Table of Contents for
Linux in a Windows World

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Linux in a Windows World by Roderick W Smith Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2005
  1. Cover
  2. Linux in a Windows World
  3. Dedication
  4. Preface
  5. Contents of This Book
  6. Conventions Used in This Book
  7. Using Code Examples
  8. Comments and Questions
  9. Safari Enabled
  10. Acknowledgments
  11. I. Linux’s Place in a Windows Network
  12. 1. Linux’s Features
  13. Linux as a Server
  14. Linux on the Desktop
  15. Comparing Linux and Windows Features
  16. Summary
  17. 2. Linux Deployment Strategies
  18. Linux Desktop Migration
  19. Linux and Thin Clients
  20. Summary
  21. II. Sharing Files and Printers
  22. 3. Basic Samba Configuration
  23. The Samba Configuration File Format
  24. Identifying the Server
  25. Setting Master Browser Options
  26. Setting Password Options
  27. Summary
  28. 4. File and Printer Shares
  29. Printing with CUPS
  30. Creating a Printer Share
  31. Delivering Printer Drivers to Windows Clients
  32. Example Shares
  33. Summary
  34. 5. Managing a NetBIOS Network with Samba
  35. Enabling NBNS Functions
  36. Assuming Master Browser Duties
  37. Summary
  38. 6. Linux as an SMB/CIFS Client
  39. Accessing File Shares
  40. Printing to Printer Shares
  41. Configuring GUI Workgroup Browsers
  42. Summary
  43. III. Centralized Authentication Tools
  44. 7. Using NT Domains for Linux Authentication
  45. Samba Winbind Configuration
  46. PAM and NSS Winbind Options
  47. Winbind in Action
  48. Summary
  49. 8. Using LDAP
  50. Configuring an OpenLDAP Server
  51. Creating a User Directory
  52. Configuring Linux to Use LDAP for Login Authentication
  53. Configuring Windows to Use LDAPfor Login Authentication
  54. Summary
  55. 9. Kerberos Configuration and Use
  56. Linux Kerberos Server Configuration
  57. Kerberos Application Server Configuration
  58. Linux Kerberos Client Configuration
  59. Windows Kerberos Tools
  60. Summary
  61. IV. Remote Login Tools
  62. 10. Remote Text-Mode Administration and Use
  63. SSH Server Configuration
  64. Telnet Server Configuration
  65. Windows Remote-Login Tools
  66. Summary
  67. 11. Running GUI Programs Remotely
  68. Using Remote X Access
  69. Encrypting X by SSH Tunneling
  70. VNC Configuration and Use
  71. Running Windows Programs from Linux
  72. Summary
  73. 12. Linux Thin Client Configurations
  74. Hardware Requirements
  75. Linux as a Server for Thin Clients
  76. Linux as a Thin Client
  77. Summary
  78. V. Additional Server Programs
  79. 13. Configuring Mail Servers
  80. Configuring Sendmail
  81. Configuring Postfix
  82. Configuring POP and IMAP Servers
  83. Scanning for Spam, Worms, and Viruses
  84. Supplementing a Microsoft Exchange Server
  85. Using Fetchmail
  86. Summary
  87. 14. Network Backups
  88. Backing Up the Linux System
  89. Backing Up with Samba
  90. Backing Up with AMANDA
  91. Summary
  92. 15. Managing a Network with Linux
  93. Delivering Names with DNS
  94. Keeping Clocks Synchronized with NTP
  95. Summary
  96. VI. Appendixes
  97. A. Configuring PAM
  98. The PAM Configuration File Format
  99. PAM Modules
  100. Sample PAM Configurations
  101. Summary
  102. B. Linux on the Desktop
  103. Configuring Applications and Environments
  104. Running Windows Programs in Linux
  105. File and Filesystem Compatibility
  106. Font Handling
  107. Summary
  108. Index
  109. Colophon

Appendix B. Linux on the Desktop

Although most of this book focuses on using Linux servers to help Windows desktop systems, Linux is beginning to find a home as a desktop OS. As a multipurpose OS, Linux can handle many desktop functions, and you may want to consider Linux in this role for many of the same reasons you’d consider Linux as a server OS—low cost, high reliability, remote administration capabilities, and so on. You might also want to use thin clients to access Linux, in which case this chapter applies to the system the thin clients access. Before deploying Linux as a desktop OS, though, you’ll have to know a bit about its capabilities in this role; that’s where this appendix comes in.

I begin with a look at Linux desktop applications, including a list of some common application categories and their Windows and Linux instantiations. Next is the issue of application configuration. This task is unusual in Linux because many applications, including the desktop environments that run when users log in, have both global and user configurations, so you may need to modify either type. Sometimes, you may find yourself unable to do what you want using native Linux applications, in which case Linux’s ability to run Windows applications is critical, so this issue is covered. Whether or not you can use Linux applications, your ability to access data can be important. This includes both filesystem access and file compatibility across applications. Next up is a common problem area for Linux desktop systems: font handling.

Linux Desktop Applications for All Occasions

Any attempt to use Linux as a desktop OS ultimately requires Linux desktop applications that are acceptable for your intended purpose. Although tools to run Windows applications are available in Linux (as described later in the Section B.3), these solutions are imperfect. If all you do is run Windows programs, you might as well use Windows as your OS.

Fortunately, an array of desktop applications are available for Linux, as summarized in Table B-1. Of course, not all these components are exactly equivalent. For instance, some of the Linux applications, such as mutt and cdrecord, are command-line tools, whereas the Windows applications are overwhelmingly GUI in nature. Exact features also differ, of course, and, in some cases, the basic purpose of tools aren’t equivalent. For instance, mkisofs and cdrecord work together to create a CD-R, while X-CD-Roast and Eroaster provide GUI frontends to these tools. In Windows, CD-R creation tools are usually all-in-one packages that do everything. To learn more about any of these programs, perform a web search or check your Linux installation medium to see if the program comes with your distribution.

Table B-1. Application categories and exemplars

Application category

Windows examples

Linux examples

Office Suite

Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, StarOffice, OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, KOffice, GNOME Office

Bitmap Graphics Editing

Adobe Photoshop, the GIMP

The GIMP

Scanning Software

TWAIN, VueScan

SANE, Kooka, VueScan

CD-R Creation

Easy Media Creator Deluxe, Nero

mkisofs, cdrecord, X-CD-Roast, Eroaster, K3b

Multimedia Playback

Windows Media Player, Winamp, Real

XMMS, ALSA Player, mpg123, Real, xine

PDF Creation and Viewing

Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

Ghostscript, Acrobat Reader, XPDF

Web Browsing

Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera

Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Konqueror

E-Mail Client

Outlook and Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Mail

Evolution, Netscape Mail, Thunderbird, KMail, pine, mutt

Instant Messenging

AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Jabber, X-Chat

GAIM, KAIM, talk, Kopete, X-Chat

Web Site Creation

FrontPage, Dreamweaver

Quanta, Nvu

If you don’t see an application category that you need in Table B-1, don’t panic! This table is intended to provide only a few quick pointers for some of the most common desktop tools. Try performing a web search on the category name and Linux. You might also check your distribution, particularly if it provides a GUI installation tool with categorized sets of software. Many Linux sites, such as http://www.linux.org, http://www.sourceforge.net, and http://www.freshmeat.net, also provide pointers to Linux software by category.

One critically important Linux desktop software component doesn’t appear in Table B-1: the desktop environment. This is a collection of tools—most are fairly small by themselves—that together create the familiar set of desktop icons, program-launch tools, and so on that users see when they log in to the computer. Windows provides only one common desktop environment, which is bundled into the OS. In Linux, you have a choice between GNOME, KDE, XFce, XPde, and others. This choice is covered in more detail in Section B.2.3.