Portable Dream

Portable Dream in a Dream linux concept of having a full Dream linux installation embedded in a pen drive,
SD Card, Compact Flash card or USB HDD.

With Dream linux fully installed and running in such devices you can literally have it on your pocket!

So, no more complaints from your colleagues that you are trying to “destroy” their machines installing Dream linux alongside of THAT other Operating System. Now you only use his/her box as a host to the beautiful Linux of your dreams!

And if you need to even have a common place to share files between the two operating system, it’s just a
matter of pre-divide your device in more than one partition, install Dream linux in one or two of them using either Dream linux Installer (DLI for short) or DLI_OEM Installer (DLI_OEM for short) and there you go!

When using the classical DLI, choose the option “External Disk (full portable DL). It’s advisable to use ext2as the partition for Dream linux, when installing to a pen drive or any Flash type device. This simple care will make your device’s life longer. In such case you should not use a swap partition as well, since it cause the disk to be
read and write a lot, decreasing its life endurance. However, you are not prevented from using any partition and partition filesystems scheme you wish. It’s a free world and you are a free person moving on the free and open environment of Linux!

When using DLI_OEM to install, you are supposed to dedicate the whole disk to Dream linux, no otherThe Portable Dream installation to a USB HDD have no restrictions at all.

companion is allowed in such case. However, you are still free to use any filesystem you wish and you are
allowed to have, at maximum, a root partition, a home partition and a swap partition. This will be perfect for the companies desiring to embed Dream linux in their commercial boxes, since this tool completes the installation process upon the first boot by the user, when the name of the box, root password, user name and user password are requested to complete the installation. The machine will automatically reboot then, and the user will be fully registered to the system from that point on.

Live Dream & Persist Dream

Live Dream:

Live Dream is, at first, a copy of Dream linux iso to a pen drive or any other flash type device. I say at first because, differently than Dreamlinux iso CD/DVD, your Live Dream can grow or shrink with no need to make
a new install. It’s just a matter of adding or removing Dream linux modules to the correct folder. Applications
will go to modules apps, whilst kernel goes to /modules/base and window manager goes to /modules/win man.

Besides, if you don’t use the whole device space for Dreamlinux, it will create a fat32 partition on the free space. This way you can share files between Dreamlinux and THAT OTHER OS.

Remember that you can add/remove applications, themes, icons, wallpapers, fonts, etc, (in a word, customize) while in the Live session and the installer will reflect your current running environment, with your additions/removals.

Try to download additional Dream linux modules from our website and drop it to /modules/apps and reboot. You’ll have new applications magically added.

Persist Dream

The only difference between Live Dream and Persist Dream is that, while Live Dream does not preserve your additions/removals, configurations while in the Live session, Persist Dream will.

So, Live Dream is more geared towards users who have space limited pen devices. From 2GB on
Persist Dream is recommended, since it will persist your modifications. And when you decide to
install it to a HDD, all your customizations will be present in the installed Dream linux.

You want to consider a Linux-based solution to a computing problem. Your manager says he or she doesn’t want any Linux anywhere, period. The next move takes careful consideration. Executives invest more in pride and face than any Samurai, and you can’t safely confront them head-on or contradict them directly. You can, however, still integrate Linux into your company. In fact, every large company almost assuredly has Linux installed somewhere in the network already.

Web servers

It is no exaggeration to proclaim the Web built its reputation
List all company Web servers in a report, and show the following for each server:on Apache software running on Linux servers, and over two thirds of identified Web servers on the Internet are still running on Apache. Every large company has Apache installations somewhere. Many enterprise networks use Apache for specialty applications within their computer center for management, internal portals, or reporting functions, if not public Web services.

• Installation date
• Uptime
• Web server software
• Operating system supporting the Web server
• Applications running on the Web server
• Investment in hardware and software
• Employees relying on the Web server
• Customers relying on the Web server
• Partners relying on the Web server
• Administration time charged to the Web server
• Performance (time per transactions served)
• When possible, include outsourced servers in the report

When this information can be massaged within a report format, sort for Apache Web servers running on Linux. Company executives will be surprised to see how much their company already relies on Linux systems.

Yes, you can get the same information for existing Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) servers, although reporting limitations of the platform may make it more difficult. List comparable Web servers hosted by Linux and Microsoft IIS side by side on a spreadsheet and let the numbers do you talking for you.

Better yet, make a pie chart for managers who can’t read. Linux will have the largest slice of uptime, while Microsoft will have the largest slice of administrative overhead. If that’s not true, you haven’t found all the numbers for the Microsoft IIS installation, because service calls and patches can be hidden throughout help desk, maintenance, security, and infrastructure budgets.

Small servers and utility servers

Linux systems may be in branches (small file and print servers), at outsource providers (Web and e-mail service providers), or in the guts of the network (DNS or e-mail servers). Search through inventory records of remote offices for all-in-one servers and NAS (Network Attached Storage) boxes. These small servers are almost always Linux-based. Ask your network administrators about their DNS, DHCP, and e-mail servers, because many are Linux as well. Firewalls also belong to the “almost always Linux” class as well.

Once you find those existing Linux servers, make a report showing:

• Installation date
• Uptime
• Packets (or files, or emails, etc.) processed
• Investment in hardware and software
• Maintenance time necessary
• Administration time required
• Users supported (or servers supported if applicable)

Clusters and supercomputers, and big iron

High ticket purchases for clusters, supercomputers, and mainframes happen rarely. However, a quick survey of operating system options for clusters and supercomputers show a strong common thread: Linux.

Linux isn’t rocket science, but rocket scientists trust Linux.

The Linux High Performance Computing lists over 25 Linux cluster vendors waiting to supply products from a single quote form. Another source of information is the Linux Clustering Information Center. Supercomputer tire-kickers will see the Linux name on many of the Top 500 Supercomputer Sites information paragraphs.

Nothing says enterprise-enabled more loudly than big iron from IBM. Years of zSeries and S/390 mainframe support for Linux as a platform for enterprise applications to super-computing answer concerns about whether Linux can scale in the modern enterprise.

The list of IBM supported mainframe applications is long and grows every day. Arguments concerning the ability of Linux to support enterprise-level applications will stop after perusing the IBM solutions pages for mainframe Linux applications and services.

Lest executives believe IBM’s Linux applications are driven only by a desire to sell their zSeries hardware, keep the link for independent software vendors (ISV) handy. Hundreds of applications for Linux-based mainframes are available from third parties.

Summary

Help your executives understand that Linux is A) well proven in the enterprise, and B) already in place somewhere in your own company. Once management understands Linux performs critical but low-profile services today, adding higher-profile installations will be an easy next step.

After all, some VP somewhere up the line in every big company authorized the Linux installations already in place. The decision has been made to utilize the performance, reliability, and cost efficiency of Linux systems, so current management should continue forward with the same winning strategy.

You’re a busy professional, right? And all day you have to work with multiple applications at once. A Web browser for doing research, an email client for keeping in constant contact with colleagues, an office suite, a graphics program, and the list goes on. All of these applications take up valuable desktop space. Since you are now familiar with managing desktop application windows, things couldn’t get any easier right? Wrong! The Linux desktop offers an added feature called virtual desktops to ease your multitasking woes. Let’s take a closer look.

Even though I use KDE for the following examples, virtual desktops are supported by every desktop environment and window manager on Linux.can be sorted by running them on separate desktop areas. For example, you can set up a virtual desktop for each group. You can set up a separate virtual desktop for Office applications, email, graphics, etc. Then, to move between applications, simply switch desktops without the need to minimize, maximize, or shade the application windows.

When you start KDE, you should see an area on the desktop panel that has square icons with numbers on them. This is the desktop pager applet. If it is not present you can add it by right-clicking an empty area on the desktop panel. Then, using the pop-up menu, select Add->Applet->Pager. Each square icon on the pager indicates a separate virtual desktop. To switch from one desktop to another click the corresponding icon on the pager applet. The icon for the currently selected virtual desktop, or active desktop, will appear colored on the applet.

While working on one desktop area, open an application. Then switch to another virtual desktop. The application that you just started disappears from view. It is still running on the other virtual desktop, so don’t worry. Now start another application in the newly selected desktop. Repeat this for every virtual desktop. Now you have multiple application windows open on each desktop.

Navigating virtual desktops

Like everything on Linux, there are multiple ways to switch between virtual desktops. You can use the pager applet, the desktop pager, or the keyboard shortcut. The key board shortcut is the most convenient of the three. Press the Ctrl and Tab keys simultaneously to switch to the next desktop, in numerical order. A windowless pop-up dialog appears highlighting the desktop to switch to. To switch to a specific desktop press the Ctrl-Tab combination, with the Ctrl key still pressed release the Tab key, use the Tab key again until the desired desktop is highlighted, and release the Ctrl key.

Applications can reside across all virtual desktops, or on a single virtual desktop. To change an application’s behavior across the virtual desktops, right-click the titlebar — or the button on the taskbar — and highlight “To Desktop”. Then choose to show the application on all or a specific desktop.

Customizing virtual desktops

To customize the virtual desktops, right-click the desktop and select “Configure Desktop” from the pop-up menu. Select ‘Multiple Desktops’ from the list on the left to view the configuration dialog on the right. At the top of the configuration dialog you will see a slider and a small area indicating the number of virtual desktops. Below that you will see an area labeled “Desktop Names” with a text box besides desktops 1 through 16. To change the number of virtual desktops available, drag the slider or click the arrows on the right side of the number box.

Don’t worry about losing applications while decreasing the number of virtual desktops. If a desktop is removed that has an application running on it, then the application will be moved to the next available desktop.

As you change the number of available virtual desktop, you will notice that the entry boxes in the second section change. Unavailable desktops are grayed out. Each virtual desktop is named ‘Desktop’ plus it’s number by default. To change the name of each virtual desktop, select the text box next to a Desktop and type a name for that desktop. For my example, I named desktops one through four Office, Email, Web, and Graphics.

At the bottom of the window you will notice a check box labeled “Mouse wheel over desktop switches desktop”. This is for those of you with mice that have a scroll wheel button. With this enabled, scrolling the mouse wheel over an empty space on the desktop will change the the next virtual desktop numerically in the direction that the wheel is scrolled scrolled. Click the check box to enable or disable this feature.

Once you have finished configuring the virtual desktop to your tastes, click the ‘OK’ button. You will notice that the pager applet changes to indicate the new number of virtual desktops. To tweak the pager applet a little more, right-click the applet and highlight the ‘Show’ entry on the context menu. In the submenu you will see several options including:

• Number – displays the virtual desktop number in each icon
• Name – Shows the name of each virtual desktop
• None – Doesn’t show anything on the icon. Only useful with the preview option enabled.
• Preview – Shows a preview of each desktop by indicating applications with a gray box inside each icon.
• Transparent – Makes the applet transparent. Useful if you have configured the desktop panel to be transparent

The desktop pager

Another application to further expand on the virtual desktops is the desktop pager. This little application works similarly to the pager applet. To open the desktop pager, right-click the applet and select “Launch Pager”. You can drag the pager to any location on the desktop. By default the pager is available on all virtual desktops. To make the pager always in view, right-click it’s titlebar and select ‘Advanced->Keep Above Others’ from the menu. While the desktop pager takes up even more space on the desktop, it is useful when using applications in fullscreen mode where the desktop panel isn’t viewable.

On of the more interesting features of the desktop pager, not available on the pager applet, is the ability to drag applications from one desktop to another. This eliminates the need to switch desktops at all. Instead you can drag an application to the active desktop to work with it, and then drag it back when you are finished. This and other options can be activated in the desktop pager configuration. To access it’s configuration, right-click the desktop pager and select “Configure KPager”. Other options include:

• Show name – displays the desktop name.
• Show number – displays the desktop number.
• Show background – displays a preview of the desktop background of each desktop.
• Show windows – displays the application windows that are open on each desktop.

The appearance of the application icons in the pager can be changed in the “Type of Window” section of the configuration. You can choose Plain, for a simple square representation of each application; Icon, to show an icon of each application; or Pixmap, which displays a preview of the application. The layout of the desktop pager can also be changed to either Classical, to show to rows of desktop windows; Horizontal for on horizontal row; and Vertical for one vertical row.

Virtual desktops can provide a newfound freedom while using Linux, so have fun using them.