Ubuntu Linux Help

A Linux Experience - Having a couple of hours to kill one day, Lionel decided to download a copy of Ubuntu’s Live CD. When everything worked from the boot, he was intrigued and decided to try the dual boot option. Needing to run some priority software for his writing, he did some research and found that Virtual-Box could run everything he would need. After 45 days of testing, he found that didn’t need to ever boot in to the Windows partition. Now his computer is an Ubuntu only machine and he is a full time Ubuntu user. Read more here: www.5thwind.com/?p=12

Mark Shuttleworth says: Ubuntu Is Enterprise Friendly - Mark Shuttleworth’s keynote at the Ubuntu Live Conference centered on the fact that the Ubuntu server is capable of bringing the same values of its desktop version to the server market — ease of use, performance and compatibility. With Linux already driving the enterprise market through thin clients and dedicated systems, Ubuntu needs to maintain its ability to preform well as a virtual machine. Canonical will therefore be putting more resources behind Landscape, a web-based systems management client for small to medium businesses. In his conclusion, Shuttleworth called for the Linux community to hold discussions on setting a predictable release schedule for major distributions to ease collaboration among kernel developers and afford better stability and support for software developers working on the platform. Read more here: blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/shuttleworth-ub.html

Ubuntu Landscape - With Landscape, users can manage, monitor and maintain all their Ubuntu machines simply by registering them with the service. Focused on being easy to deploy, Landscape is immediately available with an easy to use Web interface to common administration tasks.
Security and stability are enhanced with visibility of new security fixes and updates as soon as they’re available for Ubuntu. Individual systems, or groups can be updated making it simple and quick to keep them secure. With package management across a range of systems the total cost of managing an Ubuntu deployment of desktops, laptops and servers is reduced. Read more about Ubuntu Landscape here: www.ubuntu.com/news/landscape-system-management-tool

I was sent a web link today that contained a great article about how to speed up web browsing by locally caching DNS name resolution results using dnsmasq. That article is great and it is here: Local DNS Cache for Faster Browsing. I like it because it is equally simple to do and works, but the results (of DNS lookups) are not saved after your PC or laptop “session” is finished.

To clarify, in my opinion, one of the drawbacks (someone correct me if I’m wrong), seems to be that the cache is lost after the laptop or PC is turned off.

To resolve that issue, I prefer to use pdnsd.

As a side note: if you’re looking for a fast, reliable DNS server, I’ve been using OpenDNS for 2 years and the service has been reliable (and arguably provides faster responses than the DNS servers from my ISP). I will be using their DNS server IP’s to configure pdnsd - But you can use any DNS server IP’s you want.

To install pdnsd simply use apt-get by issuing the following command in an Ubuntu Linux terminal window:

sudo apt-get install pdnsd resolvconf

As I mentioned, this will cache the results of DNS lookups to your hard drive and therefore improve your web surfing speed. As a side not, don’t omit the “resolveconf” part (above). If you omit it, then you may run into problems when different applications/programs are trying to access (or change) the configuration file (found at /etc/resolv.conf).

After the install is complete (it should be fast), edit that configuration file by issuing this terminal command:

sudo gedit /etc/pdnsd.conf

One of the significant change I made is:

label = “OpenDNS”;
ip=208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;

To compare, here is what my complete edited pdnsd.conf file contains:

global {
perm_cache=512;
cache_dir=”/var/cache/pdnsd”;
max_ttl=604800;
run_as=”pdnsd”;
paranoid=on;
# next setting allows ppp/ip-up update the name servers — ABa / 20040213
status_ctl=on;
server_port=53;
server_ip=”127.0.0.1″;
}

#Edit these to be your own servers if wished:
server {
label = “OpenDNS”;
ip=208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
proxy_only=on;
timeout=10;
}

# if you installed resolvconf, and status_ctl=on
server {
label=”resolvconf”;
}

source {
ttl=86400;
owner=”localhost.”;
# serve_aliases=on;
file=”/etc/hosts”;

After saving your changes, you’ll need to restart the server by issuing this terminal command:

sudo /etc/init.d/pdnsd restart

Then of course, test that everything is working. I used the command:

digg ubuntu.com

And received resolution in 74ms as below

Then (as I knew this should be cached), I re-issued the above command. In my case name resolution using the cached results was 1ms - Wow!

A great way to help speed up your web surfing.

Not bad for 10 minutes work on a saturday afternoon!

Kung Fu Robots (kungfurobots.com) has posted some beneficial experiences particularly the brief synopsis of Ubuntu, LinuxMint and Sabayon.  One thing that I note is the greater amount of applications available. Prior to using Ubuntu, I was a Fedora Core user, who found that the Debian track (out of which Ubuntu is borne) has a far greater and arguably superior amount of applications. Here is what Kung Fu Robots has to say…

So I have been gaining nerd points as of late. I have been toying with a few differentCD distros of Linux. For those of you on the non-nerd side, Linux is an operating system similar and not similar to Windows. It comes with great software, it has tons of functionality and customization options and it’s free. yep…free.
You can download an .iso file of the different distributions, burn them to CD, then restart your computer with the CD in the drive. It will boot up into Linux without touching your hard drive. You can take it for a test drive then.

So I have Ubuntu installed on my hard drive. I really like it. I will be switching my webserver over to it soon. It’s like the “welcome to linux” version of the OS. It uses the “gnome” GUI.

Next on the list is LinuxMint , which is Ubuntu with some extras that the dev liked added in. You also get the parrot puke green color scheme. Mint is a little different than Ubuntu due to the interface.
You see, with Linux, unlike Windows, you can install many different GUI’s. This means the menu systems, dialogs, etc are different and can be used in different ways and configured and customized to suite your workflow. Mint uses “cassandra” which is not very intuitive to me…. I’m just not used to it. Some people swear by it.

Then there’s  Sabayon, which is the “heres a ton of software and stuff for linux” version. This has to be burned to DVD. Its almost 3gig! It has a ton of applications and goodies included.It also comes with Beryl, or Coral or Compviz or whatever the hell they are calling it today already installed. This lets you do insane things with the GUI. Things like having a window or folder burn up in flames when you close it, or getting “beamed” window (ala Star Trek effect)  when you open it.
With all of these you get multiple desktops. This means you can have a desktop with your email on it, then one with your Office apps, one with your web browser. You can switch between them, or you can have all of them open on one desktop the way Windows does it. Stuff that Windows Vista cant touch. All for free. You can even install all of the GUIs you want and pick which one you want to use when you boot up.

Linux sounds confusing with all the distros available. However, you just need to remember that for the most part, its all the same Linux under the eye-candy. Its just using different GUI’s and apllications. unlike Windows you are not restricted to one type of file manager (explorer). there are multiple apps of almost everything to choose from. Its a tweakers/uber-geeks dream.

You can “build” any of the versions above from any of the versions above…If that makes any sense. The .iso file just gives you a headstart. If you want you can have it look like XP, Vista or even osX.
And you can do all this cool stuff with a low end PC.

I have barley scratched the surface of the good points about this free OS. Ubuntu alone comes with Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office right off the bat.
So here’s my challenge. Download one or all of these and give them a spin.  Burn a few CDs, then pass them on.

If Linux makes a dent in the OS market, that will benefit all of us. Linux and the Linux community reminds me of the old PC days when stuff was free and information was exchanged to benefit everyone. You know…before Big Bill came along and ganked it for everyone.

Just download it

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“Web 2.0″ in just under 5 minutes.
mediatedcultures.net

This is a slightly revised and cleaned up version of the video that was featured on YouTube in February 2007.

The video was created by Michael Wesch, working alone from his house in St. George, Kansas. He used CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations.