Tag: linux
Clickable URLs in PuTTY
by DaiTengu on Sep.11, 2011, under Linux, Linux tips
PuTTY is a SSH/Telnet client for windows. I’ve been using it on a daily basis for many years now as it’s stable, simple, and does everything I need.
A few months ago I decided to hop into a few IRC channels I used to frequent many years back to catch up with old friends. Instead of running a windows client (mIRC) I went with my old standby, irssi, a console-based linux client with Perl scripting. I’ve used it in the past and I love it.
Anyway, a lot of links are posted on IRC and the disadvantage to a text-based client is that I have to highlight to copy the link, then paste it into a browser. Being the typical sysadmin that I am, I’m a lazy bastard and copying/pasting is just to much work.
So, what does a lazy git like me do? I have a choice. A: just ignore links (My link OCD would not allow this). B: move to a windows-based IRC client (ugh) or C: continue cutting & pasting (:effort:).
Google comes through with the answer! http://blog.ryara.net/2011/07/14/putty-0-61-with-c
This kind Swedish gentleman pulled the URL code out of PuTTY Tray (http://haanstra.eu/putty/) which hasn’t been actively developed in about 4 years, ported it to C from C++, and put it in a patch. He also provides a download of the PuTTY executable with the patch included on his page “If you trust him”.
I glanced at the code and everything seems to be in order, there doesn’t seem to be any malicious calls to anything where some dude is going to steal your SSH keys. However, I am not a programmer so don’t take my word for it, look at it yourself 
Virtual Machine Showdown – VMWare vs VirtualBox
by DaiTengu on Sep.09, 2011, under Benchmarks and Tests, Linux
I spent the last day or so testing out both VirtualBox, which is new to me, and VMWare Player, a free version of VMWare, the program I’ve been using for many years. and the results are interesting.
I did a default installation of Linux Mint, Both with 10GB Drives, 2GB RAM, and 2 CPUs from my 4-core Intel i7 920.
I did my first installation on VirtualBox ( http://www.virtualbox.org/ ) and it was surprisingly easy. I selected a Debain x86_64 based system and installed off the x86_64 ISO DVD image I downloaded from http://www.linuxmint.com. I only ran into one minor glitch in the beginning where I was unable to modify the Virtual Server hardware settings after I initially created the new Virtual Server. This was fixed by closing and re-opening VirtualBox. From initial system boot to the final reboot installation of Linux Mint under VirtualBox took 11 minutes.
Virtual Machines also have “tools” that need to be installed on the guest operating system. VirtualBox makes this very simple, you go to “Devices->Install Guest Additions…” and VirtualBox forces the operating system to mount an ISO image with the tools required. It includes an autorun script on the ISO so they install automatically. Overall this was probably the least painful Linux installation I’ve ever done. VirtualBox also has a really useful walkthrough when creating a virtual machine that’s good for relative newbies. I still suggest you at least browse the documentation though!
The next installation was done with VMWare. VMWare is very similar to VirtualBox, but a little more difficult to use. Even with that though, it’s a far more mature product and that showed in the benchmarks I did. Unfortunately the interface is lacking. From initial boot to final reboot the installation on VMWare took only 7 minutes. There were a few problems, though…
First, unlike with VirtualBox, sound didn’t work right away. That seemed to clear itself up with a reboot, though. I have had issues with sound and VMWare in the past, but it’s never been a big concern to me. Regardless, it cleared itself up.
The “VMWare Tools” package was a bit more difficult to install. VMWare, like VirtualBox mounted an ISO for me on Linux but there was no autorun, it was just a tarball (tar.gz) on a CD. You have to copy the tarball to your home directory, uncompress it, then run the install.sh via a terminal. You also have to answer a bunch of questions about locations and what you want to install from it.
So, Interface-wise, I really prefer VirtualBox. It just seemed easier to use and manage over VMWare Player.
However….
When it comes down to raw benchmarks, VMWare seems to have it in the bag. I didn’t do any graphical benchmarks, but instead tested some more quantitative things using phoronix test suite, CPU, memory & disk access.
The comparison between the two systems can be found here: http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1109086-DAIT-MINTVMW79,1109082-DAIT-VIRTUAL59
(I’ve been having some issues with Chrome crashing on that site, If you do as well, just refresh it until it pops up. It’ll work, I promise)
Both machines had the same settings. 2GB RAM, 2 CPUs with VT-x enabled (Intel’s Virtual machine technology) and 10GB drives. In nearly all categories VMWare beat VirtualBox. Some categories VirtualBox was just crushed (like the Apache connections test) but most were very close The only tests in which VirtualBox won were Encryption (GnuPG) and image conversion (dcraw), both CPU-based.
So, in the end if performance is what you need out of your Virtual Machine, VMWare is probably the way to go. Honestly though, if you’re in it for performance you shouldn’t be using a virtual machine anyway, you should just be dual booting then.
I’m personally going to play around with VirtualBox for awhile. It’s great for a testing environment and as long as you make snapshots of your virtual machine before you do anything drastic you can’t screw things up. It’s the perfect system for those who want to test Linux without giving up their Windows installation.
Why I Use Windows 7 over Linux on my main PC
by DaiTengu on Sep.07, 2011, under Linux
I’m going to start off my new series of articles about Linux with a post about Windows. Yes, that’s right, Windows. And it’s not going to be an article talking about how terrible Microsoft is, or how Bill Gates is the anti-Christ. It’s an article on why I use Windows as my main operating system.
Up until a few years ago, Linux and Windows were like night and day. Two very different creatures that required very different software to do the same thing. You could use Microsoft Office on Windows, but had to use Star Office or OpenOffice on Linux. There were very few Linux-native video games, image editing and creation was limited to mostly GIMP which left Photoshop users wanting, and there was no decent Flash plugin for Linux either.
Since then we’ve drastically changed how we use computers. This is mostly because of “The Cloud.” I’m writing this post in Google docs right now, and I’ll just copy & paste it into my G+ stream when I’m done. This allows me to work on it from any computer at any place. I mean, let’s be honest, how many of you use your computer for more than a glorified web browser most of the time?
Even though the way we use computers has changed, just about everything I do on Windows I can now do on Linux, and Linux has gotten easier to use with “desktop distributions” like Ubuntu, Mint, Jolicloud, and a few others, I still prefer to use Windows on my main OS. I can play the games I love through Wine or any of it’s various forked projects and I can run most of my .Net applications through Mono, There is still one main reason I use Windows:
Windows just “works.”
I know, shock, horror, blasphemy, etc. etc. Linux is a tinkerer’s OS. I don’t want to have to spend 3-4 hours configuring and troubleshooting things just so I can play a video game. In 15 years I have never used a distribution of Linux that I didn’t have to Google a solution for at least a few times a week. Many years ago I was OK with that, but now that I’m older I just want stuff to work.
Now my problems here may stem with the fact that I work with Linux every day, as my entire livelyhood is based around it. I spend hours every day tweaking, updating, adjusting, changing, backing up, restoring and scripting things in Linux all for a paycheck. When it’s time to relax I don’t want to do it all over again just so I can play Eve Online.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. About 5 years ago I gave in and quit my job so I could focus on being a Linux Sysadmin full time from home. So far it’s working out pretty well. I made enough money that I was able to sell the small shack I lived in and buy a nice 4 bedroom (ok, 2 bedroom, 2 office), 2 1/2 bath house with a finished basement. My wife occasionally wants to kill me because I’m around way too much,and the 24-36 hour “I need 12 servers set up by Friday” marathons are murder but I don’t think I’d ever go back to a traditional job. I like being able to take a vacation almost whenever I want way too much.
On the other hand, I’m still a tinkerer by nature. I do have 3 other machines that run Linux, Ubuntu on an ancient laptop which is hooked up to my 3rd monitor (I use it strictly for an Instant Messaging client), Ubuntu on my netbook, and a version of Slackware (called unRAID) which functions as a 6TB fileserver for my home network.
Windows is not without it’s problems. My current installation has about 2 years on it, and my AppData folder (where most programs keep their settings) is from my original XP installation. My computer is in desperate need of a reformat and reinstall but it still does what I want it to do when I want it to.
So I guess it all boils down to the fact that I am a very, very lazy person. I don’t want to do any more “work” than I have to. Windows lets me get away with that. If I really want to tinker I can (and have) set up virtual machines with VMWare or VirtualBox, or I can play around with one of the other easily wipe-able machines in my home.
