The Answer Guy Issue 31
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
Contents:
Greetings From Jim Dennis
Remote Backups (Yet Again)
--or--
- Remote Backups: GNU 'tar' through 'rsh'
- Assigning UID/GID
--or--
- UID/GID Synchronization and Management
- Assigning UID/GID
- How to check your modems connect speed?
- win95 slowdown
--or--
- Win '95 Hesitates After Box Has Run Linux?
- win95 slowdown
- Bad Cluster
- XFree86 on Trident Providia 9685
- redhat linux 5.0 and reveal sc400 rev a sound card
--or--
- Reveal SC400 Sound Card: OSS/Linux and OSS/Free Supported?
- Kernel Overview needed....
- Printing Solaris -> Linux --or--
- Remote lpd Solaris to Linux
- Lilo not working on SCSI when IDE drives installed
- Yggdrasil: A Breath of Life for the Root of the Linux Distributions?
...and what about OpenLinux Base?
- 115K Baud from a Modem: In your dreams!
- Linux NDS --or--
- Linux as a Netware Directory Srvices Printer Client?
- What is an RPM?
- Stupid question --or--
- AnswerGUY? Who is Heather?
- 'sendmail' requires DNS ... won't use /etc/hosts
- Question on Memory Leak --or--
- Memory Leaks and the OS that Allows Them
- X Window with two monitors...
- DAO software for linux?
By now you've probably heard it a dozen times:
Oracle
Announces Intent to Support Linux
Informix
Releases Linux version of their SQL Engine
... so, what does that mean.
Well, the good part is that Linux will get more respect from many IT
departments. It will be easier for sysadmins to recommend Linux,
FreeBSD, and similar solutions. There also will be a flurry of other
software companies that will also jump in and port their software to
this new, upstart Unix implementation. The Informix announcement
was re-iterated at just about the same time and Inprise (formerly
Borland) had already made Interbase available awhile back). I expect
that Lotus Notes and Domino aren't too far behind, and I wouldn't be
surprised to hear that SAP (publishers of the R/3 ERP system) were
quietly talking to S.u.S.E.
(I seem to have heard that Adabas is one
of the supported db engines for SAP R/3, and that has been available
for Linux for some time).
There's also an interesting teaser at the Caldera website
(http://www.caldera.com/openlinux/index.html)
regarding an impending
"Netware for Linux" --- which should be an interesting server
platform (Netware's implementation of ACL's, access control lists --
always seemed better then the others I've seen. So, if you really
need them on a fileserver, this might be the way to go).
We've also heard that the server software isn't the only niche that's
discovering Linux. Regulars of Slashdot
()
and the Linux Weekly News (http://www.lwn.net), and any of the major
Linux newsgroups and mailing lists are also probably aware that
Corel
has announced projects to port their whole office suite to Linux
(they've had versions of WordPerfect available for awhile, and one of
their affiliates,
Corel Computing
--- a hardware concern --- is using
a StrongARM port of Linux which they helped develop as the core of
their NC --- network computer). Presumably they will also consider
porting their flagship CorelDraw package, which has been been
available for some other Unix platforms for some time).
http://www.corel.com/news/1998/may/linux.htm
Of course it's already joining the fray with Applixware, StarOffice,
Cliq Suite, Wingz, XessLite, and NeXS, among others.
So, the commercial software is coming. Linux will take yet another
step from hobbyist "do-it-yourself" project towards a widespread
platform for the masses.
Is there a downside to all of this? Naturally there are some
risks. While I welcome the availability of Oracle, Informix and
other major players to the Linux world --- I'd like to remind
everyone that there are alternatives. See Christopher B. Browne's
excellent list of these under his website at:
http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/
... Some of the commercial SQL engines for Linux that I've heard good
reports about are Solid, JustLogic, and Infoflex. That's not to
mention the free and shareware packages like PostgreSQL, mSQL, MySQL,
and Beagle.
(There are differences in capacity and scalability --- many of these
are currently limited to table locking rather than being able to
lock individual records).
The big risk we now face is that we'll adopt and promote (or
perpetuate) some application suite or tool with a proprietary set
of file formats or interfaces. If Microsoft were to ship MS
Office for Linux tomorrow --- we'd have the same essential problem
that we have today. When someone sends you a Word .DOC, an Excel
.XLS or a PowerPoint .PPT you're expected (by an alarming percentage
of your correspondents) to be able to handle those files.
Everyone, (freeware and commercial third party vendors alike) is
has been playing "catch-up" to this tune for far too long.
This issue of "open document formats" is far more important than
choice of operating systems. What you run on your machine is
none of my business. What you send to me in our business transactions
is. Applix and StarOffice (and the free 'catdoc' and LAOLA filters)
make a truly valiant effort to deal with some of these proprietary
formats. They do so with some success (Word 2.0 seems fine, Word
6.x might be a bit dicey --- Word '97 documents die a horrible death).
If Microsoft moved quickly they might be able to "take over the
Linux desktop" by providing "MS Office '98 for Linux." Personally
I think that would be a shame. I think it would squelch some of the
interesting work being done on LyX and Cicero, and various other
"word processor" and desktop publishing interfaces for Linux.
So, before you rush out to embrace Oracle, and buy one of their
servers --- take a look at some of the other DBMS packages that
are out there. Give them a real try (feasibility and capacity
test) before you commit.
On another note: I'd like to grant the first "Answer Guy
Support Award" of the month to Sam Trenholme. He practically
owns the comp.linux.misc
newsgroups and answers alot more questions
there than I get to in a month here. Thanks, Sam. We all owe, ya!
(I'll try to give these out about once a month --- to someone,
somewhere, who answers lots of questions in some Linux tech support
venue).
One final tidbit: I guess the press isn't getting all mushy on us.
Either someone at Miller-Freeman's _sysadmin_Magazine_ doesn't
like Linux or they were typing too fast when they wrote:
.... Linux is a 2-bit multi-user, multitasking variant
of the UNIX operating system.
(p 68, August, 1998; vol. 7 no. 8)
Can anyone find an extra 30-bits to send them?
Previous "Answer Guy" Columns
Answer Guy #1, January 1997
Answer Guy #2, February 1997
Answer Guy #3, March 1997
Answer Guy #4, April 1997
Answer Guy #5, May 1997
Answer Guy #6, June 1997
Answer Guy #7, July 1997
Answer Guy #8, August 1997
Answer Guy #9, September 1997
Answer Guy #10, October 1997
Answer Guy #11, December 1997
Answer Guy #12, January 1998
Answer Guy #13, February 1998
Answer Guy #14, March 1998
Answer Guy #15, April 1998
Answer Guy #16, May 1998
Answer Guy #17, June 1998
Answer Guy #18, July 1998
Copyright © 1998, James T. Dennis
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 31 August 1998
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