprietary software in their installation libraries. For these Linuxes, all you need to do to add Adobe Acrobat Reader to your desktop is just run the distribution’s default application installation program and in a minute or two, you’ll be viewing PDF files.

With other distributions, for example, the Ubuntu family of distributions, you must add a special repository to get access to the most popular proprietary programs and media codecs. In the case of Ubuntu, you’ll find the information you need in the Restricted Formats and the Mediabuntu pages. Fedora takes a harder line with such programs. The Fedora community does have a “Forbidden Items” page that explains how to go about installing proprietary software and some open-source alternatives.

So, your first move is clearly to see if your distribution has what you need to run non-free programs. If that doesn’t work, there are still ways to add these programs and codecs to your setup.

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July 26, 2010
by sjvn01
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The most popular Web server Linux is…

Even a Linux fan might not have heard of CentOS Linux but, if you’re a Web or other edge-server administrator, I can guarantee you know about CentOS. That’s because, according to Web Technology Surveys, in July 2010, "For the first time, CentOS is now leading the Linux distribution statistics on web servers with almost 30% of all Linux servers."

What’s CentOS other than number 15 on DistroWatch’s list of popular Linux distributions? Officially, CentOS is an "Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork.)."

What that really means is that CentOS is built from Red Hat‘s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) source code, which is freely available at the Raleigh, NC company’s ftp site. It’s positioned as a free or low-cost server alternative to RHEL 5.

In short, it’s the RHEL for expert Linux users who don’t require Red Hat’s support contracts. Mind you, there are also CentOS support companies, but CentOS’ real market is businesses that don’t need hand-holding.

As the CTO of a major West coast Web site told me at OSCon, "We have a large commercial Web site serving tens of millions of page views a month with lots of advertising revenue. We like RHEL, and of course we looked at Red Hat. However, Red Hat’s subscription prices, at about a grand per server per year, were too much for us. We just didn’t see enough value in paying them for support since we already had experts in-house."

Another reason for CentOS’ data-center popularity is that CentOS is easy to set up as a server. I use it myself on my own Web servers. I find it easy to maintain, easier to manage, and very fast.

There you have the CentOS story in short. It’s not just Linux-savvy Web sites, though, that have adopted CentOS as their favorite flavor of Linux. Oracle, to create its Unbreakable Linux, an RHEL clone, uses CentOS as its template.

So, if you already have a lot of Linux expertise at your fingertips and want to run some serious Web servers, give CentOS a try. It’s not for everyone — there’s a reason why Red Hat does so well with its RHEL subscriptions — but for Linux experts, CentOS is a worthy Linux server alternative.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

July 22, 2010
by sjvn01
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Android may have the phones, but MeeGo may get the cars

PORTLAND, Ore., — Google’s Android is already hot in smartphones, and it’s going to be hotter than hot in Linux-powered tablets. So, where does that leave Intel and Nokia’s embedded Linux, MeeGo? In the dust? Actually, it looks now like MeeGo is going to have its own niche where it will be the embedded Linux of choice: Car entertainment, Internet, and navigation systems.

Tomorrow, the Linux Foundation will announce that GENIVI, a non-profit auto industry alliance committed to driving the adoption of an open-source IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) reference platform. With members like BMW, GM, Peugeot Citroen, and Renault this is a big deal. These aren’t hangers-on in the car business; these are core car companies.

MeeGo will now officially be the next IVI reference release, Apollo. As such MeeGo will supply the Internet-aware multimedia in IVI such as rear-seat entertainment and built-in navigation and entertainment. Yes, you might even be able to Twitter by voice while driving your car if that’s what floats your boat.

MeeGo won’t be providing just the Linux. MeeGo, as Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist said at OSCon, MeeGo provides not just Linux, but the “full client Linux open-source software stack.” Android, by the by, uses its own Java-based middleware and interface instead of the more familiar Linux. This means that open-source developers with Linux desktop chops will find it relatively easier to program for tomorrow’s ‘smart’ cars.

As Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation, said in a statement, “MeeGo has been built from the ground up for these types of applications. Because MeeGo is a truly open platform, the work GENIVI will do to extend the platform can benefit the project and all who use it. For developers, this is a great opportunity to harness the power of the MeeGo APIs (application programming interfaces) to target a variety of devices and architectures and extend their work on handset applications toward vehicles.”

Interested? You can start working with MeeGo today by downloading the platform. According to Hohndel, new releases of MeeGo will be coming out every six months, with the next edition coming out this fall.

And, presumably by the time the 2013 car models come out in 2012, end users, aka your kids in the back seat, will be able to watch streaming 4G videos on MeeGo-powered IVI entertainment centers.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.