[Gllug] Linux on Desktop

[Dan Kolb]

On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 12:55:11AM +0000, Paul Rayner wrote:
> 
> On 1 Feb 2007, at 00:09, Dan Kolb wrote:
> >>
> >>1) nmap for checking network problems, seeing what's connected to the
> >>network and what ports are open etc.
> >
> >You should have a way of knowing what devices are on your network.  
> >Managed
> >switches can help - you can tie it down to ensure no unknown  
> >devices are
> >plugged in to your network.
> 
> True, but "nmap -p 22 192.168.1.200" for example is a nice quick way  
> of seeing if ssh is running on that machine.

True. But if you know that a machine is supposed to run ssh, then surely your
monitoring tool should alert you if it's not running :)

> >nmap itself doesn't have to be run off one's desktop machine, of  
> >course.
> 
> But would you want every diagnostic tool you may need to use  
> installed on production machines?

Nope. But having a machine set aside for diagnostic and monitoring purposes
isn't unreasonable.

> >>2) Faster and better scripting allowing you to fix problems faster
> >
> >Most of which is going to be done on the machine that's causing the  
> >problems.
> I prefer to run most scripts (especially potentially "dangerous if  
> wrong" scripts) on non-production machines first.

Of course, doing otherwise is silly (unless the script is really trivial). But
then having a testbed which is a mirror of your production machines can be far
more useful to test scripts on than just your desktop machine.

> >>4) You're more used to it so can perform your normal tasks faster
> >
> >Fair enough. However, it can cause problems if your company runs,  
> >say, Outlook
> >or Lotus Notes. Okay, when I was working, I could run Notes under  
> >Wine, but if
> >I needed to run MS Office, I had to VNC to a Windows 'server' to  
> >run it.
> >Wouldn't call it faster :)
> If your company runs Outlook, no problem - use any one of the free  
> mail packages. If they use MS Exchange, and you're a sysadmin at that  

How many of the free mail packages integrate with the calendaring
functionality?

> >>5) A cronjob to shutdown your PC at X-O'clock each night in case you
> >
> >Which I think can be done under Windows without much trouble.
> I'm sure you're right, but the last time I looked (Win 98) you had to  
> buy 3rd party software.

I don't know - I leave my Windows machine on during the week, and turn it off
on the weekends.

> Clearly, all of the things I mentioned can be done on windows, or in  
> other ways. They could probably also be done on a PDA or a mobile  
> phone, but it wouldn't be the most efficient tool for the job. I  
> think what Juergen needs to do to keep his (Unauthorised) Linux  
> installation is to stress the ways he can be more productive using  
> Linux. If it's mostly an MS company, using lots of proprietary  
> software then this may not be possible.

Agreed with that. An employee should be given the appropriate tools to be able
to do their job to the best of their ability. However, it'd have been best to
ask before installing, rather than just doing with it.

> P.S I'm not a sysadmin, and probably couldn't justify switching my  
> mac for linux at work as it does almost everything I need (ssh, vi,  
> eclipse, gcc, java)

That's quite a different issue :-) MacOS X is already unixish, so switching to
Linux won't necessarily give you any immediate benefit.

Dan
-- 
The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue, a custom
whereof the memory of man runneth not howsomever to the contrary, nohow.
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