Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) is a cross platform tool similar to Fruity Loops. Has a good set of features, and is pretty quick to jump into and create something. Has great documentation, and is really stable. Best of all it is free. If you have the desire to dabble in the audio end, this is a great way to start. Check it out at:
LMMS
Also of Note:
ZynAddSubFX - a nice open source synthesizer (great for creating sound effects).
DCF

The only ways around it are to manually edit the /etc/network/interfaces file and put in your own settings, or to rip out the network manager by throat (yeah I’m a little frustrated) and install another manager. I chose to rip it out altogether and install wicd.

Get rid of the gnome network manager by:

sudo aptitude purge network-manager network-manager-gnome

Then install wicd:

sudo apt-get install wicd

This will save you hours of headache and frustration.

DCF

Thankfully, it was noted on the FlashDevelop site that it works well in VirtualBox. I spent the weekend figuring out the various idiosyncracy’s of VirtualBox, and finally was able to get it running with an instance of Windows XP. I now have FlashDevelop and Flash CS4 running under VirtualBox, and I must say that it really is not too bad. Flash being the resource intensive program that it is obviously is a bit slow, but I can get what I need done for the most part. I am quite pleased with how FlashDevelop is running, since that is where I spend most of my time. I gotta send that guy some money.

So after my nightmare of losing my Windows Vista setup, I’m back up with Linux, and access to Windows XP via VirtualBox. There is now no reason for me to go back to Windows as my primary OS. Might not seem like a big deal, but I’ve been using Windows since version 1.0. Up until this point, Linux was just a hobby at home, and used on the backend at the office. This is really a turning point for me. I still can’t see every day end users making the switch, because it still is not as friendly as Windows to get things working, but it is pretty close and with a little effort, you can have what you need for pennies on the dollar.

DCF

I honestly have been jumping through hoops to get Flash type stuff running, but dealing with the command line, really has not been that difficult. I can pretty much do what I need from a text editor and compiling from the command line via the SDK . I really don’t need all of the frills at this moment. To me, that is amazing. I can actually write some code with minimal graphics, and pump out a prototype, that pretty much skeletons the project. So I don’t necessarily have to go out and purchase Windows again for my home system. Don’t get me wrong, if I did not have Windows and Adobe products on my work computers, I’d be buying Windows, but I can get by with Linux for the moment when working at home. This is really all new to me since I’ve always had Windows, and never considered going without.

How to set up the Flex SDK on Ubuntu

-DCF

I needed to fix the master boot record. What used to be fairly easy in XP, is quite simply a nightmare in Vista. After failing to get the recovery disk working (which I had to find the hard way cuz it is not available from M$), I decided to re-install Vista. I then learned that I had no disk recovery partition due to a mishap that occurred when I had to get my hard drive replaced. I also did not have install disk, and I am out of warranty. What to do? Go Linux.

Here I sit running Linux on my home system and I am debating about going back to Windows. I can go through the motions of getting Vista or XP up, but now I wonder do I really want to? The only app now that I depend on that does not run in Linux or I can find a reasonable facsimile of is Flash. Granted, I can still run the Flex 3 alpha in Linux, but it won’t be the same as working on the Windows side. Other than that, I could easily stay Linux and make do with the apps it supplies. Perhaps I can get FlashDevelop running in Wine. That would be outstanding if it works, but I have not found any post out there with success with that.

This is all very interesting to me, because I can really see that were it not for Flash Pro, I could easily stay in Linux and not look back. I will go back to a dual boot just for convenience sake, but In light of the Windows 7 release, and the lack of joy I have had with Vista, this comedy of errors has proven very enlightening. With this whole concept of Rich Internet Applications on the rise, it seems Linux support for Flex/Flash would be prudent. It obviously would not immediately be profitable, but there would be a lot more people buying into the RIA concept via Flex if they could have a lower barrier of entry through Linux. Like I said, if I had full Flex support on Linux, I would never be going back to Windows on my home box.

-DCF

The first issue came when I needed to move GIGs of data to their servers. Thinking it would be a simple issue of sending a hard drive or a series of DVDs overnight, and they would copy the data up for us, 1and1 expressed in no uncertain times that they absolutely would not help us transfer our data and that we would have to use FTP to do so. WTF? Ok, so we were committed already and went about the task of painfully transferring everything up via FTP. Common guys, this is a bad economy, where’s the customer service?

Once the data was up, and the majority of the apps were transferred, and setup in their respective databases, it was looking like a pretty successful transfer. Now came the final application that needed to be setup and plugged into the database. Our crown jewel is a Moodle application that runs our Learning Management System. Got all the files in place, and we are ready to setup the database when I hit the 100MB database limit.

With the 1and1 developer package you get 100 databases which sounds really cool. The caveat is that each of these databases has a 100MB limit. My Moodle database had grown to 107MB right under my nose. What to do? Call 1and1 and ask can they increase the size of the DB and we will gladly pay. The answer was, ‘absolutely not, and that we would have to upgrade to a virtual server for an added chunk of change per month. Still not a bad thing, only their virtual servers run PHP 4.0. Most apps are running 5.0. Again WTF? The last option is fully dedicated server, (more money) and you manage everything. Again WTF?

So what to do? Since we are only out a few days work, roughly a few hundred bucks, and we own the domains, it’s time to look at some other options. Long story short, we talked to Host Gator, which has some great reviews, and an excellent business package. Unlimited everything, bandwidth, databases, disk space, domains, etc. and at a far less expensive rate. A fellow admin had good things to say about them, so we took the plunge. Part three of this will chronicle the move to Host Gator. All I can say for 1and1 is that for small projects, they have worked great. It is when I went to the bigger deal that the developer package fell on its face.

-DCF

After moving our primary server apps to Linux it was learned that we could host the whole shop for $20 a month if we just went with one of the big hosting companies. We would lose the headaches of sharing a server room and firewall with our counterparts, and we would drop the cost of a T1. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Since I’m the genius that figured all this out, I get the “honor” of making the whole transfer work. Our chosen host is 1and1. I have been with them for years and have not had too many issues. So far the move has been smooth. 2 Learning management systems, a mail system, a list server, 5 blogs, 4 plain web sites, the accompanying databases and whatever assorted data dependencies and all is well. I swap the DNS out this weekend and we cut the umbilical cord.  Makes me wonder how many other companies could benefit from such a move.

We will have to see how we fare in the long run in terms of service and up time, but for the price we get 5 domains, 200 external domains, 600 subs, 300 Gig of space, 3 TB monthly transfer, 400 Email accounts, 100 databases, and 50 FTP accounts all on a Linux backend. I’m sure there are cheaper deals out there (GoDaddy comes to mind), but I am going with what I know. For a small company, a five to ten buck difference per month is not really a deal killer. As I’ve been reading on the hosting review sites, in an economic climate like this, only the larger hosting companies will survive.

Most folks don’t install Ubuntu all the time. It’s one of those fire and forget things. It’s so stable that you get it going, and you forget how you did everything. Such is the case with me. I don’t think I have ever had to re-install Linux for something it screwed up. Can’t say that about some other OS’s. The Ubuntu 8.04 server edition does not install with a desktop environment, so after a fairly quick install, and reboot, you are faced with a command line screen. At this point, I was at a loss of what the command was to install a desktop.

The commands are simply:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

The first is to update your local list of available packages. The second will go out and grab everything you need to run the desktop, plus a slew of apps. Takes about 30-60+ more minutes though (depending on how fast your connection is) for everything to install. Once installed you type:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

You should be greeted with the login screen. Now the next time you start the system, the login screen should be available.

Also, Check the Ununtu Guide for Hardy Heron

Give the Desktop version a try at ubuntu.com as it really is “Linux for humans”.

-DCF

How ludicrous is that? Here we have an American company trying to sell a technically supported operating system based on open source. They do not create the majority of the software that runs within the environment, yet they are forbidden to release or support any packages that involve encryption. Does not matter that one can go out and build the whole package themselves, or just run Ubuntu and get the kitchen sink. Not to mention that everyone else in the world has access to and is running the open source encryption packages.

I’m not saying that the decision to place these restrictions on US software encryption is right or wrong. I am merely pointing out how it has hindered (not severely) more than a few companies in how they release their software and who they can sell it to. In order for Red Hat to make their OS release available globally, they obviously had to exclude any encryption packages. Just search google for PHP mcrpyt and Red Hat and you’ll see the ton of post asking how to get it working. Somehow, it just does not seem right. I understand the security issue, but I’m not sure that we aren’t shooting ourselves in the foot on this.

-DCF

Out of the box RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) recognizes the RAID just fine, but from there one must tweak and configure and install packages (typical). The hardest part for me was understanding the equivalent ways to do things like getting a package in Ubuntu uses apt-get or aptitude where RHEL uses something called yum and rpm. Updating PHPs extensions is nothing short of ugly. Let’s say you want to use PHPMyAdmin to administrate your database, the weirdness comes in trying to configure it. You’ll find that you ‘ll need the mcrypt extension for PHP. No big deal right? Just go to the repository and get what you need. Not exactly, (…and then I descended into dependency Hell).

PHP-mcrypt will be the one extension where you will have to find all of its dependencies like libmcrypt and libmhash and all their dependencies and then rebuild PHP. I have been all over the net as well as the Red Hat network looking for a solution to no avail. Closest I came was from this post on the site Out of Control. Great post, but did not work for me. Not having mcrypt work is not exactly a show stopper for me, but I want what I want when I want it. For the most part, I can get an answer for Ubuntu when I want it. For Red Hat, it does not seem to be quite that easy.

Contact from technical support went like this:

Thanks for contacting Red Hat Technical Support.

Sorry to inform you that support for third party RPM’s is not covered under Red Hat production support policy and is out of Scope of Coverage.

The package “php-mcrypt” is not shipped with any of the RHEL system .

Please refer the below link for the same.

http://www.redhat.com/support/policy/soc/production/

Third party RPMs!!??? Hell, just give me something so this stupid error in phpMyAdmin will go away! This is PHP for Pete’s sake. How ya not going to support that? I mean how many people use phpMyAdmin? Gotta be millions. That’s just stupid. You get what you pay for does not seem to fit here.

-D