Question about using Linux.

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

If I have a Suse Linux workstation set up, how do people recommend I access it from a PC? I'd like to learn more about Linux, and would love either a command-line interface from Windows into my Linux box, or something akin to Remote Desktop into it.

Anyone point me in the right direction as to what I should use and a good walkthrough on installing it? I already have the workstation set up ok, and opened an SSH port in the firewall.

Thanks for any help.

Easiest way is to use PuTTY (free!) to access it via SSH. There are options that'll let you get at X, VNC probably being the easiest to setup on the PC, but there are X servers available for windows (to connect to the X client on the linux box; yeah server & client roles are slightly confusing with X11), but for the life of me I can't remember their names.

If you want to learn how Linux works ...

Read LKML
Read Kernelnewbies, ask questions and learn
Discuss about Linux kernel with kernel developers on IRC
Read the book "Understanding The Linux Kernel"

I'll try these out. Thanks guys.

phreaks wrote:

Not trying to hijack this thread, but it got me wondering...

Since Solaris is now free, why aren't people using it in-place of various linux distros?

Is *nix generally thought of as being *better* than Solaris 10?

No, it's not better, just more popular.  BSD has also been available for a very long time, and is arguably a better *nix (BTW, that term means "Unix variant" not "Linux variant"), but Linux is still more popular.

phreaks wrote:

Not trying to hijack this thread, but it got me wondering...

Since Solaris is now free, why aren't people using it in-place of various linux distros?

Is *nix generally thought of as being *better* than Solaris 10?

Of course Solaris 10 is a *nix...

I've played with OpenSolaris in a virtual machine (enough to verify I could deploy my rails web app, including all it's image manipulation and API libraries), and to be honest for non-full time sysadmins, it's not that compelling.

For those of us who run web/database/*nix based application servers, then dtrace and zones are definitely interesing, but then at my work we're still running on RHEL, because it works and (for us) it works well. (Except my PABX servers, they run Debian)

For personal stuff I still greatly prefer the wonderful package management system in Debian. OpenSolaris is getting better, but has nowhere near the breadth of packages available.

uriel wrote:



wkempf wrote:  phreaks wrote: Not trying to hijack this thread, but it got me wondering... Since Solaris is now free, why aren't people using it in-place of various linux distros? Is *nix generally thought of as being *better* than Solaris 10? No, it's not better, just more popular.  BSD has also been available for a very long time, and is arguably a better *nix (BTW, that term means "Unix variant" not "Linux variant"), but Linux is still more popular.

FreeBSD is really good for servers but I can't see it becoming a mainstream desktop OS unless they get better drivers and a much much better installation system.

Can you explain why *BSD is better? Which one and why?

All *nix variants are "really good for servers but I can't see it becoming a mainstream desktop OS unless they get better drivers and a much much better installation system".  Linux is no different here.  Some Linux distros are doing a better job then other *nix variants, but anyone who really thinks they are ready for the mainstream desktop is deluded.

BSD is only "arguably" better.  In theory, it's more secure and has a better kernel (though in the past couple of years Linux has made great strides in both areas).

I've used OpenSolaris and I'll say this:

Solaris isnt better yet. It's very far behind Linux when it comes to driver support, features useful to desktop users, and software selection. I tried it and found my four year old computer still isn't fully supported and my laptop barely works at all with the very latest OpenSolaris components (only the latest ON release sees my SATA controller and thus the hard drive).

http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/jds/documents/desktop_gaps/;jsessionid=5EB2B238DF45CD251D918A35302D2F4C

Beyond that Solaris is very much like any other Unix with it's own userland. For the things it's able to do well it tends to acomplish them in a simular fashion as Linux but with just different commands.

Thats not to say Solaris sucks but it has a long way to go. The fact the the BSDs and Linuxes are gaining it's main features like ZFS and DTrace will only prove to set it back longer.

As for FreeBSD, it will be a much better position by 6.3 and 7.0. There is almost as much software in ports as Debian repositories, there is a less restrictive license that doesn't ban patent deals, and it has most of the cool features in Linux.

The only area where FreeBSD falls flat is it's 1980's CLI installer, geometry bug in the installer, and lack of comprehensive GUI tools. The latter can be made up for somewhat with 3rd party tools, however. It also lacks some of the security features you'll fin in RedHat distributions (though it does have MAC and NX support as of 7.0).

As for accessing your Linux system remotely from Windows you may use SSH, VNC, or remote X servers. I'd say VNC is the best.

If you want access your Windows desktop from Linux you can use SSH, VNC, RDP, etc.

For running Windows apps in *nix, I recommend Qemu+Kqemu, VMWare, or VirtualBox with SeamlessRDP over localhost and a SMB setup or TAP network interface. Running Wine, Crossover, or Cedega are also options.

For running Linux apps in Windows, I recommend you download the ports for the software, use virtualization, Cygwin and/or Services for Unix.

phreaks wrote:

... Since Solaris is now free, ...

thanks.

uriel wrote:

Perhaps, since driver issues do plague Linux installs, but you should try installing the latest version of Fedora or Ubuntu if you are to believe it is difficult to install, at least try their installers. FreeBSD's installer is quite cryptic and requires some knowledge of UNIX systems, as well is being completely written in console. Big difference.

1.  I never mentioned anything about installers.

2.  I've used most of the top distros within the last few years.

A good installer (which I can argue about with Linux... the initial install off CD is usually quite nice, but package management is a nightmare even with wonderful tools like apt/yum/etc) does not a "mainstream desktop" make.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but it got me wondering...

Since Solaris is now free, why aren't people using it in-place of various linux distros?

Is *nix generally thought of as being *better* than Solaris 10?

Raghavendra_Mudugal wrote:

 thanks.

I'd think about this before making any decision. Be sure to check the Solaris HCL and hardware compatability test tools to make your assesment.

Sun will also want you personal information when registering to download Solaris or Solaris Express.

uriel wrote:



wkempf wrote:  uriel wrote: Perhaps, since driver issues do plague Linux installs, but you should try installing the latest version of Fedora or Ubuntu if you are to believe it is difficult to install, at least try their installers. FreeBSD's installer is quite cryptic and requires some knowledge of UNIX systems, as well is being completely written in console. Big difference. 1.  I never mentioned anything about installers. 2.  I've used most of the top distros within the last few years. A good installer (which I can argue about with Linux... the initial install off CD is usually quite nice, but package management is a nightmare even with wonderful tools like apt/yum/etc) does not a "mainstream desktop" make.

Can you give specific examples of how package management is a nightmare?

I've done so in the past, and better than I'm going to make the attempt to today.  But I have experience with many of the package managers leading to broken packages caused by version conflicts in dependent packages.  It's usually possible to get out of these jams, but mom and pop won't figure it out.  It's basically the same as DLL hell on Windows, which has not been as big of an issue for many years because of SxS installations.

uriel wrote:

Admittably that has happen to me with Fiesty Fawn Herd 4 (an Alpha) release, and a package known as beryl-settings-manager. Because of this, I could not properly change the settings of Beryl, and uninstallation of the package or reinstallation conventional did not work as expected. There will always be this problem with the way the Debian package manager works currently, but it is a managable problem, and it is rare. Indeed, I have yet to find a perfect operating system (and I have used quite a few), but Linux seems to be the best one out there.

My experience (which I'm not claiming to be universal) is that it's not so rare.  I hit this wall within 6 months on every distro I've tried and with every package manager I've used.  Gentoo was by far the best here, where though it took technical knowledge you could do some amazing things to work around issues such as this, but you're not going to ask your "mainstream desktop" user to wait on ebuild.

But I'm not trying to put Linux down here.  I'm just pointing out that Linux is the most popular *nix, and not necessarily the best *nix.  Depends on what you want a *nix for, for one thing.  Enterprise servers are much better off running Solaris or one of the other commercial *nix systems.  Desktop use is definately better off with a Linux variant, even if Linux still isn't ready for mainstream desktop usage.  Web servers can probably be run succesfully off of any *nix, so picking the right one comes down to other considerations.

Etc, etc, etc.

Xaero_Vincent wrote:



Raghavendra_Mudugal wrote:  thanks.

...
Sun will also want you personal information when registering to download Solaris or Solaris Express.

You mean the same way Microsoft, Macromedia, Adobe, and just about every other big software house does now?

Sun wrote:

For the download, you will be asked to login (or register if you have not previously registered) to the Sun Download Center. For the free media kit form, you will be asked to fill out a form. Including a valid e-mail address will grant you immediate access to all Solaris Free Program membership benefits.

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp
 

I just downloaded the Expression Blend trial from MS, and *gasp* I had to *sign-in* using my windows live account in order to download it.

wkempf,

I've never had a package manager hose my system. The only thing I can think of is if you're compiling large portions of the system on your own or using non-standard (3rd party) installers.

TimP wrote:



wkempf,

I've never had a package manager hose my system. The only thing I can think of is if you're compiling large portions of the system on your own or using non-standard (3rd party) installers.

And I have no objections to your self-proclaimed linux omniscience.

I believe wkempf had those issues - becuse I also had (too) many issues in linux.