November 17, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

Corel puts a penguin the desktop

Corel wasn’t the least bit shy with its launch. The press conference began with the announcement: “Welcome to the future of Linux” with a pounding rock beat and video.

Technically, there were no surprises. Corel Linux is based on Debian 2.2.12 Linux kernel. Corel chose Debian because of its code’s quality.

For the GUI, Corel uses the KDE 1.1.2 desktop environment. With this environment, like the Gnome Windows manager before it, KDE has fully embraced themes. Themes you ask? With themes, users can choose the look and feel of their desktops.

Indeed, for users who like to arrange their desktops just so, Corel Linux with KDE offers far easier-to-use customisation tools than its competitors. In particular, Corel Linux outdoes the other Linux distributions in its handling of video modes. Often a sore-point for new Linux users, Corel Linux makes it as easy as open, slide to the desired setting and click.

Continue Reading →

April 20, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

Gates and Torvalds face off at Comdex

Torvalds gave a keynote speech at the Linux Global Summit at Spring Comdex half an hour after Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates opened the show in a much larger auditorium. While Gates, like Torvalds, addressed an overflow crowd, the two presentations couldn’t have been more different in style and substance.

Torvalds, who kept the sweltering crowd attentive by entertaining audience questions and concerns throughout his hour-long presentation, seemed like more like the Gates of years ago than did Gates himself. Greeted by a standing ovation, Torvalds calmed users’ concerns about potential splintering of “the little OS that could.” Torvalds also managed to throw in a few Microsoft slams, keeping the Linux faithful happy. When the lights temporarily went out, Torvalds wondered aloud, “What’s going on in this place? The whole show floor is controlled by Microsoft.”

Gates’ keynote proceeded comparatively smoothly. Gates opened by showing a video of his last year Spring Comdex address, which was plagued by a blue screen in the midst of a Windows 98 Universal Serial Bus demo. This year, a demo of a demo of a beta release of Windows 2000’s Plug and Play USB support went on without a hitch.

Gates introduced a new Titanium mouse, called the IntelliPoint Explorer mouse, which the company plans to ship in Sept. The latest Microsoft mouse replaces the open case full of moving parts with a closed case design using an integrated optical sensor, eliminating the need for a mousepad. He also showed a forthcoming Natural keyboard under development at Microsoft which will include two USB ports as part of its design.

Gates spent most of his keynote reiterating the company’s vision for its various Windows platforms, including Embedded Windows, Windows CE, Windows 98 and Windows 2000. He officially announced Microsoft’s Corporate Preview Program for Windows 2000 Beta 3, which is due to begin shipping to OEMs and testers next week. Calling Windows 2000 “the biggest investment we ever made in a single piece of software,” Gates said Beta 3 will be supported by more than 20 OEMs; 100,000 channel partners; thousands of ISVs and independent hardware vendors, 140,000 developers and more than 500,000 customers.

Torvalds’ keynote was a bit less predictable, even though he focused primarily on Linux’ history and its well-established challenges. Like the Gates of old, Torvalds sparred with his audience and played up his image as a developer’s developer. When asked about his views on Java, Torvalds noted that he no longer is really excited about Java. At first, “I bought into the hype,” he acknowledged. “But now I’m fairly down on it because of the way Sun [Microsystems Inc.] mishandled it,” resulting in the current fragmentation of Java implementations from Sun, IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Co.

Torvalds deflected concerns about the potential for similar fragmentation in the Linux space, noting that the copyright/license for Linux requires anyone who modifies the source code to make changes available to others under the same license. “This insures that the splinter ‘heals’,” quipped Torvalds. He added that the Internet development paradigm under which Linux has evolved has made it less likely to splinter, as well. Different programmers are working on different pieces of the OS. Linux has been ported to a variety of form factors, from the Palm Pilot to supercomputers, Torvalds said. Some developers, like Torvalds, are working on the kernel; others are more focused on user-space issues. He did acknowledge that more work needs to be done to make Linux a “serious mom and pop contender on the desktop,” but that, too, is possible in two to three more years, Torvalds predicted.

A team working under non-disclosure is working on porting Linux to Merced, Torvalds said, so that a Merced-optimised version of Linux will be available the day the chip ships. “Merced is really just more of the same,” Torvalds was quick to add. “Linux has been 64-bit for a long time. It can run on Alpha or UltraSPARC today. The main interesting parts are things like the compiler technology and that’s something that Intel is driving.”

This story first appeared in Sm@rt Partner and was written by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Mary Jo Foley.

April 15, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

Highly tuned NT whips barely tuned Linux in Microsoft-backed test

It’s so simple, on the face of it.

Mindcraft Inc., in a new study [http://www.mindcraft.com/whitepapers/nts4rhlinux.html] commissioned by Microsoft Corp., found that “Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 is 2.5 times faster than Linux as a File Server and 3.7 times faster as a Web Server.”

In reality, however, it’s not simple at all.

Mindcraft, an independent test lab, pitted the two network operating systems against each other on a Dell Computer Corp. PowerEdge 6300/400, testing both NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 and Red Hat Software Inc.’s Linux 5.2 upgraded to the Linux 2.2.2 kernel. This quad 400MHz Xeon SMP (symmetric multiprocessor system) had a whopping 4GB of memory (a gigabyte of which was used in the test) and a PowerEdge RAID II Adapter, 32MB cache set to RAID 0. The tests used ZD’s own NetBench and WebBench benchmark tests for file and Web serving tests.

As tested, NT beat Linux like a drum. But, that’s not the whole story.

Singing the right tune

Mindcraft tested NT with NT tuning, benchmarking and technical support from Microsoft, and Internet Information Server 4.0 tuning information from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. In the case of Linux, though, Mindcraft President Bruce Weiner was “surprised that Red Hat Software didn’t help us in tuning the OS.”

Red Hat spokeswoman Melissa London explained that “there was a query to our contract technical support, but they didn’t know what to do with Mindcraft’s request. Had the question came through the right channels — the public relations or the engineering staff — we’re sure Linux would have at least have had a better representation.”

In the future, Red Hat “would love to repeat the tests with our input, support and involvement,” London added.

In addition, Mindcraft said it found “little real tuning information in the Linux knowledge bases.” What information they did find was scattered over the Web. And for Mindcraft, at least, the “word of mouth” Linux support of newsgroups, mailing lists and online conference sites didn’t work.

That said, Jeremy Allison, a leading member of the Samba Team, an open source consortium, checked his records and could find no trace of anyone from Mindcraft asking in Samba’s public forums about Samba tuning. Indeed, after looking over Mindcraft’s published Linux parameters, he said, “[Mindcraft] didn’t do any tuning on the Linux side.”

Consequently, Mindcraft has found itself buried in Linux tuning “suggestions.” Many of these are just flames from outraged Linux users, but many of them, as Weiner admits, are well-founded.

For example, Mindcraft turned the Samba parameter ‘widelinks’ off. But, according to Andrew Trigell, the Samba Team leader, doing so “lowers the performance enormously. It adds 3 chdir() and 3 getwd() calls to every filename lookup. That will especially hurt any SMP system.”

Mindcraft’s Weiner agrees: “Clearly, we wouldn’t make that tune if we were doing that test today.”

The result? Highly tuned NT beats a barely tuned (if that) Linux. But, there’s more to it than that.

For one thing, Linux tuning information is hard to gather. It’s there, but it really requires an expert Linux user to find it. If Linux is to win commercially, information known only to Linux gurus and hidden away in a dozen Web sites needs to be gathered together and made more readable and approachable. For new users, learning advanced Linux is still much too difficult.

Take the Apache server, for example. There are several files on the Apache Project’s Web site on how to tune Apache and Linux. Even so, these files aren’t easy to find. On the flip side, finding information on tuning Internet Information Server 4.0 is easy at Microsoft’s knowledgebase.

Beyond tuning: incompatibilities

For Linux, SMP is a new option, incorporated in the 2.2 release. This is not the current base OS release that Red Hat is shipping today or that was used in the test. Instead, the system was upgraded to 2.2 and SMP activated by inexperienced Linux administrators using early Red Hat documentation. Moreover, the Linux RAID driver was a beta release and not well tested with the “so new the shiny hasn’t worn off” 2.2 kernel.

As a source close to Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operations, the ZD benchmark’s authoring agency, said of Mindcraft’s testing, “A more accurate headline might have been Linux does not scale up” instead of “Windows NT Server Outperforms Linux.”

Sm@rt Reseller’s own tests, using the same benchmarks, on low-end uniprocessor machines, has shown that Linux combined with Apache and Samba beats NT and IIS handily. (See Linux Up Close: Time To Switch and Samba 2.0: A License to Kill NT).

That said, it’s likely that a highly tuned NT, on the Mindcraft SMP platform, would prove a bear for even a tuned Linux to defeat. For NT, this kind of machine is a home field. For Linux, at this point in its development, it’s an away field — far, far from home.

On single-processor systems, Linux wins. On SMP/RAID systems, Linux is just now getting in the game. Even so, even at the high end of stress testing, Linux’s numbers would have been much closer to NT — if not higher — had Linux been as well tuned as NT.

A version of this story was first published in Sm@rt Reseller.

April 9, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

The Oldest Free OS

oday’s trick question: what is the oldest free operating system around?

If you said Linux, you’re not alone, but you’re wrong. The answer is the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Unix variants.

While they don’t get much ink, the BSD operating systems including Berkeley Software Design’s commercial BSD/OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD all are sturdy and capable in their own right. Don’t believe it? Consider then that Yahoo and Walnut Creek CD-ROM, two of the Web’s busiest sites, run on (drumroll, please) FreeBSD.

Like Linux, the BSD Unix uses an open-source model. Where they differ and this is important for resellers is in their licenses. Linux is protected by the GNU Public License. The gist of that is you can’t modify the source code without releasing the changes to the rest of the world. The Berkeley license, generally speaking, does let you make proprietary changes to the operating system. This is a gross oversimplification, but the main point is that if you want to make proprietary changes to an operating system for, say, a vertical-market medical measurement system, BSD is the way to go.

That leads to another importanthttps://www.openbsd.org/ difference between them. With Linux, the basic operating system from any distributor is always the same. It’s the add-ons, support, reseller practices and so on that create variation. With BSD, there are actual differences between operating systems.

For bottom-line purposes, BSD/OS has, by far, the best technical support and services. FreeBSD is the most popular of the set and has the most applications that directly support it. NetBSD supports the most platforms, and OpenBSD is the only free operating system that addresses security and encryption issues in detail.

Linux, however, beats out all of the BSDs in terms of native device and ISV support. BSD, in response, is embracing Linux programs. While much is made of the performance and stability differences between Linux and BSD, I haven’t seen it. I’ve never noticed any significant differences that couldn’t be explained away by configuration and hardware issues. At one time, BSD had it all over Linux in networking, but Linux has, for the most part, caught up.

So, unless you’re building fancy customized applications, why consider a BSD offering? I think there are situations where it is the better choice. For starters, if you and your people are first and foremost SunOS not Solaris or university BSD administrators, you’ll find BSD far more familiar than the more heavily System V-influenced Linux.

In some networking areas, BSD does seem to be above everyone. For instance, if I were going to set up a dedicated ftp server to do nothing but fire gigabytes of files all day, I’d go with one of the BSDs. Any of them do a great job with networking and file serving. And, like other Unixes, they simply don’t go down until you blow up the computer with a stick of dynamite. Finally, upgrading BSD to new versions over the Net is much easier than doing so with Linux.

Are BSDs for everyone? Nah. Are they worth considering? In some situations, yes; yes they are.

This story was first published in Sm@rt Reseller.

March 21, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

Samba 2.0: A License To Kill NT?

Who needs an NT license? Not us! We tap into Windows’ file and print service by running The Samba Group’s Samba 2.0.x on Linux or other Unix systems.

Samba enables users to use file and print services on a Unix machine exactly as if they were on an NT system, by employing Windows’ own Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. The Samba program also empowers Unix users to utilize resources on NT domains even when Unix compatibility programs (such as Network File System gateways) aren’t installed.

Samba version 2.0.x implements NT’s domain-authentication protocols. Simply put, besides excelling at file and print, a Samba-powered Linux system now works as an NT primary domain controller (PDC) or as a member of an existing NT domain or workgroup.

What it can’t do, in version 2.0.3, is run as a backup domain controller (BDC) … yet. Samba developers are working to remedy that missing link by the forthcoming version 2.0.5.

But can it really do all that it’s claimed to do? You bet. We tested Samba 2.0.2 and 2.0.3 on two different networks and found that both versions worked well … once we got them installed.

On our benchmark network using SuSE 5.3, we faced multiple error messages indicating that the Samba 2.0.2 binary installation had failed.The brute-force approach worked: We installed the package using the rpm” force” directive. After that, everything went well. On our other test network, running Pacific HiTech’s Turbo Linux 3.01, the installation went so smoothly with its Interactive Package Management, we had to run Samba before we believed it had been installed.

Installation is all well and good, but how does Samba perform compared to NT? Outstandingly.The results, however, were almost identical to those in our earlier Linux vs. NT shootout. The real difference in Samba mark two is its increased interoperability with NT domains, not performance.

If it’s performance you’re after, though, our informal tests with a Pentium-compiled Samba running on the Pentium-enabled, out-of-the-box Turbo Linux showed speed gains in excess of 50 percent over untuned Linux. Do your customers want more server speed?

The Samba Web Administration Tool (Swat) enables you to give your clients speedy throughput in a hurry. Before, the configuration process was: Edit the smb.conf file, restart Samba, check for correct operation and repeat that process until done. Say goodbye to all that. The Swat tool gives you a clean, Web-browser-enabled interface for editing and viewing configuration settings and operational information. It’s a giant step forward in easing Samba’s configurability and maintainability.

Even if your customers seem to have dug their heels into the Microsoft camp, Samba’s one-two punch of far faster SMB file and print services without Microsoft licensing fees makes it an option that must be considered. For basic Server Message Block file and print serving, Samba can’t be beat. No ifs, ands or buts.

Written by sjvn and Eric Carr. FIrst published in Sm@rt Reseller.

January 25, 1999
by sjvn01
0 comments

Linux Up Close: Time To Switch

Forget Linux’s hype. Forget Microsoft Corp.’s server market share. The bottom line, according to our hands-on analysis, is that commercial Linux releases can do much more with far less than Windows NT Server can.Yes, Linux has its problems as a desktop operating system. Yes, NT and NetWare have staggering brand recognition. But Linux is a worthy contender–both in features and performance–for your customers’ file and Internet server jobs.

Not all Linux systems, however, are created equal. While Linux is an open-source operating system that anyone can download from the Internet and then compile, our testing clearly shows that there are significant differences among the three commercial Linux releases: Caldera Systems Inc.’s OpenLinux 1.3, Red Hat Software Inc.’s Red Hat Linux 5.2 and SuSE Inc.’s SuSE Linux 5.3.

Those three Linux offerings are based on the open-source Linux source code. So almost any given Linux program–along with most Santa Cruz Operation Inc. Unix apps–will run on any version of Linux. A program’s performance, however, can vary from Linux release to Linux release, depending on how an app was compiled.

How We Tested

Our test platform was a pair of identically configured and outfitted 266MHz PCs. Each had 64MB of memory and a 4GB IDE disk drive. An Intel Corp. EtherExpress Pro 100B network interface card connected the server to our client network, which is driven by a pair of Synoptics (now Nortel Networks) 28115 Fast Ethernet switches. All tests ran at a network speed of 100Mbps. In each instance, we performed a fresh install of the operating system. We let the operating system decide the default disk configuration in each case. In other words, we didn’t try to tweak any settings. (Our guess is that results would have been even more embarrassing if we had.)

We measured the throughput of up to 30 clients for each server. The clients were a mix of 166MHz, 200MHz and 233MHz machines running Windows 95. Each of the clients ran the WebBench 2.0 static test workload to measure http server performance and NetBench 5.01 for Server Message Block (SMB), or file service, testing. Both benchmarks are available free from www.zdbop.com.

We configured each of the Linux boxes to run Samba (the SMB server) and Apache (the Web server)–but that’s it. We weren’t running DNS or Sendmail. Since they were being evaluated as servers, the Linux boxes were not running the X display system. The NT box was running Internet Information Server 4.0 under NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4. Again, no additional services were running.

According to ZDLabs’ results, each of the commercial Linux releases ate NT’s lunch. Our tests also revealed that Apache for OpenLinux is superior to Apache for Red Hat and SuSE. Moreover, Samba for Red Hat scales better than its counterparts.

Look Under The Hood

Every commercial Linux comes with a mind-boggling assortment of open-source programs. If you want file servers, you get your choice of Network File System- or Wintel-compliant Samba. If you want the Internet, you got it. Need a graphical user interface? Start with X-Windows and then add the window manager of your customers’ choice.

Can’t find the program you want on the provided CD-ROMs? Download it from the Internet, compile it and run it. For our tests, we downloaded the GNU Mailman mailing-list manager–a Python programming language application–and compiled and ran it successfully on all three Linux platforms.

While Python isn’t included in the commercial distributions, a host of other language tools and compilers are. These include C, C++ and Perl. For custom development right out of the box, you can’t beat Linux.

Of course, open-source programs and development tools aren’t the only thing Linux has going for it. When your customers crave database-management systems, they can take their pick among offerings from Software AG, Informix Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sybase Inc.. In short, you name a server application type, and it’s in there.

Unlike NT or NetWare, however, getting the application up and running–because apps often must be compiled–can be more difficult. It’s a trade-off. With NT or NetWare, you receive an easier-to-install binary. With Linux, you get a tougher install but considerably more control over the application.

Linux system administrators need not be programmers, though. The Redhat Package Manager (RPM) has become a de facto standard for application installation.

That said, you will need to be aware of such issues as what C library is supported in which distribution. Red Hat, for example, has moved its programs to Glibc 2, the latest version of the GNU C library, while OpenLinux and SuSE binaries, as of version 5.3, still depend on the libc5 runtime library. Translation: Some RPM binaries will fail on OpenLinux and SuSE systems.

The further evolution of Linux–a new base version of the code, 2.2, will debut shortly–will help remove such problems. For now, though, Linux resellers need to be aware of program-compatibility issues.

One undeniable advantage of NT, however, is that ISVs are far more likely to produce programs for it. That said, unless a customer wants a specific brand name, there’s little functionality available in commercial software that’s not available in a Linux program.

Slim Code Just for kicks, we successfully loaded and ran all three commercial Linuxes on 33MHz 486 and 66MHz 486DX2 systems with 500MB hard drives and 16MB of memory. For customers with limited hardware budgets, Linux can be a godsend.

Where Linux does fall behind, however, is driver support and hardware discovery. Although Linux hardware support is improving, you must check each version’s supported hardware list to be certain that all of your customers’ components will function properly.

In our tests, we found, for example, that OpenLinux couldn’t find our Intel EtherExpress Pro/100B network interface card and none of the three could locate our EtherExpress Pro/10+ cards.

Difficult Installation

OpenLinux, with its Linux Installation and System Administration, had the roughest install. Red Hat took the honors for the smoothest install. For network administrators, though, SuSE is the more compelling choice. SuSE wins because of its Yet another Setup Tool (YaST). This administration and installation tool centralizes many administration and network services into an easy-to-use interface. It’s the best all-in-one Linux management tool by a long shot.

Documentation remains a problem with all these distributions. Administrators familiar with the Unix online manual will find themselves at home. Others will want to pick up a Linux book at the local bookstore or from Amazon.com.

Once installed, all the Linux platforms performed like champs. We never encountered a single crash over the course of several weeks of testing. Network operating system stability has a new name–Linux.

Linux Lessons

So which Linux will work for your customers? From a business standpoint, the nod goes to Caldera. Its reseller program is heads and shoulders above the others (more on that in a moment). In addition, its superior NetWare compatibility–with the use of Caldera’s NetWare for Linux package–makes it a compelling choice for converting existing NetWare networks.

Alas, Caldera’s distribution has a few kinks in it. While OpenLinux is the best Web server platform, Red Hat holds the lead in straightforward file serving, and both SuSE and Red Hat are easier to install and manage.

Keep in mind that SuSE Linux 6.0 should be released in English by the time you read this. And since the base Linux code will be updated shortly, your best move is to download and evaluate each system for yourself.

Reseller’s Linux

Technical superiority is all well and good, but can you make money with Linux? The answer is yes, but you can’t do it by relying on box-sales margins. With Linux, there is none worth speaking of. Instead, your path to profitability must be through consulting, installation and support services.

Support is job one for would-be Linux resellers. While Linux is more stable than NT, it, and many of its most common open-source applications, is in constant evolution. Customers that want to get the most from their networks will need hands-on system and application administrators.

Linux support, as is often trumpeted, is widely available from the Linux online community. A customer fuming at a RAID controller that’s out of control, however, isn’t going to wait for a helpful answer from the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.hardware. That customer will want an answer immediately, and that’s where you come in.

Where do you get that information? Ask your employees, who should be experienced Linux users. If you don’t have a Linux guru on staff, comb the local college campuses for a potential hire. Linux is hot in academia. And don’t forget to lean on the Linux vendors for support. Vendor support used to be limited to a less than sterling 30 to 90 days after registration. Now, both Caldera and Red Hat offer per-incident and annual subscription support packages.

Turn To Caldera The reseller leader is Caldera. Besides the usual price breaks and marketing help, Caldera’s long reseller history is sprinkled with comprehensive reseller training courses, an open discussion reseller-only mailing list and an online bimonthly publication. In addition, Caldera was the first vendor to offer Linux technical training, available at a 50 percent discount for resellers, and a certification program, the Certified Linux Engineer. Finally, Caldera offers two reseller levels: the Authorized Partner tier for entry-level resellers and the Business Partner for resellers that know Unix and NetWare.

Red Hat is close behind Caldera. It has disclosed plans for co-marketing, co-branding, training and vendor certification. To date, however, only the marketing and branding plans are in place. Red Hat offers two reseller paths. The first, Authorized System Builders, is for white-box resellers interested in building Red Hat Linux boxes. The other, Authorized Value Added Resellers, is for resellers focused on consulting and custom IT solutions.

Following the others is Germany’s SuSE. The company is actively building up its reseller program, but for the most part you’ll be on your own. SuSE, while dominant in Europe, is still feeling out its way in North America and doesn’t have training or certification in place yet. What it does have, however, is phone technical support via LinuxCare Inc., a major Linux help-desk operation.

Can any of those offerings compete with Microsoft’s 800-pound gorilla of a reseller organization? Of course not. That’s not important. What is important is that there’s finally enough of a channel infrastructure in place to make Linux a viable choice for any network reseller willing to make a commitment to the maverick operating system.

SIDEBAR: The Best Windows File Server: Linux!

NetBench 5.01 shows how well a network operating system does at the mundane task of file serving, by measuring Wintel file input/output. Natively, Linux doesn’t work with DOS/Windows files, but Samba, an open-source Server Message Block (SMB) client and server that ships with all commercial Linuxes, provides that capacity. And how!

You might think that Linux would operate at a disadvantage here, but Linux kicks NT’s butt. Only at the lightest loads does NT hold any advantage over the Linuxes. Once the load moves to 12 clients, all the Linux platforms take commanding leads over NT. At 32 clients, SuSE, the weakest Linux, has more than double NT’s throughput, and Red Hat, the leader, extends its lead to almost 250 percent of NT’s performance

SIDEBAR: Linus is the Web Server’s Choice

WebBench measures the performance of Web servers in responses per second. Since any server worth its salt serves the Web as well as local clients these days, we looked at how the Linux platforms, armed with slightly different versions of Apache, would do against NT with Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0.

The answer: Linux with Apache beats NT 4.0 with IIS, hands down. SuSE, the least effective Linux, is 16 percent faster than IIS, and Caldera, the leader, is 50 percent faster.

Those results also point out the vast differences that compilation can have in performance. The source code may be the same, but the quality of the binary code, the executable, varies significantly, depending on how well the source code was compiled.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Eric Carr
First published in Sm@rt Partner

Practical Technology

for practical people.