Linux + GNU = Humans Enabled

After being tasked with setting up some servers that need to use a local MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) (via SMTP) on our internal network, I found the setup for the Ubuntu 12.04 GNU/Linux exim4 MTA to be pleasingly simple. Easy Peasy, works for me! Assuming you already have a main mail server in your organization that you can use as a "smarthost" relay, run through these simple steps and you will be up and running with a local SMTP server on your Ubuntu GNU/Linux box in no time. 1.) Install the MTA package on your Ubuntu 12.04 GNU/Linux box: sudo apt-get install exim4-daemon-light 2.) Configure the MTA with this command and steps, replacing somedomain.com with your mail domain name: sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config Set postmaster email: postmaster@somedomain.com Select ' mail sent by smarthost; no local mail ' Set somedomain.com at the " System mail name " screen Set defaults (hit enter) until you get to the step below Enter mail.somedomain...

Screenshot of NX client connection to Ubuntu 12.04 with NX Free Ubuntu GNU/Linux comes pre-loaded with the capability to remotely connect to the graphical desktop of your machine by means of a "Desktop Sharing" utility based on the VNC protocol. Clients can connect with a VNC viewer, i.e., tightvnc, vncviewer, etc. While this may be a viable option for others, VNC has a few drawbacks that sent me looking for something a little more suited for my situation. Namely, I needed a speedy connection, and security. One problem with VNC is that it's a non-encrypted and therefore non-secure protocol. The workaround for this is to configure the server to tunnel VNC client connections through SSH sessions. Unfortunately, doing this requires extra configuration on both the server and the client. Another problem with VNC (at least one that I've experienced) is the laggy connections, which can make the user experience less than optimal. So in my search for a better altern...

So one day I'm looking at my Google + page and I get this notification of a message: "Can you help me to configure chip ralink rt2870 on Ubuntu(GNU/Linux), please?" I really can't imagine at all, I mean I am absolutely dumbfounded as to why this person would contact me.. Really, it's not like I post (on average) 5 stories about GNU/Linux a day or anything... haha.. Turns out the driver this person needed was one of the types where it hadn't made it into the Linux kernel just yet, but the source code was out there. And so a module had to be built from source and installed on the machine to make the wireless adapter work. Usually these types of problems are relatively easy to get fixed, because: a.) GNU/Linux is open source and so bugs can get fixed (or worked around) by anyone with the technical know-how, and b.) there are kind people out there that take their own time to post the specific step-by-step instructions to repair the problems. Howev...