TooMuchGreen

We have now finalised details with NTI Leeds for the desktop Linux integration workshop and are taking bookings. The day is modestly priced at £99 (Full price) or £39 “Funded” for Yorkshire based businesses (Click the banner for booking information)

As previously mentioned, the day is predominantly “hands-on” and is constructed to provide technical integrators with the concept and skills overview required to implement an Ubuntu Linux desktop platform into their existing Microsoft enterprise network.

Content structure is as follows -  Read more... (estimated reading time 49 secs)

Origins

• UNIX
• GNU Foundation
• The Open Source Initiative

Why Linux?

• Stability

Reports estimate up to a quarter of all home computers could be part of a global bot-net.

A what?

A “bot-net”, a network of connected computers used with predominantly malicious intent by a central hacker.

Control is gained through installation of the “bot” via a worm or virus with the resulting PC resource invariably used for carefully orchestrated bulk spam attacks on the hackers internet site of choice (Known as distributed denial of service attacks – DDoS, for short). The effects of these attacks can quite literally cripple an online presence of any size.  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:54 mins)

Although already a superb and proven operating system, Ubuntu hasn’t really pulled in the “visually slick” vote when compared to competitors such as Mac OSX, although until Windows 7 neither did anything Microsoft turned out, however with the release of version 10.04 they’ve applied stylish intelligence into developing the brand with a fresh look and feel they call “Light“.

Eye candy server side isn’t an issue of course, as proven by the Internets base infrastructure administered predominantly from the command line. At the back end of the WWW stability and scalability is king and Linux server is without a doubt the best tool for the job. In house enterprise management is obviously a different animal and for MS Active Directory & Exchange admin a functional GUI is necessary.  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:29 mins)

Check this out, it’s a Windows XP themed Ubuntu distro from China. Microsoft are “apparently” not going to take any legal action against the producers (Ylmf), although I’ll wager that’s said through clenched teeth

So, what’s the lowdown. Well, Ylmf is built on the latest version of Ubuntu (9.10) and includes all the standard goodies + a few extra niceties to compliment the blend. Here’s a brief run through of the install and a few added shots from the end desktop..

Initial splash, already nicely themed..

 Read more... (estimated reading time 2:05 mins)

TooMuchGreen has officially regressed to it’s former blog status, it likes being a blog and we enjoy blogging through it.

The “business” side of things is now fully re-branded as the wonderful MEBBI™ Solutions.

MEBBI™ Solutions provide all the services previously offered by TooMuchGreen plus a few new additions, why not visit our lovely new website and have a look around..

http://mebbi.net

Sector awareness for the benefits of open source adoption is rapidly growing amongst the forward thinking enterprise. An open source solution provides not only a comprehensive replacement but delivers added security and performance boosts to existing systems whilst offering huge reductions in immediate expenditure and long term cost of ownership.  Read more... (estimated reading time 47 secs)

One of the easiest and most popular cost saving routes into Open Source is a simple “Open Office >  MS Office” replacement. Open Office is a free and completely compatible alternative which even across a relatively small enterprise network can contribute substantially to major reductions in T.C.O through negating one area of software licensing expenditure. Compatible as it is, though, reluctancy for change at operational level is a big one, even more so at the user end as they’re the ones who like (?) to complain about the minutiae (of document formatting?).  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:55 mins)

Up and away from the industrial depths of server side technology and groupware the lighter side of the “home-user” Linux desktop continues to offer a changing face of optional identity. Obviously at ground level we have base GNOME, KDE and XFCE window managers but around the big three rotate a whole array of tweaked distros all claiming to offer the definitive desktop interface of today. Some are barely functional, some are too functional, some try too hard and are confusingly neither and some have completely missed the point, but, there are an odd one or two which actually survive the statutory 60 minute evaluation period and for me gOS is one such release.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:10 mins)

“When business, education, and governments are cost conscious, they move toward Linux. Even in times of economic strength, they want control od their operating systems. Ubuntu Linux saves money. The open source nature of Linux allows organisations to control and customise their operating systems.

If desired, commercial support is available from Canonical. Even with that support Linux saves money, and provides a higher degree of control when compared to Microsoft Windows.  Read more... (estimated reading time 47 secs)

It took a couple of weeks (I had to move house) but it looks like I’m at a happy stage with the 1.6GHZ Atom Silverthorne  Dell Mini 12, it’s sociably streaming the BBC iPlayer and running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala sharp, clear and snappy at 1280×800. Initial dabbling had me set with Jaunty 9.04 which although more than workable for server development wasn’t delivering the multi-use laptop  operating system interface I was after. The GMA workaround under Jaunty didn’t accommodate iPlayer too well and was giving jerky and disjointed playback, not what you want whilst chilling out to the ocean calm of Attenborough’s “Life”.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:09 mins)

Due to a change of circumstance I eBayed the Dell Mini 9 last week. Don’t get me wrong, it had been, and was still, superb as a cheap little Ubuntu dev box to SSH into however now I’m “on-site” at the Leeds office certain days of the week it just wasn’t a viable option to work on all day, cool as it was that mini keyboard was just too small for anyone larger than a woodland elf.  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:60 mins)