Welcome to the world of Knoppix

Written by Mike Ber


Continued from page 1

Knoppix also boasts a comprehensive suite of programs that has almost everything that home/office desktop could be used for. The package list is tremendous, withrepparttar compression system allowing for over 2GB of stuff to be stored. This is amazing and is certainly more than any other single live CD can hold. For a basic idea as to how you should be fine, Knoppix contains 2 office suites (Koffice and OpenOffice), has KDE, Mozilla (web+mail+IRC), PHP, MySql, samba, xmms and tons more. This is no gaming platform, but more than enough is packed in there to let you do accomplish most of your usual tasks onrepparttar 143263 PC (see http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix for a complete list). And if you want more, do an installation and now that you can write onrepparttar 143264 hard-disk, use apt-get upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade (after making sure your sources.list is correct) to get more.

Knoppix does have a few minor problems. These are limited to a few quirks withinrepparttar 143265 KDE, some problems with hardware detection and complaints that 5 minutes to boot a PC is too long (which, byrepparttar 143266 way, is quite quick for a live-CD OS). The reality is that such problems are expected from an Open Source operating system. Linux platforms are not judged byrepparttar 143267 same criteria that Windows, or any other ‘paid-for’ OS is (this is perhaps a major reason behindrepparttar 143268 Linux-bashing that goes on in Microsoft-related circles). No one expects Knoppix to work perfectly when detecting hardware, andrepparttar 143269 fact that it more often than not works extremely well formsrepparttar 143270 basis of our judgment, whereas if Windows XP Professional refused to detect my LAN card I would not stop cursing their ineptitude (no matter that it detected everything else, or everyone else’s card). The standards applied here are totally different, and thus Knoppix survives all such criticism and continues to bathe inrepparttar 143271 afterglow of a job well done.

A few thoughts on customization. One gets a feeling thatrepparttar 143272 package is perhaps too comprehensive (how many text editors do you really need?). My view is that at least forrepparttar 143273 downloadable version, there should be a way forrepparttar 143274 user to select or unselectrepparttar 143275 programs that are required. As such, one could select their favorite browser, text editor, office suite, etc. and produce a more compact installation package. Theoretically, you could also build a custom Knoppix installation that would even run your office applications (as mentioned earlier). The possibilities are great, and hopefullyrepparttar 143276 Knoppix development team will take into considerationrepparttar 143277 idea of streamlining / customization, if only forrepparttar 143278 downloadable version.

So there you have it. A special flavor of Linux that offers, apart from a live-CD OS, a quite stable operating environment as well (and comes bundled with lots of goodies) that is unprecedented in terms of hardware detection. And more importantly, this could be a precursor of things to come with respect to OS development and howrepparttar 143279 industry perceivesrepparttar 143280 role of an operating system, be it Linux or Windows. Maybe it’s time for diversification and specialization inrepparttar 143281 OS market, and maybe, just maybe, Microsoft is set to lose more ground asrepparttar 143282 ‘free’ operating systems get better and better.

Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called www.Every.ca He is also a contributing author to www.ComputerMagazine.ca, www.Developer.ca, and www.XP.ca


Mobile devices security

Written by Mike Ber


Continued from page 1

Almost atrepparttar same time withrepparttar 143262 appearance ofrepparttar 143263 first Trojan for PDAs,repparttar 143264 first virus to affect cell phones has also arrived. This worm is called “Cabir”, and it has been spotted by some security specialists who issued an alert concerningrepparttar 143265 danger. Cabir spreads using a file named “Caribe.sis” and travels across devices working withrepparttar 143266 Symbian operating system which is used in PDAs and many cell phones. Cabir places itself usually on a mobile device when a user agrees to a transmission showingrepparttar 143267 text message "Caribe". After thatrepparttar 143268 worm begins a nonstop search particularly for Bluetooth-connected wireless devices to send itself to. Also,repparttar 143269 battery’s life ofrepparttar 143270 infected device is harshly reduced during this process. The inventors of Cabir did not designrepparttar 143271 worm to spread massively. It was intended to be a test demonstrating that these mobile devices can be easily infected by viruses because of their rapid maturation. The worm rated with a low risk because it has to be intentionally activated by a mobile phone user, and also allowingrepparttar 143272 Caribe package requires pressing a button priorrepparttar 143273 files can be loaded intorepparttar 143274 receiving phone.

It was predictable that viruses and worms for cell phones and PDAs would appear. This isrepparttar 143275 end result ofrepparttar 143276 impressive advances made in mobile communication technology inrepparttar 143277 past years. Over time, cell phones and PDAs turn out to be more PC-like, making them vulnerable to viruses. And because they are more PC-like, smart cell phones and PDAs are mostly used by companies for mission-critical applications and data storage. Also they are used for receiving emails and text messages just like desktop computers. That makes their users just as exposed to viruses and worms. These security concerns can be dealt with software-encryption solutions that need to be attached torepparttar 143278 new devices. The encryption technology expands to mobile devicesrepparttar 143279 identical type of security that many companies have organized into their desktop computers. It encrypts data and prevents illegal access torepparttar 143280 data stored withinrepparttar 143281 device, which is either lost or stolen.

Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called www.Every.ca He is also a contributing author to www.ComputerMagazine.ca, www.Developer.ca, and www.XP.ca


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