Still is the person has enough experience in the IT field and is not just the local user but the person who cares about how the computer works and what can be made on order to improve the system featuring its best opportunities, he can consider Linux as a good option. For working with this OS the dedicated linux server becomes really handy. You will not have to search through the internet for one or another program, as most of them are created for Windows.

On the dedicated linux server you will find the wide range of programs ready to be downloaded, installed and used successfully. Here are just two main addresses where you can get the craved data and software: http://www.lpdedicated.com/servers/linux.php and http://galaxydedicated.com/dedicated_linux_server/. Both portals offer different programs all of them already tested and ready to be used. The content of the portals is changing rapidly, so you will surely get to the latest software in this dedicated linux server.

StarOffice 5.1 is a complete office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, presenter, mail client, and more. StarOffice was orginally a commercial product developed by a German company, Star Division. Sun Microsystems in 1999 acquired Star Division and began shipping StarOffice free of charge for both personal and commercial use.

Star Office Installation

StarOffice 5.1 is available in TAR format in precompiled binary form. The name will be something similar to so51a_lnx_01.tar. StarOffice can be installed by root as well as by regular users.

1. mv so51a_lnx_01.tar /usr/local
2. cd /usr/local
3. tar -xvf so51a_lnx_01.tar
4. cd so51inst
5. cd office51
6. ./setup The installer will launch. During the installation, you will be asked to select the installation directory. The default is to create a directory under your home directory named Office51. For example, if your username is jed, StarOffice would be installed under the /home/jed/Office51 directory.
7. cd installdirectory/Office51/bin (where installdirectory is the directory that you installed Office in)
8. ./soffice
9. If you want to run StarOffice with just the soffice command, you will need to add the location of soffice to your path. For example, if you installed StarOffice under your home directory, /home/jed, you will need to add /home/jed/Office51/bin to your path.

Review

StarOffice has its own desktop that you must use to open the other StarOffice applications. At first, I was a little taken aback by how StarOffice seems to intrude on the desktop. After a while, though, I got used to it and decided that StarOffice is quite a nice piece of software. It’s free, so you can’t beat the price. It has the ability to import and export Microsoft Office documents. However, like every other office suite, the conversion is not perfect, and many formatting details can be lost in the conversion. If your MS Office document uses any macro functions, you can expect even more problems.
The applications themselves are mature and easy to use. The look and feel of the word processor reminds me very much of WordPerfect 8. The mail client is nice, but there are a few issues I’d like to see resolved. The first one is that although StarMail supports multiple inboxes, it only allows you one outgoing email address. Therefore, all of your outgoing email has the same reply email address, regardless of which inbox’s message you are replying to. Also, I found there to be too many frames in the StarMail interface. For instance, StarMail removes the header from the message and displays it in it’s own frame. There are multiple layout choices, all of which have too many frames.
The font support in StarOffice leaves much to be desired. I don’t know if it is a problem with XFree86 or StarOffice, but the edges of the fonts look jagged instead of smooth. The same problem affects WordPerfect 8 for Linux. be desired. Hopefully XFree86 4.0 will improve this situation.
All in all, I think that StarOffice is a quality piece of software. Linux needs more productivity applications like this to make it attractive as a desktop operating system to home and business users.

AxY FTP, formerly known as wxFTP, is a graphical FTP client for X Windows based on the GTK+ libraries. The latest stable version is 0.5.1. It has a nice user interface with side-by-side windows representing the directory contents of both the local and remote computers.

AxY FTP Installation

AxY FTP is available in TAR format in both source code and precompiled binary form. The easiest installation method is to download a precompiled binary from the Official AxY FTP binary download site The name will be something similar to axyftp-0.5.1.linux-x86-glibc21-gtk12.tar.gz.

1. tar -xvzf axyftp-0.5.1.linux-x86-glibc21-gtk12.tar.gz
2. cd axyftp-0.5.1
3. make install

Post-installation

After installation, run the executable /usr/local/bin/axyftp &.

After installing AxY FTP, you will have to create profiles for all the servers that you wish to connect to in the AxY FTP Sessions window.

Review

AxY FTP is essentially a clone of the Ipswitch wsFTP utility for Windows. The interface is uncluttered and easy to use. The feature that I miss most is the ability to drop-and-drag files from one window to the other, thereby transferring them. Also, the cancel does not seem to work on occasion.

Where to Download

Official AxY FTP website

Many of you are probably familar with Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing PDF files and also as a Netscape plugin. Linux has other PDF viewers that come with some of the distributions. The original was ghostview. KDE and Gnome now have their own versions of ghostview called Kghostview and Gnome ghostview, respectively. However, I think Adobe Acrobat Reader makes the PDF files look better than ghostview. The colors seem crisper and the font is easier to read. See screenshots below. It uses its own set of fonts independent of XFree86.

Acrobat Installation

1. Download from Adobe.
2. tar -zxvf linux-ar-405.tar.gz
3. cd ILINXR.install
4. ./INSTALL
5. Type accept for user license.
6. Press enter to install in default directory /usr/local/Acrobat4.
7. Type y to create directory.
8. Either put the executable /usr/local/Acrobat4/bin/acroread in your path or create a symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin directory so all users can execute it without putting it in their path. To create symbolic link: ln -s /usr/local/Acrobat4/bin/acroread /usr/local/bin.

Acrobat as a Netscape Plugin

Adobe recognizes that there are still bugs in making Acrobat a Netscape plugin in Linux. There are three possible ways I have found as discussed below. I will discuss the one that worked best for me first.

Method One

This method seemed to work best of me. It adds Acrobat as an application helper instead of an integrated plugin that opens within the Netscape window.

1. Go the Edit–>Preferences–>Navigator–>Applications.
2. Modify the application for MIME type application/pdf to look as follows. Notice the command /usr/local/Acrobat4/bin/acroread %s. If it doesn’t work, try it without the %s at the end. Some versions of Mozilla won’t work with the %s.

Method Two

Acrobat comes with a script located at /usr/local/Acrobat4/Browser/netscape. The instructions say to run this script to launch Netscape with the Acrobat plugin integrated into the browser similar to the Windows version. The script prompts you for the Acrobat directory and the Netscape directory and then launches Netscape. If you type about:plugins in the location box, only Acrobat shows up although the other plugins I have seem to still work. This method works to bring up pdf files inside Netscape, but it requires you type the locations of the programs everytime you run Netscape just to use Acrobat.

Method Three

This method is not documented, but might work for you if the first two do not. It works for me, but sometimes produces error messages that either can be ignored or sometimes will not allow the pdf to be viewed at all.

1. Copy /usr/local/Acrobat4/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so to your Netscape plugins directory. This directory is usually /usr/lib/netscape/plugins or /usr/local/lib/netscape/plugins. Try both with the following instructions.
2. Start Netscape and type about:plugins in the location bar. It should now list nppdf.so as a plugin for Portable Document Format.
3. Go the Edit–>Preferences–>Navigator–>Applications, highlight the line for Portable Document Format, choose for it to be handled by Plugin and choose nppdf.so from the pulldown menu.
4. When you type about:plugins in the location bar, you should now see the plugin listed.

Macromedia has developed a version of its popular Shockwave plugin called Flash Player. Many websites embed Shockwave on their first page. This plugin is easy to install and works well with Netscape 4.0 and higher. In addition, the glibc version of Netscape must be used. It can be installed as a personal Netscape plugin or a global Netscape plugin.

Shockwave Installation

1. Download the setup file from Macromedia or from the Shockwave Download Center.
2. tar -xvzf flash_linux.tar.gz
3. cd Linux.
4. Copy ShockwaveFlash.class and libflashplayer.so to the /usr/lib/netscape/plugins directory or whatever your global Netscape plugin directory is located. You may also copy these two files to your personal Netscape plugins directory located at ~/.netscape/plugins/. However, if you choose the latter method, you must do so for each user on the machine.
5. Restart Netscape for the plugin to take effect.
6. Test the plugin installation by typing about:plugins in the Location window of Netscape (where you type the URL). You should now see Shockwave Flash and FutureSplash Player listed as a plugins from your personal plugins directory.

Where to Download

Macromedia Shockwave Download Center

linuxconf is Red Hat’s “all-in-one” configuration tool. It was written using the GTK libraries(the same as Gnome). In my personal use of linuxconf, I find it to be unreliable. For instance, even after saving and applying the changes, the changes do not show up when you view the configuration files from a terminal. If an error occurs while trying to make a change, linuxconf does not show you the error or tell you the changes were not made. Despite these problems, I have written a guide to configure your network card in linuxconf for those we like to use it. It usually works for this configuration issue assuming you choose the right network card module. If you choose the wrong one, it will not tell you — it just won’t load the module

Configuration

1. Start linuxconf as root.
2. Select Config–>Networking–>Client tasks->Basic host information from the left tree menu.
3. Set the hostname in the host name tab that appears.
4. Click on the Adaptor 1 tab and set the requested information as demonstrated in the example below making sure you choose the correct module for your card:
5. 
6. Click the Accept button at the bottom of the right tabbed pane.
7. Click the Quit button below the left tree menu.
8. At the Status of the system tabbed pane choose Quit. This will save and activate the changes and close linuxconf.

The SuSE distribution comes with a nice “all-in-one” configuration tool that uses the ncurses libraries to create the GUI. The ncurses libaries creates a graphical interface that can be viewed in a terminal or console without X Windows. In other words, you can use YaST even if you telnet to the system. This is good for servers or any machine on which you can not or do not want to run X Windows or xhost to.

Configuration

Sorry there are no screenshots. I promise to include some soon.

1. Start yast as root.
2. Select System administration –> Integrate hardware into system –> Configure networking device.
3. At the Network type prompt, select eth0 if you only have one ethernet card, eth1 if you are configuring your second card, etc.
4. Select the type of networking card you have in the list for Networking device type.
5. Choose Continue.
6. To set your networking numbers, from the main yast menu choose System administration –> Networking configuration –> Network base configuration.
7. Select the line that has eth0 as the Device(or eth1, etc. for the one you are configuring).
8. Press F6.
9. Enter your IP address, netmask, and default gateway at the prompts.
10. Choose continue.
11. Choose Exit YaST from the main menu.
12. Test networking configuration by pinging the gateway, telneting to another system, etc.

Our first GTK+ program will be nothing more than a basic window. There are no event handlers, which means that the window will not respond to any user input such as mouse clicks. Although clicking the X button on the title bar to exit the program will cause the window to disappear, the process is still active. You will have to press ctrl-c from the command line from which you executed the program in order to kill it.
When you compile the source code, please note that the quotes used in the command gcc -Wall -g window.c -o window `gtk-config –cflags` `gtk-config –libs` are single backquotes (the one on the ~ key). I don’t know why this is, but it won’t work any other way.
As you can see, it doesn’t take very much code to get something basic on the screen.

Remember that you will have to press ctrl-c in the terminal from which you executed the program in order to kill it.

Source Code

/*
*File name: window.c
*/

#include
#include

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
/*– Declare the GTK Widgets used in the program –*/
GtkWidget *window;

/*– Initialize GTK –*/
gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

/*– Create the new window –*/
window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);

/*– Display the window –*/
gtk_widget_show(window);

/*– Start the GTK event loop –*/
gtk_main();

/*– Return 0 if exit is successful –*/
return 0;
}

Compile the Source Code
gcc -Wall -g window.c -o window `gtk-config –cflags` `gtk-config –libs`

Execute the Program
./window

RPM stands for Red Hat Package Manager. It uses a RPM database to maintain a listing of all software installed using RPM including the last version installed. There are RPM switches to install, erase, update, and query the software database. Refer to the man pages of RPM for further information. There are too many switches to discuss there. Below are the most commonly used. RPM software packages can be recognized by their extension .rpm.

Using RPM

Legend for some of the examples above:

Where to Download

• Freshmeat
• Red Hat ftp Site for x86 RPMs
• Red Hat ftp Site for Alpha RPMs

Usually, the Linux kernel source code is installed with the operating system. If for some reason the kernel source is not installed, you will have to download and install them. Or perhaps you already have older kernel source installed but wish to upgrade to an entirely new kernel. In either case, you will need to download and install the source code for the kernel. Kernel sources can be found at the following sites:

www.kernelnotes.org kernel source archive
ftp.kernel.org FTP site

Kernel source code is usually distributed in tar format that has been compressed in bz2 or gz format. For example, downloadable kernel source files look something like linux-2.2.16.tar.gz or linux-2.2.16.tar.bz2. If you are not familiar with .gz and .bz2 file formats, see the gzip and gunzip: Files With .gz Extensions guide and the bzip2 and bunzip: Files With .bz2 Extensions guide.

Installing the Source Code

By convention, the /usr/src/linux directory is a symbolic link to the directory that actually contains the kernel sources. For example, if you are using Red Hat 6.2, the kernel sources are placed in /usr/src/linux-2.2.14. Going to the /usr/src/linux will redirect you to the /usr/src/linux-2.2.14 directory. However, if you have never had any kernel sources installed, it’s likely that you won’t see any files or directories named linux.
For the purpose of this guide, we will use linux-2.2.x for the kernel name. You should replace the x with the version number you are installing.

1. Place the kernel file you downloaded in the /usr/src directory. You must be root to do this.
2. If you downloaded the kernel in bz2 format, execute the following command:
   bunzip2 linux-2.2.x.tar.bz2 

   If you downloaded the kernel in gzip format, execute the following command:
   gunzip linux-2.2.x.tar.gz

   You should now have a file named linux-2.2.x.tar

3. Before you extract the tar file, you should be aware that the kernel will install itself in the linux directory. If you have source code from older kernels installed, the problem here is that the linux “directory” probably isn’t a directory at all. It is a symbolic link to another directory containing the older kernel source. In this case, you must remove the symbolic link with the following command:
   rm linux
4. tar -xvf linux-2.2.x.tar – Unarchive the tar file
5. mv linux linux-2.2.x – Rename the linux dir to linux-2.2.x
6. ln -s linux-2.2.x linux – Create a symbolic link from linux to linux-2.2.x

The kernel source code is now installed. To make sure everything was successful, issue the following command:

ls -al

For example, if you installed the 2.2.16 kernel source, you should see something similar to this:

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jul 29 12:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Aug 2 1998 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jul 29 12:59 linux -> linux-2.2.16
drwxr-xr-x 14 1026 101 4096 Jun 7 17:26 linux-2.2.16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bfox bfox 74557440 Jul 29 12:43 linux-2.2.16.tar

You can now remove the tar file if you wish with the following command:

rm linux-2.2.x.tar

Now go to the Configuring a New Kernel guide.