Customizing SUSE Linux

Customizing SUSE Desktop Version 10 Service Pack 1

I am posting this here, as I find it useful to have reference to the setup now and again, when creating a setup for another person. It assumes a moderate amount of Linux knowledge, including shell use, running commands and directory navigation etc, and it may contain information that is beyond the beginner in Linux. If you wish any clarifying comments to be added, feel free to add a blog comment.

I make no claims about the SUSE Linux distribution apart from the fact that it has a lineage from Novell which I have used for a number of years professionally. I also like Debian, and for portability Slax which I have on a pendrive.

Ok, back to the article at hand. The customizations are designed to get a SUSE Linux distribution up and running with the following additions:

• Adding Microsoft Truetype Fonts
• Adding Additional YAST Installation Sources
• ATI Video Driver Update
• W32 Codecs
• Disabling Zenworks Synchronization
• Installing and Configuring Mplayer
• Installing and Configuring The Squid Proxy Cache
• Generating a Self Signed Certificate for Use with Firefox and Thunderbird

Adding Microsoft TrueType Fonts

Copy the TrueType fonts from your C:\Windows\Fonts directory

(just select the .TTF extension files)

Paste them in:

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype

Start up a root console session, and type the following command:

SuSEconfig -module fonts <enter>

(<enter> means hit the keyboard ‘Enter’ key, it is case sensitive)

If you wish have the fonts immediately available in the current session type:

xset fp rehash <enter>

You will now have access to the truetype fonts you have copied over, and they should be available in Firefox and OpenOffice.

Adding Additional YAST Installation Sources

Start up YAST, and add the following package source:

Type:

HTTP

Server Name:

packman.unixheads.com

Directory:

/suse/10.1

Also, the following can be added:

download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source

download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source

Click through all the Oks to apply your settings.

ATI Video Driver Update

You may have an ATI Graphics card, so to obtain the ATI Linux driver go to:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html

(current at this time, but all links subject to change!)

Once you have downloaed the file, you will need to add execute permissions, as it will need to be run from the command line.

You can run this command from the console:

chmod +x <filename> (where filename is the name of the downloaded binary file)

Or you can use Nautilus to add the executable permission to this file.

Once you have added the executable permission, execute the installer file as follows from a console prompt, in the directory where the file is stored (you may have to ‘cd’ or change directory to get to the files location):

./ati-driver-installer-8.40

(the version number will almost certainly be different, so replace the name with the name of the file you have downloaded, also don’t forget to add the ./ at the start, otherwise it will complain that the file is not there)

The installation process will commence, and should end without error.

So, you have now finished the installation process, and once installed, return to your console prompt, and type:

aticonfig

If the X Server fails to launch, try typing:

aticonfig –initial -f

Using W32 Codecs

It is common for distributions to be given out without any real codec support, therefore it may be difficult to play those DVD movies or other media files. Not much point in having a working Linux distro without any media playing capability, so you may wish to address this situation!

The codecs can be found searching YAST ‘w32′, and the codecs can be only installed via YAST after the packman installation source is added.

Install as per a normal program installation from YAST.

Disabling Zenworks Synchronization

There are some early issues with Zenworks synchronization, and you may find your session either seizing up, or just hanging with the Zenworks Synchronization which happens after a program install from YAST. To get around this behaviour, you may wish to disable it. If you are in a corporate environment, and are using Zenworks, then this will not be the answer for you!

run a console session, and type the following:

rczmd stop

Start YAST

Add a new catalog source:

Type:

ftp

Server Name:

ftp.suse.com

Directory:

/pub/suse/update/10.1

Uncheck the ‘Synchronize with ZENworks‘ checkbox

click finish

Once the system has been successfully updated via YAST over the Internet, remove the zmd packages by typing the following at a console:

rpm -e zmd libzypp-zmd-backend sqlite-zmd rug zen-updater

Installing And Configuring Mplayer

Well, Mplayer is my current favourite in terms of media applications, so again, install via YAST.

You will almost certainly wish to view some of your DVDs, so to get DVDs To Play, go to the following website:

http://www.pctech101.com/dvd_playback.php

(current as of blog posting)

Download the following files:

libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.network.i386.rpm

libdvbpsi4-0.1.5-1.pm.1.i586.rpm

libxine1-1.1.0cvs-051002.i686.rpm

xine-mozilla-plugin-0.2-051004.i586.rpm

libmp4v2-1.4.1-3.i586.rpm

w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm

xvid-1.1.0-0.pm.4.i686.rpm

install all the packages with the following console command

rpm -Uvh <package name>

(where <package name> is the name of each package above)

(Some of the packages may not install, as they might already be installed, check for any errors on installation, and address these before continuing)

The packages will need to be installed as root, or su from the command line.

(to SU, precede any command line with the word ‘su’ (superuser), and when prompted enter the root password)

Installing And Configuring The Squid Proxy Cache

Installing Squid is an optional extra, but where you have a number of PCs, Laptops, PDAs etc at home, you may wish to take advantage of Squids caching abilities. This can result in less information being downloaded from the Internet, but will of course depend on your surfing habits.

Check with YAST or Software Installation, to see if the package is installed. If not, install it. (search for Squid)

Once the package has successfully installed, you may wish to play around with the Squid configuration file. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss that, but here is a sample squid.conf (working)

http_port 3128

hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?

acl QUERY urlpath_regex cgi-bin \?

no_cache deny QUERY

auth_param basic children 5

auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server

auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours

auth_param basic casesensitive off

refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080

refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440

refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320

acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0

acl manager proto cache_object

acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255

acl localnet src 192.168.x.0/255.255.255.0

acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8

acl to_localnet dst 192.168.x.0/255.255.255.0

acl SSL_ports port 443 563

acl CONNECT method CONNECT

http_access allow manager localhost localnet

http_access deny manager

http_access deny !Safe_ports

http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports

acl our_networks src 192.168.x.0/255.255.255.0

http_access allow our_networks

http_access allow localhost

http_access deny all

http_reply_access allow all

Note: You will need to alter any lines above which have: 192.168.x.0, as this is a n example subnet only! This should match your home, or business network setup. Most home networks will have something like: 192.168.1.0 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

Also, the Squid.conf file usually contains a truck load of comments and explanatory text. This is useful when first setting it up, but if you wish to strip all those comments out, then use the following command:

cat /etc/squid/squid.conf | sed '/ *#/d; /^ *$/d' > newsquid.conf

This will take out all the comments, and leave you with a core squid.conf file. Of course you will need to overwrite the existing squid.conf with the newsquid.conf you have just created. I would suggest you copy the existing squid.conf file to a safe location, just in case you wish to have a look at the explanatory text in the future.

The configuration file can be found in the following directory:

/etc/squid/squid.conf

Use gedit or your favourite editor to edit the file, make sure that under the http_access section the following items are present:

acl our_networks src 192.168.x.0/255.255.255.0

http_access allow our_networks

http_access allow localhost

This can vary depending on your network subnet mask and setup, so check it out beforehand!

The default port that Squid runs on is 3128, however you may wish to run it on an alternate port. Just change the port number in your setting above, and make sure it does not clash with any existing port setup. You will also have to clear a hole in your firewall, if you have one setup, so that port 3128 traffic can come through to your host!

Once you have installed Squid, and modified your configuration to suit your purposes, you will need to initialize Squid.

To setup Squid for the first time, run a terminal session and type:

squid -z

This will setup the directories for squid to use.

Ok, if you are still running so far, with no errors, then you will want to try it out.

To run Squid:

/etc/init.d/squid start (other options are: |restart|stop|reload)

To check that Squid is running type the following in a console:

ps -aux |grep squid

This should show a Squid process running.

You will now want to use this on your PC, or even a number of PCs if you have a home network.

Open up your favourite browser, Firefox for example, and go to the following menus:

Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Network/Settings

Enter as the proxy: 192.168.x.x port 3128 where x.x is the current IP address for the server that is running Squid, for example: 192.168.1.1

If you are planning to run Squid long term, it is best to set the IP address for the server/PC network card manually, to avoid getting a different address each time. Most routers allow for IP address allocation based upon the mac address, or you can set it permanently yourself through YAST.

Once this information is entered, try browsing to a web page. If all is correct, you should see it come up. If not, check all the settings above.

You can view the Squid logfile, by running a terminal session, and changing directory to:

cd /var/log/squid

Then, to view the log contents on a continuous basis, type the following:

tail -f access.log

Note: This will show you a continuously updating Squid log, which may scroll quite quickly.

That’s about it for Squid, you can also enter the proxy settings on your other PCs if you have them, so they can take advantage of Squids caching abilities.

Generating a Self-Signed Certificate for Use With Firefox And Thunderbird

You may wish to have your emails signed by a self signed security certificate. There are many reasons to want to do this, and also some for not doing so! I wont go into that right now, but will explain how you can do so.

You will need to install ‘openssl’ via YAST, so do this if you haven’t already done so.

Once installed, enter the following in a root console:

openssl genrsa -des3 1024 > name.cert

openssl req -new -key ./name.cert -x509 -days 365 -out name.pem

openssl pkcs12 -export -out sscates.p12 -name “Your Name Personal Certificate” -inkey name.cert -in name.pem

Note: You will want to change ‘name’ above to your own name, jsmith for example, and also change the “Your Name Personal Certificate” to “John Smith Personal Certificate”, but obviously use your own name here!

This will create a name.p12 file, which can then be installed in Firefox. To install, run up Firefox, and go to the following menu:

Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Encryption

Press the ‘View Certificates‘ button.

Press the ‘Import‘ button

It can also be imported into Thunderbird in the same fashion.

Well, that is a fair amount of information for a blog entry, but if you have any constructive comments, or additions, then they are welcome.

The Nature Of Reality

One of my favourites in the Philosophy world is Schopenhauer.  He wrote some interesting, though some say pessimistic works which I believe have stood the test of time.   Schopenhauer thought we could know the nature of reality, the will, because we are part of it.

here is a little piece I wrote for a competition run by the rather excellent Philosophy magazine ‘Philosophy Now’   A relatively new magazine, which has some fascinating articles, and to my surprise was not dry or unimaginative at all.  The competition asked for articles on the nature of reality, so suitably challenged I sent off a little piece.   My interest in Philosophy has endured for quite a while now, but unfortunately there is not a lot of money to be made from it!

A nice introduction to Schopenhauers writing can be found in this Penguin Classic:

What Is The Nature Of Reality?

How does reality appear to us? What are the circumstances that could cause ones reality to be different from another? Our perception of reality is a generation of sensations caused by our minds, and the sense that they make of the inputs to the brain, be they aural, visual, by physical stimulus, taste or smell. These sensations, particularly the visual one will give us a sense of our surroundings, and their dimensions. It would be very easy to distort this perception, and this can easily be done through the ingestion of mind altering drugs, or through the loss of one of the senses. Visually impaired people, who have never seen, can have their own sense of reality, which may be vastly different to a sighted person. They may have an internal visualization of a bodily form for example, which if drawn or created could be completely altered from what is perceived to be normal.

Questions have been raised which hypothesize that one persons sense of reality may be different to the next persons. However, as we are made of essentially the same genetic structure and receive essentially the same inputs, this seems unlikely.

How different would an insect or animals perception of reality be compared to ours? A fly for example, will have a distorted (to us) pictorial representation of its visual stimuli, but this is caused by evolution and the necessity for the fly to be aware of more of its surroundings, and potential threats.

The other sense of reality is the sense caused by the aggregation of all that makes up our world. Could we be in a ‘Matrix’ type world, where our stimuli are provided to us by an outside agency? How would we know this? In a dream state, situations which seem absurd when awake often occur. These dream states provide our minds with an outlet which cannot be accessed when our conscious mind is in control. Therefore, we seem to have a duality of existence, one conscious and the other subconscious. The subconscious state can seem as real as the waking state to a person who is dreaming or having a nightmare for example. How often is it that you wake, and then go over your dream to realize that some of the things you were doing are impossible. Or are they?

Alternate realities can now be induced by wearing computerized headsets, which can place a person inside a virtual reality setting. As graphics become more sophisticated, can this visualization be separated from actual reality?

Here is a link to the magazine, a nice read and some top quality information for the budding Philosopher!  I think most of the content is hidden behind a subscription barrier now, but have a look if you feel inclined.

Philosophy Now

Charles Bukowski – Love Him Or Hate Him

I am a long time fan of Buk, and when I want to see someone who has had it harder than I, I turn to his poetry or prose. Buk was quite prolific, and was at his typewriter more often than not. If you have read anything about Bukowski, you would understand that his childhood was less than perfect, and his father features quite often in his writing. I imagine that taking a beating from his father more often than not caused a lot of Buks problems, but nonetheless he was a compex character.

His writing is very evocative, and you get a sense of there being more than one personality in Buk. His sensitive, soulful side is a joy to behold, and when he turns it on there is nothing to compare in modern day prose. To his credit, he tapped away even when the muse escaped him, which was quite often. You will find quite a few tired clauses scattered through his work, but that does not detract from the rest of his brilliance:

Wind The Clock

It’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
it doesn’t matter what you do
everything just stays the same.
the cats sleep it off, the dogs don’t bark,
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
there’s nothing even dying,
it’s just more waiting through a slow day moving
into a slow night.
you don’t even hear the water running,
the walls just stand there
and the doors don’t open.
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
the rain has stopped,
you can’t hear a siren anywhere,
your wristwatch has a dead battery,
the cigarette lighter is out of fluid,
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night,
it’s just more waiting through a slow day moving
into a slow night
like tomorrow’s never going to come
and when it does
it’ll be the same damn thing.

Buk is very clever in some of his constructions, and manages to very easily evoke that 3am feeling, which most of you with insomnia will recognize very well.

This particular poem was featured in the film ‘Factotum‘ with Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor, and the poem featured as a song in the film called ‘Slow Day’

Many of Buks poetry books seem to repeat, but that is generally thematic. His personality weaves back and forth from sensitive to bar brawling lunatic, and his propensity for getting himself into the worst kind of situations seemed to feed off into his writing very well.

Here are my picks for his best work:

‘What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire‘ 1999 (Later on in his writing career, but very smart and switched on)

‘Love Is A Dog From Hell‘ 1977 (All class)

‘The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems‘ 1988 (Some poems are rough, but overall a shining diamond!)

Buk is a very amiable companion late at night, and I have found his work to be of great comfort on some occasions. However he lived, and whatever he did to get by, I have no complaints. I salute his ability to carry on, under what must have been some very trying conditions. Reading about some of his days without food are particularly heartbreaking, but he did it his way, and took no prisoners.

Here’s to you Buk!

Creating A Certificate Server For Use With OWA (Exchange Server)

I have installed Outlook Web Access (henceforth known as OWA) for many different organisations. The concept is reasonably simple, and can make a large difference for a company, particularly with a mobile workforce. Staff who wish to work from home, or who are ill on a given day, are generally very grateful to be able to reach their corporate email from home, or even on holidays (not always appreciated as much

Some pre-requisites for installation:

A working Microsoft 2003 or later server,

Internet Information Services (IIS), if not already installed, do so through Start Menu, Add or Remove Programs, then Add/Remove Windows Components:

Select the check box for IIS, then click ‘Next’ to install. Reboot if requested.

Other prerequisites are a working server, with Internet access and correctly configured DNS, with the full dns name of the server registered within DNS, and propagated to the Internet. You must be able to ping the host from the Internet, or if pings are filtered, to be able to contact the server through any configured ports. Usually, this will be port 443 for HTTPS so you can access the secure email port for exchange.

You will need a permanent IP address for this to work, or have a working setup to map changes to IP to a host name through DYNDNS or similar organization.

Finally, you will need to be able to pass on any ports through your firewall/router infrastructure. In the case of a Cisco setup or an ADSL router, a port forwarding rule will need to be put in place to forward port 443 from the router to your internal server.

Certificate Services Installation

The next step is to install Certificate Services, in which case go through the same process as before, but this time select ‘Certificate Services’

You will get a pop up as follows:

Click ‘Yes’, then ‘Next’ (This basically warns you against changing either the machine name or the domain membership after installing Certificate Services.

You will now be asked what type of Certificate Services server you wish to install, and in our case it will be:

Enterprise Root CA

Click ‘Next’ to continue.

You will now be asked to enter the Common Name for the CA, in which case you will enter the full dns name of the machine you are installing to, for example:

mail.domain.com where <domain> is the name of your own domain.

Do not enter any data into any other fields, but click ‘Next’

You will now be asked to enter paths for logs and associated database paths. I would recommend that you leave these as defaults.

Click ‘Next’

Certificate Services should now go ahead and install with the information you have entered.

Creating A Certificate Request

After the Certificate Server component has installed, you will need to create a Certificate Request. This is so you can forward it to your chosen agency for Certificate signing.

Click on ‘Start’, ‘Administrative Tools’, ‘Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager’, then expand the ‘Websites’ item and right click on ‘Default Website’, then choose ‘Properties’.

Click on the ‘Directory Security’ tab and on ‘Secure Communications’ click on ‘Server Certificate’

We are creating a new certificate, so leave the default selection which is ‘Create a new certificate’, and as we are going to be our own CA, click on ‘Prepare the request now, but send it later’ then click on ‘Next’

Type in a name for the Certificate, use something memorable and that will relate to what you are doing, such as OWA SSL Certificate. Leave the Bit Length as is, and click ‘Next’

You will now need to enter your ‘Organization Name’ and the ‘Organizational Unit’. These should correspond with any current Active Directory setup you have for the sake of keeping things structured, however you can name them as you wish.

Your Organization Name should be whatever your business name is, and the Organizational Unit should be something like your own structural division.

For example: My Corporation, Information Technology.

Click ‘Next’ again.

The next screen is critical to your setup working correctly, so be careful when entering the data!

The ‘Common name’ should be the WORKING DNS name that you have already established through DNS. This will be something like:

mail.domain.com (where <domain> is the name of your company)

For example, if your company is accessed by www.domain.com, use <domain> as your name.

Note: If your DNS is handled by your ISP, which is very common for small organisations, you will need them to set this up for you. Put in a request, explaining what you are doing, and adding all the relevant data you wish to be included, such as the internet name. You will still need to forward any data through your firewall or router to the internal email host. Your ISP will then create an ‘A’ record in DNS which will point to your public IP address. (a public ip address, is the address you receive from your ISP when you connect to them. If you receive a permanent IP address, all this will work fine. If not, you will need to use another organisation such as DYNDNS to permanently map the changes to your IP to a permanent name. I will cover this in a different article.)

You will now need to enter the Country/Region, State/province and City/Locality information. This is as per your own specific geographical region data. Such as:

AU (Australia), Western Australia, Perth

Or whatever is the case for your server.

Click ‘Next’

You will now be asked to save the request into a file. Choose wherever you wish, as long as you remember where you stored it!

Click ‘Next’ again

You will now be able to view all the information as you have entered it, so go through it carefully and click on the ‘Back’ button to correct any mistakes.

If you are satisfied, click ‘Finish’

Ok, we now have a (hopefully) working Certificate Server, and a request pending.

On your Server, open up Internet Explorer, and type in:

http://servername/certsrv

Where <servername> is the name of your server you are working on.

If all is working ok, you should see a screen with a line which says:

Microsoft Certificate Services – <servername>

Click on ‘Request a certificate’

Click ‘Advanced Certificate Request’

Then, select:

‘Submit a certificate request by using a base-64-encoded CMC or PKCS #10 file, or submit a renewal request by using a base-64-encoded PKCS #7 file’

(the second one! I know it is long winded, but it will be fine)

Ok, now you need to open the certificate request you created earlier, so open the text file with the certificate request in ‘Notepad’ or any text editor and copy all the content (CTRL-A will do this for you, after clicking anywhere in the text file. Do not drag to select, as you may miss something)

Paste the clipboard contents into the box provided (Base-64), you should see a long line of alpha characters, with BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST near the top.

Click on ‘Submit’

Then select ‘Base 64 encoded’ and then ‘Download Certificate’

Click ‘Save’

and save the ‘certnew.cer‘ onto your C: drive at the root level (easier to find)

Close off the Internet Explorer window if all has gone ok.

Attaching the Certificate to your Default Website.

Right, we have obtained a working certificate, and we need to attach this to our website.

Click on Start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

Expand the Websites item, and right click on ‘Default Website’, then choose ‘Properties’

Select the ‘Directory Security’ tab item and under ‘Secure Communications’ click on ‘Server Certificate’ then click ‘Next’

You will need to select ‘Process the pending request and install the certificate’, and then click ‘Next’

Choose the path and filename of the file you saved just recently, for example: c:\certnew.txt then click ‘Next’

If you are choosing the default SSL port, you will enter ’443′ in the next box, and click ‘Next’

Again, you will be shown a summary of your actions, so check it all out and be sure it is correct!

If so, click ‘Next’ again and you will be shown a ‘successfully completed’ message.

Click ‘Finish’

To enable this you need to click on the ‘Edit button under ‘Secure Communications’ on the Default Website, and check the box next to ‘Require secure channel (SSL) and require 128 bit encryption, as follows:

Then click ‘OK”

Testing Your SSL Configuration

Now, the final touch. Testing your configuration! Open up Internet Explorer again, and type in the following:

https://servername/exchange

You should then receive a pop up message as follows:

The warning message is fine, and it is because you are accessing the server using its domain name instead of the full DNS domain name.

So click ‘Yes’

If all goes well, you should be in receipt of another box which is asking you to enter your login name and password to access the OWA server!

Use your Administrator login for these purposes, to test that it works.

Congratulations, you are now in possession of a working SSL enabled OWA server to present to management and your users!

Linux Instead of Windows XP For Corporate Users?

As an IT Manager, I am often asked by staff and especially by senior management, what will happen with Microsoft and the move to Vista should we be looking at Linux instead? Well, as a long standing user and installer of XP Professional based systems, I have become a big fan of the stability and functionality of the system, but have always had a close eye on Linux and how it is improving for use as a desktop system replacement.

Tux Penguin

The recent introduction of Vista has been a god send for most Linux users, as it has been shown to be bloated in functionality, and not suitable for most of the PC systems that are in place in an ordinary corporate environment. The requirement for Aero is quite extensive, and most of the businesses I have worked for in recent times have not had enough decent PC stock to consider using Vista. I know you can turn it all off, but what is the point in spending all that money to turn features off? I would consider it a big challenge to produce a supporting recommendation to install Vista in a workplace, and with the problems it has introduced, it has made it a lot easier to consider such alternatives as Linux.

The other aspects to Vista that have caused issues are the redesigned network stack and also User Access Control (UAC) . UAC can be tamed with various tools, to become almost invisible, but for an Administrator, it is one more issue to have to contend with. The networking stack is another bone of contention, and getting it to play nicely with XP in a common network environment is also something to deal with.

I am always amazed when Microsoft churns out another piece of OS software, at how little is done to make things easier for the people that manage their software on a daily basis, yes the poor Techs and Administrators. Managing a roll out, or an SOE is always a challenge, but Microsoft just keep throwing a spanner in the works!

I have been considering a locked down version of SUSE, as I have also been an administrator for a lot of Novell based server Operating Systems in the past, and kept an eye on their product range. I think that cnet made a valid point in an article on the same subject, by stressing the cost effectiveness comparison of installing Linux against installing Vista.

I for one am particularly impressed with SUSE, and have had a very positive experience with installing it, both singly, or in multi boot mode with Vista or XP. The use of other technologies such as Wine or Crossover have made it a lot more interesting when considering that final migration step. Senior Managers are always focused on the bottom line dollar, and will always show interest when you mention the financial benefits.

Consideration points when thinking of taking the step include:

User Training

How will the users cope with the switch, what will the training cost? Can it be done in house?

How will your application base cope?

A stringent testing plan will need to be put in place for all those bespoke applications that have been created to run on XP etc.

Which applications can be used natively?

Which of your application set can be run natively on Linux, can you use Linux based applications instead? Applications such as Firefox, OpenOffice, Samba etc can cover most of your major requirements, depending of course on your business model.

Once you examine all the issues, and you have determined that you have a suitable budget and the time to do it, the process of migrating becomes manageable. I am seriously considering it within the next two year timeframe, and have already raised a proposal to roll it out on some Mini-ITX type boards for our Library users who need Internet access. The plan is to retain the Steadystate PCs and add in a few Linux PCs for each Library. They will be imaged from a server using PXE Boot type processes. I have already been in contact with someone in the US who has managed such a process for his Libraries, and I think it will be an interesting experiment. I will cover the use of Steadystate to lock up XP type PCs in a future article.

Steely Dan – A Review Of Donald Fagens Work

I must confess to being a life long fan of Steely Dan, probably from around 1974 or so, but mostly starting around 1978-80 during what I believe to be there most productive period, the making of ‘Aja‘ and subsequently ‘Gaucho‘.

Donald Fagen - Perth 2007

The sheer talent displayed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in the production of these two masterpieces, has to be heard to be truly appreciated. I was fortunate enough recently, to have been able to see the duo in action during their visit to Australia. I put myself at odds with the security people during the concert, as I felt an urgent need to take some snaps with my Canon EOS 400D, which is more commonly known in the US as the ‘Rebel’. Here for example is Don Fagen doing his best Ray Charles impersonation at the piano.

Don has always impressed me with his intellect, and his personality. He seems almost to be reticent sometimes, but due to the nature of his work, he seems to take on a different persona. Regardless, a very impressive man with an obvious love for his work. I scored a copy of his DVD entitled ‘Donald Fagen – Concepts For Jazz/Rock Piano‘ through Amazon, and if there was any doubt about his musical talent, and his ability to impart technical knowledge, then this DVD dispels that.

Within the DVD, he takes apart some of his musical compositions from his career such as ‘Chain Lightning’, ‘Josie’, ‘Peg’, in addition to some of his solo projects from ‘Kamakiriad‘ and ‘The Nightfly‘. Don has a seemingly generous nature, and the more complex parts of his personality come out when he works with Walter Becker on their Steely Dan projects.

My favourite solo work from Don was the 1982 Nightfly album, which came with some interesting tracks including an unexpected rework of ‘Ruby Baby’. All of the Donald Fagen tracks are interesting in their difference from his work with Walter Becker. The question has often been asked, who had the most influence in creating their sound? Well, I believe the partnership was equal, but on listening to both Walts solo projects and Dons, I believe that the musical sound was driven by Don and his wonderful keyboard work.

Dons 1993 follow up, if you can call an album that appears 11 years later a follow up, was also a unique sound. According to Don his latest solo work, ‘Morph The Cat‘ was the final work in a trilogy involving the first two. His reasoning was that the music had a logical theme, from a young man, middle aged man, to his current state.

Whatever the reasoning, I am glad to have had the pleasure of enjoying his solo output, as I am sure you will!

Sharing Knowledge

I have reached an age where I feel I have enough knowledge to share with others, knowledge that is meaningful and has merit.  I have always been reluctant before this time, which is probably related to the age I was, and how I felt about my place in the world.

My main area of expertise is Information Technology, a field I have been employed in for over twenty years now.   It is definitely a field which has not stood still, even for a few minutes and the constant change is probably what keeps it fresh .  I cannot imagine being in a field in which I learned everything in a couple of years, and then relied on that knowledge for the rest of my career.

I will be focusing my efforts over the next year or so on a book I am writing which details all my experience in IT, and passes on the knowledge that I have gained in the many different places I have worked, both in Australia and Overseas as a contractor.

The work has been going on now for a month or so, and I have reached the 10,000 word mark, which is a nice landmark.  I have already created all the chapter headings, and will release some of it here as I get it polished and ready.

IT is not my only interest, although it is where I earn my keep!   I have a lifelong interest in Astronomy, Photography, Philosophy, Music especially: Steely Dan, Jamiroquai, Tool, and any other bands who fall into the same genre.   I have won prizes for both my photography and for my writing, although I do not do any of these things for that purpose.   However, it is nice to know that whatever you output is appreciated in some way.

I also enjoy reading a great deal, and will be creating some reviews for the books and music that I enjoy.

Thank you.