Linux Community Magazine

Are you tired with your Windows operating system? Is the OS infected by viruses and there are security issues as well? Well, you are not alone; there are many Windows users who are not satisfied with this system. Microsoft Windows might be the most popular operating system in the market but there are a number of flaws. On the other hand, Linux, a less popular operating system, is much better in terms offering hassle-free computing experience. To get Windows OS you need to pay a hefty amount while Linux is absolutely free. In this article you will find why Linux is a better choice than Microsoft Windows.

More of the complaints we get regarding Windows PC is about virus infection. You cannot use a Windows machine without antivirus or anti-malware. Even after having these programs installed there is still the risk of getting infected. Sometimes, viruses and malware even get past the best solutions. On the other hand, with Linux, you don't need to worry at all about this. Your PC will hardly get infected with viruses with this system.

Windows PC users also experience mysterious slowdowns. The reason behind this shut down could be diverse. It might be due to viruses, malware, fragmentation, or any other operating system issues. You will never experience these types of abnormal behavior from on a Linux computer. Not only the operating system but also you will hardly face mysterious application crashes with Linux.

Troubleshooting on Linux computer is very easy as you can go through the /var/log to find out what is ailing your PC. If you are not well familiar with the command line, you can install a GUI. This will allow you to scan through the log files and check for the issues and fix it. You can also run a backtrace to get all of the debugging information for the applications that you are facing problem with. Then you can fix the issues on your own or contact an Operating system support provider for Linux support.

Another most important thing is resource. To run a Windows 7 desktop your computer must have minimum 1 GB of RAM. Anything less than that makes your computer appear like it is working on slow motion. With Linux operating system you will never face this type of problem. Linux requires very less amount of hardware resources. This OS make the use of RAM to cache files until the cached files goes above the amount of RAM available on the computer. On the other hand, Windows 7 OS uses memory for cache only for the cases if there is no other demand for said memory.

These are some notable features of Linux operating system which make them stand at much better position than Windows OS in terms of safe and secure computing.

Linux computers are put out like any other technical device to possible abuse. While the abuse is not to be avoided by an attacker with direct access to the hardware, abusive accesses to the software can be avoided as much as possible. Accesses to the hardware are able only by the prevention of a direct access as the encircling are avoided in cupboards and shown EDP rooms with admission restriction and lockable cases.

The correspondence of the physical restriction of the access by a wall (of a case or building) corresponds the firewall (fire prevention wall) on software page. A firewall guards a Linux computer against attacks from the network. Linux computers without network access need no firewall.

Protection for your computer

Linux computers are sure from themselves relatively, because the design principle of computers of the Unix family was and is to connect only the inalienable and to permit.

Vandalism

Vandalism is directed against everything what is accessible to the attacker. The motivation of the attacker is often a play desire, curiosity or malicious pleasure in the farthest sense, unfortunately, also increasingly extortion. Behind resource abuse stand mostly economic interests or an ideology. With the resource abuse one or some features of a computer are used straight

Vandalism is directed against the effectiveness of a Linux computer. This can follow through damaging the software or through impediment of the network access.

For the damage of the software on the Linux computer the attacker must infiltrate either workable code on the Linux computer (Malicous code) or themselves a direct access on the Linux computer get (Hack). The infiltration of code often follows under exploitation of frequent, typical program mistakes of server programmes like the web servers or the ftp servers. An attacker can also get an unjustified access, while he guesses passwords or steals or program mistake in one of the programmes for the remote access like telnetd or sshd uses. Stealing is made easy for him particularly by programmes like telnet or ftp, because here the passwords uncoded over the network are transmitted and simple listening in (Sniffing) on the network betrays everything.

The impediment of the network access can follow through Denial-of-Service-Attacken. Besides, are set down - by himself legitimate - requirements for the Linux computer with so high frequency that no more capacity is available for the real assignments.

Resource abuse

Also a Linux computer can be used for unlawful actions. For the protection from pursuit it is tried to abuse the resources of computers of other owners for the unlawful purposes. This can be releasing of Denial-of-Service-Attacken against third as well as the saving of unlawful contents like pornography or pirated software and films and the mailing of spam mail. Spam mail is the mailing of e-mails of advertising content which are undesirable from the consignee. Spam has turned out as one of the biggest dangers for the effectiveness of the Internet.

Preventive measures

The first, easiest and most sure measure exists in switching off all of the services on a Linux computer which are not needed presently. If they are never needed, uninstalling should be also considered.

If a service is not required in full performance extent, the amount of the performances can be adapted generally about his configuration file. Still another with the clearly low performance extent which is enough for the claims is often available beside the installed service. This is valid in particular for web and ftp server.

Compilers are to be checked for her indispensability. They can be used to the production by Malicous code and should be removed - if not needed from the Linux computer.

Program mistakes in the server services and in the Kernel are supervised by special institutions (CERT = computer Emergency responses team). Their bulletins contain the mistake description and the remedy. The operating authority of a Linux computer directly linked with the Internet must read these bulletins regularly and obey the payments.

If offering of services is inalienable by a Linux computer on the Internet, the services must be protected after a careful installation and administration of the services against abuse with a firewall.

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.