devnulled » FreeBSD http://devnulled.com devnulled provides news, tips, resources, and articles about various topics that software developers and engineers enjoy. Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:20:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc How To Display Which Processes Are Using What Ports http://devnulled.com/content/2008/02/how-to-display-which-processes-are-using-what-ports/ http://devnulled.com/content/2008/02/how-to-display-which-processes-are-using-what-ports/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:19:09 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/content/2008/02/how-to-display-which-processes-are-using-what-ports/ This is just a quick entry on how to see which software is using which ports. This comes in handy when trying to install an application server, web server, etc, and are getting errors like "port is in use".

Basically in any Unix type derivative such as Linux such (Ubuntu, RedHat, SuSe, etc.), as well as Mac OS X, all that you need to type this at the command line:

PLAIN TEXT
CODE:
  1. lsof -i

I remember there being a couple of commands in Windows which you could do this with, but it's been so long since I've used Windows on a regular basis I honestly don't remember how to do it. I do know you can use TCPView to accomplish the same thing, however.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2008/02/how-to-display-which-processes-are-using-what-ports/feed/ 3 New Hosting Setup: Debian Virtual Private Server http://devnulled.com/content/2006/11/new-hosting-setup-debian-virtual-private-server/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/11/new-hosting-setup-debian-virtual-private-server/#comments Mon, 06 Nov 2006 09:03:56 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/content/2006/11/new-hosting-setup-debian-virtual-private-server/ If you're reading this message, a DNS change has finally been relayed to your DNS client and you're hitting this site on my new server.

After many minor problems hosting at home (mostly outages for various networking/power reasons) and not having enough bandwidth to survive being digg'ed or Slashdotted, I recently decided to seek a hosting plan which allowed me to have all of the control that I had by hosting my site at home, but none of the worries of connectivity, electricity, bandwidth, etc. Though I started out looking for a cheap dedicated server, I found that after an exhaustive amount of research I decided I was a better candidate for an unmanaged VPS (virtual private server). The main reasons I chose a VPS over a dedicated server were:

  • The servers that VPS' are hosted on are typically quad CPU, dual core servers with large amounts of RAM, SCSI RAID, etc.
  • Given the hardware specs, the performance of a VPS is going to be better as long as they aren't overloaded vs. a cheap dedicated server up to a certain point/depending on what your hosting requirements are.
  • Lower monthly cost than dedicated servers

Server virtualization has really been progressing by huge leaps and bounds within the past year or two, and VPS hosting plans are actually getting fairly ubiquitous at this point. Although VMWare and Windows Virtual Server are popular in the corporate space, it seems that most of the hosting providers use Virtuozzo.

Essentially I was looking for a plan which offered at least 512 MB of RAM, at least 20 GB of space, and had an unthrottled port of at least 100 GB of bandwidth per month which was not on an oversold network. Many hours of research, reading reviews, and looking at the various plans, I made the final decision of getting a plan with Future Hosting. Generally speaking, this was my criteria for finding a VPS provider:

  • Connected to a Tier 1 network
  • Bandwidth and servers not oversold
  • Reasonable pricing. I'm an individual just running a few personal sites and projects, not a company, so I'm a little more price sensitive than "5 9's" sensitive.
  • Good support. I usually only need support for things outside of my control, but when this happens, you definitely want someone who can respond quickly.

So far the service has been rock solid, and the service has been nothing less than fantastic! While I was setting up the machine I regularly saw download speeds greater 900kB, so the bandwidth available is also very impressive. I've submitted several tickets during the setup and got literally instant responses if not resolutions. The only complaint I have (which is unrelated to Future Hosting itself) is that I'm stuck using Debian Linux rather than Ubuntu. At this point very few providers offer Ubuntu yet because apparently SWSoft does not yet offer a supported image of Ubuntu for Virtuozzo though it's in the works. The good news is I'm slated to beta test a Ubuntu VPS soon, and hopefully I can get moved over to one later.

Admittedly it's a little strange for me to be switching back to Linux from FreeBSD. When I originally started hosting my own sites from home circa 1998, I started off on a DEC Alpha Running RedHat 5.2. I quickly got tired of the dependency hell of Linux and switched to FreeBSD 3.x, and have stuck with it up until now. Now with apt-get (which is very much like the FreeBSD ports system) I no longer worry about the problems I used to have with Linux. My only gripe is that it seems like the packages for Debian are a bit outdated in general. I'll be interested to see if things such as python 2.5 are already packaged into Ubuntu.

It's late and I've been working on this for the better part of the evening so it's time to wrap this post up, but I'll try to get around to posting more about this if anyone is interested. I do still have a few things to move and/or configure, so hopefully there aren't any major show stoppers happening at the moment. :)

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/11/new-hosting-setup-debian-virtual-private-server/feed/ 3 The Difference Between Retiring Unix and Windows Servers http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-difference-between-retiring-unix-and-windows-servers/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-difference-between-retiring-unix-and-windows-servers/#comments Tue, 10 Oct 2006 05:14:43 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-difference-between-retiring-unix-and-windows-servers/ Last week I spent a surprisingly small amount of time setting up a new Ubuntu Server as a Virtual Machine which will be used to run ircd and a few other minor things internally to replace an existing FreeBSD "server" (it's running on some old crappy spare hardware). I decided to use Ubuntu this time just because Java support on Linux seems to be much better than FreeBSD, and I wanted to see what Ubuntu was like to administer once you were only armed with a CLI (so far, awesome!)

During the process, I realized a major difference between retiring Unix servers and Windows Servers. Notably, I always find that retiring a Unix box to replace it with another one feels like the end of an era rather than an upgrade. For instance, the previous server was originally setup by employees which do not work with me any longer, on a mish-mash slapped together hardware primarily made of an old eMachines "computer", yet it's been surprisingly reliable:

[brandonh@hilo ~]$ uname -a
FreeBSD hilo 5.2.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Feb 23 20:45:55 GMT 2004
[brandonh@hilo ~]$ uptime
 6:07PM  up 231 days,  8:17, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

The last time it was taken down, it was to move to another location in the building. The worst problem I had with it other than trying to get Java 1.5 on it is explaining to the Security Department what cvsup is and why I needed firewall ports opened up so I could update the system. I've had the same experience many times as I've been using FreeBSD to host sites at home since 1999 or so, in fact I still have an infamous old 466 Celeron running FreeBSD sitting around on a shelf, unplugged.

On the contrary, old Windows servers always seem to get worse with age. The longer they are around, the more ready you are to get rid of them. I recently worked on a major enterprise application migration which saw many, many new Windows based servers deployed and existing applications moved to them at a new datacenter. There were several of the old servers I was glad to never have to work with again. As a Windows server ages, it seems to get slightly more erratic, to the point of needing to be pulled completely out of production, wiped clean, and reimaged. A friend of mine works for IBM as a Sr. Administrator doing work for a major corporation that needs reliable real-time transactions, and time and time again the Windows servers are the ones which are unreliable and causing expensive downtime under the limitless resources at IBM. Once a Unix box is configured properly, it needs minimal maintenance over a long period of time, while Windows needs lots of reboots and other maintenance which apparently lead to OS rot.

I could go on and on with other examples about reasons I prefer Unix in most all situations, but when it comes down to it, I've never been reluctant to see a Windows server replaced, while I've always felt at least a little resentment about retiring Unix servers even though they were 2-4 years old or more. Have you had similar experiences?

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-difference-between-retiring-unix-and-windows-servers/feed/ 2 The Digg-Effect Again http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-digg-effect-again/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-digg-effect-again/#comments Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:33:14 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-digg-effect-again/ My Slashdotting entry is being dugg/digged again. More to follow, but so far today I've served up 8K users, and have a bunch of active connections:

Active Internet connections
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q  Local Address          Foreign Address        (state)
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51933        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51932        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            67.141.47.234.48406    ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0  30614  shadow.http            mail.hightowerco.40508 ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51931        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51930        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            67.141.47.234.48410    ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            67.141.47.234.48409    ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51929        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            67.141.47.234.48403    ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51928        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            67.141.47.234.48402    TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.51927        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            outbound.plexus..25022 ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            fj5008.inktomise.35679 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            outbound.plexus..25013 ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            72.14.199.9.64611      TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            fj301009.inktomi.33177 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54092 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54091 ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54089 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54088 ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54087 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            outbound.plexus..24982 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            fj301028.inktomi.54631 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54084 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.51926           web175.webserver.smtp  ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            outbound.plexus..24976 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            puma.drama.uga.e.61517 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            valaquenta.ath.c.54083 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            puma.drama.uga.e.61516 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            puma.drama.uga.e.61515 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            puma.drama.uga.e.61514 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49690        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            122.80-203-227.n.58368 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            122.80-203-227.n.58367 TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49689        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            user-12ldtsa.cab.2106  FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            user-12ldtsa.cab.2105  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49688        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49687        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            83-71-110-149.b-.50004 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49686        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            83-71-110-149.b-.50003 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.63608 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.63577 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.63309 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.63113 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.62666 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.62533 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.62139 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.61872 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            208-37-229-130.d.59685 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            208-37-229-130.d.59684 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            neraln4.nera.com.36758 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            neraln4.nera.com.36752 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            26.138-pool-xdsl.64897 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            a157.thegrid.org.60233 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cpe-72-231-29-14.1335  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0  13567  shadow.http            cpe-72-231-29-14.1334  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49685        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            26.138-pool-xdsl.64896 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0  13567  shadow.http            cpe-72-231-29-14.1327  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            66-192-47-2.stat.10672 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cpe-72-231-29-14.1326  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            66-192-47-2.stat.10648 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0  14946  shadow.http            neraln4.nera.com.36570 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2385  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2384  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2383  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            crawl-66-249-66-.63299 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2382  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2381  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0  25307  shadow.http            63.98.2.50.40403       FIN_WAIT_1
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49684        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49683        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.49682        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2379  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2378  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.55330        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  localhost.55329        localhost.10025        TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            pool-72-85-58-22.2949  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.65534        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            pool-72-85-58-22.2948  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.65533        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.54910 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            201-209-111-121..2373  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.65532        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.65531        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.65530        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61679        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61678        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            241.236.8.67.cfl.2936  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61677        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            241.236.8.67.cfl.2935  TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61676        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            lj611687.inktomi.54788 TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61675        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61674        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61673        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61672        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.50558 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.50302 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.49534 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.49278 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.53118 TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61671        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            lj611235.inktomi.57285 TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61670        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61669        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61668        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61667        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  localhost.61666        localhost.http         TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            71-15-122-53.dhc.4922  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cable-66-206-243.64382 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0   2706  shadow.http            71-15-122-53.dhc.4916  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cosiwjmo.intelli.1212  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cosiwjmo.intelli.1211  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            71-15-122-53.dhc.4914  TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0   7094  shadow.http            adsl-69-236-189-.3296  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  11538  shadow.http            adsl-69-236-189-.3295  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  13240  shadow.http            ovpn02.oma.ha-so.2752  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  13241  shadow.http            ovpn02.oma.ha-so.2751  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  12308  shadow.http            xd839143d.ip.e-n.54799 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  12307  shadow.http            xd839143d.ip.e-n.54801 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0   2444  shadow.http            p54B6EB2C.dip.t-.2888  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0   7734  shadow.http            199.64.72.252.43985    CLOSING
tcp4       0   7735  shadow.http            199.64.72.252.43875    CLOSING
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            fxgate2.nmmu.ac..22064 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            nat1.norscan.com.2103  FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0  15887  shadow.http            nat1.norscan.com.2102  LAST_ACK
tcp4       0  15886  shadow.http            nat1.norscan.com.2101  LAST_ACK
tcp4       0      0  shadow.smtp            host-196.218.153.11313 TIME_WAIT
tcp4       0  15957  shadow.http            195-23-115-68.ne.44357 LAST_ACK
tcp4       0  15957  shadow.http            195-23-115-68.ne.43845 LAST_ACK
tcp4       0   4405  shadow.http            host-80-252-1-14.3445  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            cpe-66-108-253-2.1935  FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0  14426  shadow.http            x101-247-3.dhcp..2866  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  14427  shadow.http            x101-247-3.dhcp..2865  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  15894  shadow.http            h137.188.141.67..1920  LAST_ACK
tcp4       0   2841  shadow.http            p5482F163.dip.t-.1504  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  12990  shadow.http            h137.188.141.67..1919  LAST_ACK
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            152.252.119.70.c.36482 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0   8586  shadow.http            152.252.119.70.c.36480 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0   4206  shadow.http            152.252.119.70.c.36478 FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0   1228  shadow.http            mnes.lit.auth.gr.1710  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            66-193-254-66.st.28909 LAST_ACK
tcp4       0  14586  shadow.http            66-193-254-66.st.28893 LAST_ACK
tcp4       0  12966  shadow.http            mnes.lit.auth.gr.1705  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  15979  shadow.http            194.65.5.235.29563     FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0  12990  shadow.http            lawlaw.polaris.n.1531  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0   8635  shadow.http            lawlaw.polaris.n.1527  FIN_WAIT_1
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            mail.cbchs.org.19001   FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            mail.cbchs.org.18996   FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            mail.cbchs.org.18857   FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            24.115.76.113.re.16513 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            mismx01.mediserv.14960 FIN_WAIT_2
tcp4       0      0  shadow.http            PC-MallonM.human.51987 ESTABLISHED
udp4       0      0  shadow.58445           phobos.frii.com.domain
udp4       0      0  shadow.57403           phobos.frii.com.domain
udp4       0      0  shadow.60672           phobos.frii.com.domain
udp6       0      0  localhost.64913        localhost.64913

Unfortunately I was seeding a bunch of torrents before I found-out about it, so some people were likely to not make it to the site initially.

I'll do a follow-up entry on what I see when the smoke finally clears. :)

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/10/the-digg-effect-again/feed/ 0 So Long Windows, Hello Ubuntu! http://devnulled.com/content/2006/09/so-long-windows-hello-ubuntu/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/09/so-long-windows-hello-ubuntu/#comments Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:44:34 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/content/2006/09/so-long-windows-hello-ubuntu/ Being a lifelong geek, I'm usually an early adopter of various technologies, and Linux has been no exception for me. I started using Linux sometime in 1997 after hearing about it on IRC. I first installed RedHat on a 486 without XFree86 to play with it and force myself to learn *nix by command line and vi. After using Linux for a year or two I got pretty decent with it and ended-up ditching it for FreeBSD because of "dependency hell". Anyone who's maintained a Linux system is probably familiar with what I'm talking about, which mostly has to do with the way glibc is implemented. On a side note, if you're a Linux user, here are some differences between FreeBSD and Linux and which might persuade you to give FreeBSD a try. Ubuntu Screenshot To this day I still use FreeBSD for my server(s) and I don't really see a reason for me to switch anytime soon other than I think Java is better supported on Linux. I continued playing around with Linux from time to time just to try and keep up with it's changes, and even got certified in Linux Configuration and Installation in 2001. I've also admined and setup numerous Linux and FreeBSD boxes for core services like DNS, HTTP, SMTP, etc, including helping out with the mailservers at NetIdentity a few times (now owned by Tucows).

Off and on over the years I've tried to switch to Linux as a workstation but found it very buggy or lacking in functionality and couldn't ever bring myself to switching. Some of the versions/distributions I tried include RedHat 5 & 6, Mandrake, Corel, SuSe, Debian, Slackware, and now Ubuntu.

I gave the Ubuntu Live CD a spin on my laptop a couple of months ago and was pretty impressed. Ubuntu has been getting plenty of coverage lately, and after seeing a demonstration of XGL on YouTube, it was the straw that broke the camels' back; I decided it was time to give Ubuntu a try on my workstation. I decided to leave it as dual-boot into XP Professional in case something didn't work-out or I wanted to play Half-Life 2, so I used these instructions. I did the installation this past weekend while working on homework, and it really didn't take long at all nor much custom bit twiddling to get "normal" things to work.

Everytime I install Linux I'm very impressed how far the installation process has came. This time not only did it pick-up every piece of my hardware correctly, it even installed GRUB correctly to dual-boot with Ubuntu and Windows XP without messing-up anything. If you ever tried doing this back in the day manually with LILO, you'll have an idea how much easier it is to do dual-booting now.

I've been doing my homework on it, have Eclipse and Skype installed, and even found a great audio program which handles my 165 GB / 21,800+ song Mp3 collection without any problems.

Since getting Ubuntu installed, I haven't had a reason to boot back into Windows other than to make sure it was still working okay. Ubuntu really is a solid package. Given the terrible reviews of Windows Vista as well as all of the DRM built into it, I think I'm pretty much sold on not purchasing a Microsoft OS again.

I'll try to post some more information about the Linux software I find useful in the days and weeks to come, and I'm sure at some point I'll find many things to be critical about with Ubuntu as well.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/09/so-long-windows-hello-ubuntu/feed/ 6 Ruby Punditry: The Ruby Conspiracy http://devnulled.com/content/2006/07/ruby-punditry-the-ruby-conspiracy/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/07/ruby-punditry-the-ruby-conspiracy/#comments Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:11:27 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/?p=592 Being very pragmatic, I like to hear the pluses and minuses for given cases and make a decision on my own. I'm not usually quick to "drink the KoolAid" which does make people grumpy from time to time, but I'd rather make a bad decision on my own after evaluating as much information as I can instead of trusting the opinion of Lemmings to tell me what is good.

Providing an opposing view of Ruby On Rails, Greg Luck just wrote a post from OSCON concerning what he calls the "The Ruby Conspiracy".

Who are those who are benefiting from Ruby on Rails? Answer: O'Reilly Publishing, the authors Bruce Tate and Dave Thomas and a handful of consultants. At last year's conference, Tim O'Reilly had carefully analyzed his book sales and was desperate to identify the next big thing. Same for the pragmatic programmers and for consulting companies wishing to push the next big thing. C# had been and is a disappointment. Despite a huge push it refuses to move up the Tiobe programming index. I get the feeling that everyone needs a next big thing, and if there is not one, they create it.

After reading the post as well as my own personal opinion about the new web frameworks, I'd have to agree with him. I think things like Ruby on Rails and Django are good general purpose frameworks for developing standard web applications which are self-contained. Once you get into the enterprise space, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to go with "exotic" platforms because of the lack of driver support, integration/monitoring/performance facilities, being able to offer the software as encapsulated services, etc.

If I were starting a new website or web company from scratch would I consider those frameworks? You bet. Would I recommend building a new production capable service or product from scratch using them in an enterprise (although there are certainly some pretty compelling use cases to use them in a few select roles)? Probably not.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/07/ruby-punditry-the-ruby-conspiracy/feed/ 7 FreeBSD Ports: What Happened to mod_php5? http://devnulled.com/content/2006/05/freebsd-ports-what-happened-to-mod_php5/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/05/freebsd-ports-what-happened-to-mod_php5/#comments Sun, 28 May 2006 23:16:28 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/?p=568 I'm recompiling PHP5 on my server to add PostgreSQL support, and couldn't figure-out why all of the various mod_php* ports had disappeared from the ports/www. Turns out you need to enable PHP to do its own Apache support now. To have PHP build an SO for Apache:


bash-2.05b# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
bash-2.05b# make config

Select the check box that mentions Apache, and you should be good to go.

Don't forget to do the same steps in lang/php5-extensions to install things such as MySQL support if you're upgrading or installing PHP5.

This change is kind of annoying as I'd rather be able to build mod_php independently since it's more intuitive, but oh well.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/05/freebsd-ports-what-happened-to-mod_php5/feed/ 7 Unix Standards: Should I use UNIX or Unix? http://devnulled.com/content/2006/03/unix-standards-should-i-use-unix-or-unix/ http://devnulled.com/content/2006/03/unix-standards-should-i-use-unix-or-unix/#comments Mon, 13 Mar 2006 20:08:06 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/?p=544 I came across a good article via del.icio.us at IBM developerWorks titled "Standards and specs: Not by UNIX alone" which talks about the various Unix standards including POSIX, as well as why most people who know software development well prefer working with Unix. Another interesting tidbit covered is the difference between UNIX and Unix which I'd always wondered myself, but had never got curious enough to research on my own time.

Expect to see more Unix and OS related posts in the coming weeks as I'm taking an Operating Systems class at the moment which I'm quite excited about-- I'll be writing a long paper and giving a presentation on the architecture details of FreeBSD for my class, and I'd imagine a lot of that content will end-up here in some shape or form.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2006/03/unix-standards-should-i-use-unix-or-unix/feed/ 0 Source for Easy Editor (ee of FreeBSD fame) http://devnulled.com/content/2005/11/source-for-easy-editor-ee-of-freebsd-fame/ http://devnulled.com/content/2005/11/source-for-easy-editor-ee-of-freebsd-fame/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2005 05:44:50 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/?p=505 Every time I find myself on a Linux box I find myself a bit crippled without being able to use Easy Editor. I do know vi as it was the first editor I taught myself, but it seems very archaic and clunky to me. It always takes a bit of research to find the source for ee so that I can compile it and use it on Linux, so I thought I'd post a link to the source code for ee for me to find later when I need it again.

]]> http://devnulled.com/content/2005/11/source-for-easy-editor-ee-of-freebsd-fame/feed/ 2 DesktopBSD: FreeBSD For The Masses http://devnulled.com/content/2005/08/desktopbsd-freebsd-for-the-masses/ http://devnulled.com/content/2005/08/desktopbsd-freebsd-for-the-masses/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:05:14 +0000 Brandon Harper http://devnulled.com/?p=444 I'd heard murmurs of such a platform before, but I didn't know there was an active project to create a version of BSD optimized for desktop use. FreeBSD stability and ports system plus a decent desktop environment would be a very sweet thing. I might have to throw it on my SuSe workstation which I'm not currently using and check it out...

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