Linux Power Tools - Great Tools to Make System Administration Easy

World War II - Germany decided to attack Poland.Poland had many great warriors. They all prepared to fight the Germans.They were all ready with the best armor, the best and well trainedhorses, and ofcourse the best weapons , swords , spears .... Andthe Pols were brave and were ready to give their lives for theircountry. Sadly they did just that... give their lives. The Germanshad tanks... It is very important to have the right weapons when onegoes for a war.

In the same way it is very important for system administrators to havethe right tools to to work smart. Linux is a great desktop OS fordevelopers as well as systemadministrators. Let us take a look at some of the utilities which makesthis a great environment for system administrators and developers. Mostof the content below is taken from the home pages of these apps and theI make no claims on the originality. My aim is to introduce the readerto thewonderful tools that are available in a Linux/BSD desktop environment.

Konsole

Let's start from what most people think Linux is all about - a textbased shell. Konsole is whatis known as an X terminal emulator, often referred to as a terminal ora shell. It gives you the equivalent of an old-fashioned text screen onyour desktop, but one which can easily share the screen with yourgraphical applications. What makes Konsole special?Konsole's advanced features include simple configuration and theability to use multiple terminal shells in a single window, making fora less cluttered desktop. Konsole is also available as kpart andcan thus be easily embedded in other applications, like practiced byKate and Konqueror.

As most system administrators need log into servers on a regular basisthe konsole gives them a benefit over the Windoze command prompt. Inwindows one needs to use a program like putty to log in using SSH. Alsoas linux is the desktop OS the techs can use the man pages on the localsystem.

One can also try out the various commands locally. Consider a simpleexample.

Is it

$ ln sourcefile destinationfile

or is it

$ ln destinationfile sourcefile

Such things can be easily found out locally without carrying outexperiments on the server. Many techs believe that servers are placeswhere they can experiment. However, such experiments can lead to majorlosses to the customers due to one small error. A system administratormust understand that people have immense faith in them when they givetheir entire data to them and they cannot risk carrying out simpleexperiments on servers.

Some screenshots of the konsole can be seen at the konsole site

Personal Information Manager / Groupware

There are two popular choices here. Evolutionfrom Noveland the Kontactfrom KDE. Both these an email client, calendaring, meetingscheduling, a task list, contact management and syncing functionality.Kontact is essentially the regular KDE PIM components which have beenput in together i.e. kmail, korganizer, knotes etc.. It is very a veryneat package and is stable and light. Both these are veryfunctional and can connect to many groupware servers.

Klipper

Klipper is the KDE clipboard utility. It stores clipboard history, andallows you to link clipboard contents to application actions. Klippercan perform actions on the contents of the clipboard, based on whetherthey match a particular regular expression. For example, any clipboardcontents starting with "http://" can be passed to the web-browser asURLs to open.

Copying text is as simple as highlighting the text. And to paste thetext all one needs to do is click on the center mouse button. This canbe particularly useful for sys-admins as they use a sequenceof commands from time to time. Having these in the clipboard and usingthem often can make the work a lot easier.

Gaim / Kopete

Communicating via an instant messenger is an essential these days.Linux has a very clean solution for this. Both Kopete(http://kopete.kde.org) and Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/) arecapable ofhandling multiple IM protocols such as supporting AIM, ICQ, MSN,Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus SameTime. Gaim isa multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X,and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSNMessenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger,and Zephyr networks.

Kjots

KJots is a small program that helps you to write down someshort notesand organizes them for you. It has two basic items used to organizeyour notes - "Books" and "Pages". This is a good light tool towrite in all the templated responses and other important notes forquick references.

Kwallet

A lovely password manager which can store passwords for all the loginsincluding those of kopete and websites.

Tea Cooker

KTeaTime is a handy timer for steeping tea. No longer will you have toguess at how long it takes for your tea to be ready. Simply select thetype of tea you have, and it will alert you when the tea is ready todrink. Now how can a tea cooker be useful for techs. Often techs getinvolved in solving a problem and forget to update the client about theprogress. Without communicating with the client, on many occasions theentire effort goes down the drain as the client get very agitatedthinking that nobody is looking at his problem. What the tech can do isuse the tea cooker and get a reminder so that he can respond the clientwith the progress.

Koffice/ Open Office

M$ Office is one of the most used software and a major reason whycustomers do not shift to other operating systems. They need Word andExcel for just about everything. K-Office and Open Office are two greatsolutions. Open Office can open M$ Office files and can even safe thefiles in M$ Office format which makes it easy to communicate with thosewho still use M$ products.

Lyx

Besides office suites which replicate the windows world products infeatures, Linux also has some great alternatives. LyX(http://www.lyx.org) is an example of a great document processor.

What is LyX?

LyX is the first WYSIWYM (What yousee is what you mean) document processor.

LyX is what?!

LyX is an advanced open source document processor that encourages anapproach to writing based on thestructure of your documents, not their appearance. LyX lets youconcentrate on writing, leaving details of visual layout to thesoftware. LyX produces high quality, professional output -- usingLaTeX, an industrial strength typesetting engine, in the background;LyX is far more than afront-end to LaTeX, however. No knowledge of LaTeX is necessary to useLyX,although it will give a user more power. LyX is stable and fullyfeatured. It has been used for documents as large as a thesis, or assmall as a business letter. Despite its simple GUI interface (availablein many languages), it supports tables, figures, and hyperlinkedcross-references, and has a best-of-breed math editor.

Dia

Dia is a great tool for creating diagrams. It has a huge in-builtlibrary of objects which are specially useful for software engineers.So making a diagram of a computer network is as easy as dragging a fewcomputers and switches from the list of objects available. It currentlyhas special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UMLdiagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is alsopossible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files,using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

Gnucash

An average tech earns a good salary and spends it is well too. To keeptrack of all these personal expenses the best is to have a greatsoftware. Gnucash is an ideal way to manage personal finances. Designedto be easy to use, yet powerfuland flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, incomeand expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, itis based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced booksand accurate reports.

KTuberling

And finally a product for all those techs who maintain their serverswell and have no work or pending issues and yet have to sit through thenights waiting for some issue to popup.

KTuberling (http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/ktuberling/) wasoriginally game intended for small children. Of course, it may besuitable for adults who have remainedyoung at heart. Most techs in general love this software. It is a"potato editor". That means that you can drag and drop eyes, mouths,mustache, and other parts of face and goodies onto a potato-like guy.Similarly, you have a penguin and an aquarium on which you can dropother stuff.

There is no winner for the game. The only purpose is to make thefunniest faces you can. There is a museum,like a "Madame Tusseau"gallery, where you can find many funny examples of decorated potatoes,penguins and aquariums.

World War II - Germany decided to attack Poland.Poland had many great warriors. They all prepared to fight the Germans.They were all ready with the best armor, the best and well trainedhorses, and ofcourse the best weapons , swords , spears .... Andthe Pols were brave and were ready to give their lives for theircountry. Sadly they did just that... give their lives. The Germanshad tanks... It is very important to have the right weapons when onegoes for a war.

In the same way it is very important for system administrators to havethe right tools to to work smart. Linux is a great desktop OS fordevelopers as well as systemadministrators. Let us take a look at some of the utilities which makesthis a great environment for system administrators and developers. Mostof the content below is taken from the home pages of these apps and theI make no claims on the originality. My aim is to introduce the readerto thewonderful tools that are available in a Linux/BSD desktop environment.

Konsole

Let's start from what most people think Linux is all about - a textbased shell. Konsole is whatis known as an X terminal emulator, often referred to as a terminal ora shell. It gives you the equivalent of an old-fashioned text screen onyour desktop, but one which can easily share the screen with yourgraphical applications. What makes Konsole special?Konsole's advanced features include simple configuration and theability to use multiple terminal shells in a single window, making fora less cluttered desktop. Konsole is also available as kpart andcan thus be easily embedded in other applications, like practiced byKate and Konqueror.

As most system administrators need log into servers on a regular basisthe konsole gives them a benefit over the Windoze command prompt. Inwindows one needs to use a program like putty to log in using SSH. Alsoas linux is the desktop OS the techs can use the man pages on the localsystem.

One can also try out the various commands locally. Consider a simpleexample.

Is it

$ ln sourcefile destinationfile

or is it

$ ln destinationfile sourcefile

Such things can be easily found out locally without carrying outexperiments on the server. Many techs believe that servers are placeswhere they can experiment. However, such experiments can lead to majorlosses to the customers due to one small error. A system administratormust understand that people have immense faith in them when they givetheir entire data to them and they cannot risk carrying out simpleexperiments on servers.

Some screenshots of the konsole can be seen at the konsole site

Personal Information Manager / Groupware

There are two popular choices here. Evolutionfrom Noveland the Kontactfrom KDE. Both these an email client, calendaring, meetingscheduling, a task list, contact management and syncing functionality.Kontact is essentially the regular KDE PIM components which have beenput in together i.e. kmail, korganizer, knotes etc.. It is very a veryneat package and is stable and light. Both these are veryfunctional and can connect to many groupware servers.

Klipper

Klipper is the KDE clipboard utility. It stores clipboard history, andallows you to link clipboard contents to application actions. Klippercan perform actions on the contents of the clipboard, based on whetherthey match a particular regular expression. For example, any clipboardcontents starting with "http://" can be passed to the web-browser asURLs to open.

Copying text is as simple as highlighting the text. And to paste thetext all one needs to do is click on the center mouse button. This canbe particularly useful for sys-admins as they use a sequenceof commands from time to time. Having these in the clipboard and usingthem often can make the work a lot easier.

Gaim / Kopete

Communicating via an instant messenger is an essential these days.Linux has a very clean solution for this. Both Kopete(http://kopete.kde.org) and Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/) arecapable ofhandling multiple IM protocols such as supporting AIM, ICQ, MSN,Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus SameTime. Gaim isa multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X,and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSNMessenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger,and Zephyr networks.

Kjots

KJots is a small program that helps you to write down someshort notesand organizes them for you. It has two basic items used to organizeyour notes - "Books" and "Pages". This is a good light tool towrite in all the templated responses and other important notes forquick references.

Kwallet

A lovely password manager which can store passwords for all the loginsincluding those of kopete and websites.

Tea Cooker

KTeaTime is a handy timer for steeping tea. No longer will you have toguess at how long it takes for your tea to be ready. Simply select thetype of tea you have, and it will alert you when the tea is ready todrink. Now how can a tea cooker be useful for techs. Often techs getinvolved in solving a problem and forget to update the client about theprogress. Without communicating with the client, on many occasions theentire effort goes down the drain as the client get very agitatedthinking that nobody is looking at his problem. What the tech can do isuse the tea cooker and get a reminder so that he can respond the clientwith the progress.

Koffice/ Open Office

M$ Office is one of the most used software and a major reason whycustomers do not shift to other operating systems. They need Word andExcel for just about everything. K-Office and Open Office are two greatsolutions. Open Office can open M$ Office files and can even safe thefiles in M$ Office format which makes it easy to communicate with thosewho still use M$ products.

Lyx

Besides office suites which replicate the windows world products infeatures, Linux also has some great alternatives. LyX(http://www.lyx.org) is an example of a great document processor.

What is LyX?

LyX is the first WYSIWYM (What yousee is what you mean) document processor.

LyX is what?!

LyX is an advanced open source document processor that encourages anapproach to writing based on thestructure of your documents, not their appearance. LyX lets youconcentrate on writing, leaving details of visual layout to thesoftware. LyX produces high quality, professional output -- usingLaTeX, an industrial strength typesetting engine, in the background;LyX is far more than afront-end to LaTeX, however. No knowledge of LaTeX is necessary to useLyX,although it will give a user more power. LyX is stable and fullyfeatured. It has been used for documents as large as a thesis, or assmall as a business letter. Despite its simple GUI interface (availablein many languages), it supports tables, figures, and hyperlinkedcross-references, and has a best-of-breed math editor.

Dia

Dia is a great tool for creating diagrams. It has a huge in-builtlibrary of objects which are specially useful for software engineers.So making a diagram of a computer network is as easy as dragging a fewcomputers and switches from the list of objects available. It currentlyhas special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UMLdiagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is alsopossible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files,using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

Gnucash

An average tech earns a good salary and spends it is well too. To keeptrack of all these personal expenses the best is to have a greatsoftware. Gnucash is an ideal way to manage personal finances. Designedto be easy to use, yet powerfuland flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, incomeand expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, itis based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced booksand accurate reports.

KTuberling

And finally a product for all those techs who maintain their serverswell and have no work or pending issues and yet have to sit through thenights waiting for some issue to popup.

KTuberling (http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/ktuberling/) wasoriginally game intended for small children. Of course, it may besuitable for adults who have remainedyoung at heart. Most techs in general love this software. It is a"potato editor". That means that you can drag and drop eyes, mouths,mustache, and other parts of face and goodies onto a potato-like guy.Similarly, you have a penguin and an aquarium on which you can dropother stuff.

There is no winner for the game. The only purpose is to make thefunniest faces you can. There is a museum,like a "Madame Tusseau"gallery, where you can find many funny examples of decorated potatoes,penguins and aquariums.

Amarjyoti Krishnan heads bobcares.com, a tech support company for webhosts and ISPs. He is the co-founder of Poornam Info Vision Ltd., a software and IT services company which specializes in Linux based solutions for Webhosts and ISPs. Poornam Info Vision is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company with a team of over 100 engineers.

Amarjyoti is a Computer Engineer based in India and has over 7 years of experience in the hosting industry. He has spoken and written extensively on the subject. His articles have been published both online as well as in print in magazines.

http://poornam.com
http://bobcares.com
http://amarjyoti.com