Linux Community Magazine

The average computer user just doesn't know enough about computers to compare operating systems to determine which will run most efficiently and provide the most security, so our only gauge for what works is simply what everyone else is using. We live in a world where Windows and Macintosh rule, therefore we don't even give Linux a second though. But we should! Linux is free, reliable and it runs extraordinarily well on old computers with little processing power. It just makes sense to use it, particularly if you work for a non-profit which relies on older, donated computers to operate.

Why You Might Want to Consider Using Linux

Linux is an operating system just like Microsoft Windows and MacOS on the Macintosh. Computer experts know it well and most of the Internet's infra-structure is managed by Linux computers. But most desktop computer users have never heard of it. There are a lot of benefits to using Linux:

* It is free. Windows costs money. So do MacOS upgrades. * It is easy to install.It is every bit as easy to install Linux as it is to install other software. Some Linux installers even allow you to run Linux off a CD, so that you can try it out on your computer without affecting anything else on the machine. * It is incredibly secure. Because Linux is open source, even if there were a widespread virus released today, there would be hundreds of patches released tomorrow, either by ordinary people that use the operating system or by the distribution maintainers. With Windows, you have to wait for a patch from a single company all while having to pay extra for virus protection software. * It is extraordinarily reliable. While Windows computers might go a day or even a week before needing to restart, people often have Linux systems running for years without fear of the system crashing. * It is very efficient. Unlike Windows and Macintosh, Linux does not require big disk drive s, huge amounts of RAM, and a super fast processor. What this means is it can run incredibly well even on old, underpowered computers. So, while you may not be able to run the latest version of Windows on those donated computers, Linux will run easily and quickly. In fact, Linux is so efficient that it can pretend to be a Windows server more efficiently than Windows can be a Windows server.

What's Stopping You?

With all of these benefits, it just makes sense to use Linux! Some national governments and lots of universities have standardized on Linux for years, but the general public is a little more hesitant. So, what's stopping people? Here are some of the most common reasons (none of which really hold up):

It is complicated and uses all sorts of weird cryptic commands -- This is true if you install it without a graphical user interface (GUI), but that's completely your choice. Most desktop users would prefer to install Linux with a GUI since it makes it more user-friendly. In fact, you can customize the GUI to look much like Windows and Macintosh computers, so five minutes of orientation is all you will need to be fully productive.

Everyone else uses Windows -- Probably the biggest concern people have is that if they use Linux, they will have trouble sending and receiving emails and files to computers that use Windows because they are different operating systems, but that's simply not the case.

Because Email protocols are standardized, email from any computer (Windows, Macintosh, or Linux) works with email on any other. Files are no problem either, since Linux supports all the standard file formats.

Also, consider the fact that Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 are all different operating systems, all in common use, and far from compatible with each other.

There is no support -- This has never been true. The open source community supports Linux very well and if you need to talk to someone on the phone, you can buy support packages from lots of different companies. The most well-known of these is Red Hat.

Word and Excel don't run on Linux -- This is true, but OpenOffice does. OpenOffice is free and it does everything Microsoft Office does and more. At Sumac Research, although we use Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers, we use OpenOffice on all of them. It doesn't matter which computer you use, the documents work the same on each. OpenOffice can also open, edit and save Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents.

One of the biggest complaints about Linux is that full screen Flash in a browser tends to have a choppy flickering effect that does not look very good. For some who want to experience things like Hulu full screen on their laptops or desktops do not like the fact that Linux and the Flash player are not working together very well.

There are actually a few reasons that this problem exists. The main reason is that the Flash plugin is a closed piece of software made by Adobe. What this means is that people developing software for Linux have to guess at what the Flash player wants since they can't see all the code. Typically with Linux software the code is open source. This means it is easier to make sure all the code works together since the code can be seen. Unless Adobe chooses to share, this will always be an issue.

There are a few alternatives that do exist. The first is to use the open source version of Flash. The problem with this is that it is not quite as developed yet. One day it will be if improved upon but it is not ready yet.

Another option is to download the flv and swf files and play them full screen with your media player. This will not work with streaming sites like Hulu but will for other types of flash files. In this mode there is no full screen flickering issues.

The last option is to wait for HTML5 standards which are going to gradually phase out Flash. This might not happen for a few years but it will eventually happen. Many are concerned that the browser is too dependent on this one plugin so its use is eventually going to be phased out over time. In HTML5 compatible browsers things like Youtube can be run without using the Flash plugin at all.

The recent trends in the IT industry indicate that the need of trained knowledge professionals is going to increase multifold in the coming years, in the booming IT & Ites sectors. The demand not only covers the overseas outsourcing market, but the local market as well, with the Indian Government's thrust on e-governance. One of the most sought after career in today's time is in the IT sector. There are a number of people who are very eager to join this industry because of its growth and demand in different countries across the globe and definitely because of the financial benefits it provides. It is something that is considered to be one of the most lucrative professions in today's times and this sector is one that has opened up numerous job opportunities for people and they are flocking towards the same in large numbers. This demand for this industry has given rise to numerous institutes that have come up to train people for jobs in the IT field. You can choose any insti tute that you deem fit and best for you. However, it is best to choose an institute with Red Hat Linux or Cisco Ccna certification as this has a lot of benefits.

Having trained from an institute with Red Hat and Cisco Ccna computer certification is highly beneficial as most people prefer students passing out from certified institutes to work with them in their workplace. This gives them an edge over others and one must definitely make good use of this. Certified institutes have a number of benefits and these are not available in institutes that aren't certified. Thus, going through different institutes and understanding which one has such a certification before choosing your institute will help you manifold.

Institutes that have Red Hat Linux and Cisco Ccna certification are highly beneficial because these institutes provide complete practical training to their students which they do not receive otherwise at institutes without this certification. This helps manifold as students can use the concepts they learn in actuality and see where they go wrong and rectify these errors in class itself. This training helps them to understand the finer insight of their job and they can face any challenge and hurdle in their workplace efficiently.

Institutes having Red Hat Linux and Cisco Ccna certification offer complete job placements to their students and this gives the students a much required stepping stone in the industry. They offer placements in the best of companies to their students and this is seen as highly lucrative by most.

Is your system virus infected and the virus has deleted your valuable files? Have you accidentally deleted your critical business files from Linux hard drive? If your answer is 'Yes' for any of the above questions, you have encountered a critical data loss situation that may severely affect your business as well as personal operations. In such cases, you need to perform Linux Data Recovery to get your mission-critical data back. Recovering deleted files from other operating systems is quite easy as compared to Linux, as a number of free or paid recovery software are available for them. But how to recover lost data from Linux system?

To recover deleted files from the Linux hard drive, Linux operating system provides two in-built utilities. These tools are actually based on the file system of Linux, which you are using on your hard drive. The Linux Recovery tools are:

Extundelete- It is a tool, which recovers deleted files from Ext4 or Ext3 file system volume of Linux operating system. Both these file systems are popular and widely used in Linux. These tool uses information stored in journal of Ex3 or Ext4 volumes to recover the file, which has been deleted from the volume. The utility recovers both the file names and contents of the file.

Ext3undel- It is a set of scripts for helping you to retrieve deleted files from Ext3 or Ext2 file system volumes. This utility attempts to automate various difficult manual recovery jobs to help retrieve lost files from specified disk. You can recover a particular file by its file name or can recover all the files that are marked as deleted.

E2undel- It is an interaction console utility, which recovers lost or deleted files from the Ext2 file system volume. It enables you to perform Data Recovery Linux for selected files by file name. It is quite simple to use.

Although, the above tools are helpful in recovering deleted files from Linux hard drive, they can neither handle severe disk corruption nor can guarantee recovery in all cases of data loss. In such cases, Linux Data Recovery software come to your rescue, and work in all cases of logical data loss. They are totally safe and easy to use.

Like other computer operating systems, Linux also indicates system problems in the form of error messages. The problems may occur at startup or while working on your system. In some error messages, the actual cause of the problem and possible solution is provided. However, some errors do not contain any suggestions. They just include some codes.

The error messages generally occur due to problems with system data structures, system files, and other resources, which make your system and data inaccessible. This behavior leads to significant data loss from your Linux hard drive and requires Data Recovery Linux to be sorted out.

In a practical scenario, you may come across the below error message while working on your Linux machine:

"Make Says, Error 139"

After the above error, Linux system does not work properly and shuts down. The problem occurs every time when you boot your system or perform a specific set of operations. This error renders your system inaccessible and causes serious data loss. In order to get your business-critical data recovered, identify the cause of this problem and perform Linux Data Recovery by resolving it.

Root of the problem

This error occurs when your compiler dumps the core. You have a damaged, old, or buggy version of the GCC (GNU Compiler Collection). The compiler corruption may occur due to numerous reasons, such as unexpected system shutdown, operating system malfunction, virus infection, file system corruption, and more.

You may also face this situations due to problems with the disk or memory corruption. The disk corruption is resulted when metadata structure of the hard drive become faulty. In such cases, operating system can not locate and access data from the hard drive.

Resolution

Go through any of the below steps to sort out this issue:

* Install latest release of Linux compiler or EGCS (Experimental/Enhanced GNU Compiler System).

* Check wait states, clock rate, and the refresh timing for SIMMS and cache. Use fsck command-line utility to scan the disk and fix errors.

* Use powerful and advanced third-party Linux Recovery software to recover lost, missing, deleted, and inaccessible data from Linux hard drive.

Linux Data Recovery tools employ high-end scanning techniques to methodically scan whole hard drive and extract all data from it. With simple user interface and read-only behavior, they perform easy and safe recovery in all cases of data loss.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software recovers lost data from Linux hard drive, USB drive, and network mapped drive. The software works well with all major distributions of Linux operating system, including Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, and Mandriva. It supports recovery from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes.