Bits and Bobs
Home Server Linux Style
Now that Windows Home server is available to buy, two Linux projects have come to my attention that ain to have a piece of the pie. The Linux Home Server HOWTO by Miles Brennan explores the concepts and configurations for establishing a fully functional Internet connected network environment for your home or small office. The setup uses a dedicated Linux server as the gateway device to provide all of the network connections, Web / Email / FTP servers, packet filtering firewall, and most of the other services required to configure and secure a complete small scale network.
Although the documentation is developed specifically for the Fedora Core versions of Linux, the configurations can still be suited to most Linux distributions that use the same applications and configuration settings.
The other project is the Ubuntu Home Server Edition Project (UHS), which will be an edition of the Ubuntu operating system which allows users to administer their home network. Ubuntu Home Server will be able to store all your music, songs and pictures in one central location with the ability to access your files over the Internet and backup all the computers in your house.
Features are to include:
-File/Data Server: Storage for (document, photo, music, & video files)
-Backup
-Printer Server
-Remote Access from Internet
-Parental Control
-Streaming services
-TV Server
-Groupware Server
-Data to Go
The project was recently launched and specifications are under heavy development and work on several components has begun. A working release will be available very soon.
Free online language courses 2
Back in our Bits and Bobs of October 6th we mentioned Mango Beta, where language learning courses are free to learn online. Ideal when trying to work out what was said in the videos we link too, that are available in French or German only. Well since then Livemocha have been in touch, similar to Mango and also in beta, the site allows you to learn languages and practice with native speakers. Apart from French and German, Dutch and 23 other languages are available to learn free online.
Mark Minasi Technical Forum Meeting
The third annual Mark Minasi Technical Forum Meeting will be meeting in beautiful Virginia Beach, VA, USA to learn new technologies including Windows Home Server and to share ideas. Taking place from Sunday, April 20th 2008 through Wednesday, April 23rd 2008 the registration fee is $450.
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I was wondering when the Linux community would start work on a competitor to WHS. I was in the beta test for WHS and was quite impressed with the product, but now being down to one functioning Windows computer alongside the Mac and Linux machines on my network, decided that it wasn’t the product that fit my particular needs.
I’d like to see if either of these Linux options has better multi-OS integration than Home Server does. I’d love to have the ease of WHS backups on Mac and Linux.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your comment. The UHS project will have Cross-Platform Client Support so Windows, Linux and Macintosh (OSX) client computers will be natively supported.
Hello Philip,
Firstly thank you for the execellent newsletter on the Windows Home Server which I am hoping to implement when it is finally available in New Zealand.
You mentioned a couple of Linux Home Server products in the current newsletter, so I thought I would just let you know about one that I have been using in a business environment for nearly 3 years. It is NASlite from serverelements.com. I have been using the basic free version which runs from a 1.44MHz boot floppy, for storing service manuals (I work in the electronics service industry) and have servers working without in 3 of our branches. These pretty much just go and go without any maintenance and seem to recover automatically after power failures (only one is on a UPS). The free version of NASlite is little more than software to turn your PC (100MHz 486 or better) into a storage device (with no security) but the later commercial versions have more features built in (including Raid, auto backups etc) and are very reasonably priced and I am currently experimenting with one of them.
Hi Graham Wilson,
Thanks for your comment. Yes I used to use the commercial version of NASLite before moving to WHS and it was very good as a central storage medium, but I do prefer WHS since it does so much more, backup etc.