Ubuntu Linux Help

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with the owner of LaLa Media (lalamedia.ca). The conversation focused on the issues of developing web sites that are cross platform friendly. Invariably the problem dealing with browser bugs came up. In particular how IE6 appears to be especially buggy and how it tends to have problems with CSS/XHTML div positioning (among other things).

Side note: As I’ve mentioned before, the upkeep of this site is a financial burden (but I think this blog does provide value to the community), as such I often collaborate on web projects to help with the server fees etc., which lead to the discussion at hand.

One particularly vexing issue we discussed was how IE positions DIV elements (via CSS) compared to other browsers such as Firefox, Opera etc. A site structure that looked great in other browsers often presented design challenges when using IE. Of course many of the Firefox fan boys were quick to jump in and say “don’t design for IE”, I think that is somewhat unrealistic, even though I’d love to comply (I’m smiling here). A case in point, if the client uses IE, the finished site has to work properly in IE as well. In terms of browser adoption, many of you might find this resource helpful: Browser Statistics. According to the W3schools.com statistics, in March of 2008, IE comprises 53.1% of web users and non-IE browsers are used by 41.6% of users. Hence the importance of cross browser compatibility.

A specific issue encountered, that motivated me to post Part 1 (the introduction and ground work) was that the designer uses a Windows 2000 platform and unfortunately he cannot install any IE browser greater that IE6 (the buggy one). One pertinent observation was the viewing of the site via browsershots.org. For those not familiar:

“…Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the BrowserShots central server… ” where you can see how your site looks on the large, growing number of browsers available. That is one tool I suggested he use to garner an understanding of how different browsers render (because Windows 2000 could not move beyond IE6).

As he (the designer) also uses Apple, I assumed that perhaps he could make use of Read the full post…

Last March I posted “Does Ubuntu Linux Really Need Antivirus Software?“. The comments provided by readers was very informative and I learned quite a bit from it.

Blogging is great because so many people provide valuable input, and often can correct errors I sometime might make. That’s a bonus. However, back to the subject at hand…

A reader of this blog (Bob Townsend) commented saying:

“As a system administrator, I have plenty of access to laptops to use as I please. The problem is they are all 4 years old. So I took a discarded laptop and installed Ubuntu to see if Linux really is “ready for prime time”. I had zero Linux experience and I just learned as I went along. The thing that has impressed me the most is how much faster things ran on the Linux box compared to an identical machine with Windows XP and I started to wonder why? Is it the OS? Is it the apps? Or is it because I don’t have those processor intensive, resource hungry AV and Antispyware apps running on it?“

It left me thinking, “Yes, I’ve experienced that too… I wonder why it appears to run faster than Windows?”

Hoping to find some answers, I decided to Read the full post…

During the weekend (Saturday), UbuntuLinuxHelp was down for almost 12 hours. Fortunately the hosting provider had data backups and there was no data loss. In any event, I also keep backups, so the added redundancy helps to protect the content. Up to now, the server has been configured to create a daily backup of databases and certain directories; and those (.gz files) are downloaded manually to another location later.

But, what if there were no backups? What if your hosting provider cannot restore data at their end? To be blunt, you’d be back to square one! Developing a whole new site or blog from the beginning! That’s a chilling thought, to lose everything and start again.

For peace of mind and data (intellectual property) , today’s post will highlight some of the steps we’ve taken to fully automate the backup process. Hopefully this will help many of you who may encounter the same issues, or are simply looking for a proactive, automated backup system for your web sites, blogs, ecommerce sites, etc.

We’ll need 5 things to ensure this system works: Read the full post…

Recently several people asked me about trying Linux without actually installing it. Obviously the first thing that came to mind is to try versions via LiveCD. For those not familiar, LiveCD means:

“A CD-ROM that contains a working copy of an operating system or other application that is run without installing it. Used for demonstration and evaluation as well as system recovery, the software runs intact from the CD.” Source: http://dictionary.zdnet.com/definition/LiveCD.html

While I was fast to mention and provide the LiveCD for Ubuntu Linux, I was asked if there are other versions of Linux or Linux based applications that offer down loadable LiveCD’s and what the primary function (of the CD) focused upon. Well, I’m by no means the know-all expert of Linux and its LiveCD distributions, I was however, able to find almost 300 and have done my best to put them in alphabetical order with a brief blurb.

Hopefully this will provide an initial list from which to jump off and explore different versions. It was a lot of work to put this together, but it was worthwhile and fun!
Some of the distributions are in other languages so I translated what I could into English (so please forgive any grammar mistakes). Additionally, I’ve found that several of the CD’s could be placed in more than one category, but to save constant repeats, I’ve tried to keep them in their primary focused category. I also included a couple BSD mentions or so.

If you have (or are aware) of a LiveCD we’ve not included below and you want included, please feel free to comment (below) or contact us.

You might want to book mark this list and revisit it later.
Enjoy… Read the full post…

It’s funny how some people react when I tell them I use Linux. Sometimes they express the sentiment that I must be very computer savvy. Other’s get caught up in all the brand loyalty hype and still some have never heard of Linux! I kid you not! The truth of the matter is that I switched partly because Windows no longer offered me any challenges and reliability became an issue. The most common question I get asked whenever I present a public speaking seminar is “Why did you switch to Linux?”Well… for all those who asked, here’s the long winded answer.

I first started using Windows when Windows 286 and then later Windows 3.11 were all the rage. (I sold the floppies on eBay about 2 years ago to a collector in Italy). At that time I thought it was hot stuff! All my games were DOS based, but that was okay as Windows at that time required DOS. I went through the Windows 95 and 98 stage and became very interested when Windows NT4 was released. At that time I thought it was an incredible product because of the ease with which I could create peer-to-peer and domain based networks. It was then when I tried Red Hat and quit because (in my opinion) the network configuration and OS installation of Red Hat was a nightmare. (I think it was RH5 at that time). Maybe I just had a poor Linux instructor, I don’t know.

I decided to garner my MCSE certifications because I thought there was a strong future in the Windows (and support) industry; I also thought the certifications would be easy to get because of my experience. I was wrong on both counts. The MCSE (and other certifications) took a lot of hard work, dedication and stress to obtain. I’m happy I was successful and proud of the accomplishment. Microsoft sent me a very cool secret decoder ring and certifications. Not really! They did send certifications and a credit card-like ID:

About a year or so after I obtained my certifications, the IT employment market started to collapse. The employment opportunities for newly certified individuals dried up faster than Read the full post…