As explained by the HowToGeek people,

“Virtual machines allow you to run any operating system in a window on your desktop. You can install the free VirtualBox or VMware Workstation (both of them free), download a Linux distribution such as CentOS or Ubuntu, and install that Linux distribution inside the virtual machine like you would install it on a standard computer.

When you need to boot up your Linux system, you can do it in a window on your desktop — no need for rebooting and leaving all your Windows programs behind. Everything but demanding games and advanced 3D effects should work just fine.

Here are two interesting YouTube videos:

Installing Centos7 in Oracle VM VirtualBox

Installing CentOS 7 in VMWare Workstation 10

Enjoy!

Here is my story about how I accidentally discovered Linux sixteen years ago.

As a Lecturer at MCCI at that time, I wanted to make sure that all students and academics could access the Internet from all computers found in the institution. I tried doing that by setting up a Windows NT server to share the single dial-up connection we had then but I was getting a lot of technical issues.

By sheer luck, I got a copy of PC Quest magazine, an inexpensive computer magazine from India, and it came with a Red Hat Linux 6.2 CD. I didn’t know much about Linux (I had briefly used it as a student in France) but I was quite conversant with UNIX. I decided to give Red Hat Linux a try. I “borrowed” a small PC (Pentium 133 with only 32Mb of RAM!) and installed Red Hat Linux 6.2 on it. A few days later, just by methodically following the instructions which came with the operating system, I had a fully functional DHCP server, a DNS server, a firewall and the sole Internet connection was being shared by everyone thanks to a Proxy server and IP masquerading.

This is the moment I fell in love with Linux. Some time later, I removed Windows NT from the main server, saving money on licenses in the process, and replaced it with Red Hat Linux. This setup worked perfectly with practically no issues for a number of years. Since the past sixteen years, I have deployed Linux at Knowledge7 and in many other enterprises and, each time, everything worked well and was very cost-effective.

How you can master Linux too

Many people have the wrong impression that administering Linux is very difficult. But it does not have to be.

I created Knowledge7 in 2009 to provide the best Linux training in Mauritius. Since then, we have trained about 300 Linux professionals. We are happy that they have found tremendous value in our courses, especially as more and more companies in Mauritius now rely on Linux servers and appliances to power their mission-critical applications.

Thanks to our highly-rated Linux System Administration training, you or your staff can quickly learn how to install,configure and administer this powerful operating system according to industry best-practices.

Trainees use the latest CentOS Linux 7 (fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7) during all practical sessions. I am the sole trainer for the whole course and I will gladly share my 16 years of experience of Linux with everyone.

Contact me on 5834-9001 if you need any further information.

We are looking for a new venue to host our upcoming Linux System Administration training.

The training will take place on Wednesdays 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 March 2016 (i.e. five consecutive Wednesdays) from 9:00 to 16:00. We will not need the training room on other days.

Ideally we need:

• One training room for 12 trainees and 1 trainer
• All required furniture (tables and chairs)
• Air-conditioning
• White board and RGB projector
• Electric sockets for each trainee and the trainer
• Appropriate for an MQA-approved training
• In Ébène, Quatre-Bornes or Port-Louis

Internet connectivity and wired networking is very desirable but optional as we can bring our own Internet connection (Emtel Home & Office) and networking equipment (switch and cables) if needed. We also have our own RGB projector if needed.

We will also bring our own computers (12 Dell desktop PCs with screen / keyboard / mouse) and a server. Between two training sessions (i.e. from one Wednesday to the next one), we would like to be able to leave all our equipment (computers,  networking devices, etc.) at the venue but fully locked and secured.

Please email Avinash Meetoo at , call him on 5834-9001 or leave a comment if you have (or you know) a suitable venue to rent for our upcoming training.

Thanks.

According to Wikipedia, “systemd is a suite of system management daemons, libraries, and utilities designed as a central management and configuration platform for Linux”. systemd replaces a collection of existing subsystems, most notably the SysV init. systemd was initially developed by Lennart Poettering and Kay Sievers.

Lennart Poettering has written a number of insightful and very interesting posts on systemd which I would like to share with you all:

• systemd for Administrators, Part 1
• systemd for Administrators, Part 2
• systemd for Administrators, Part 3

systemd has been adopted by a number of major distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo and openSUSE.

Naturally, we cover systemd in our Linux courses.

Have fun learning systemd.

Top500 is a website which lists and describes the most powerful supercomputers on the planet. 97% of them run Linux. The majority of mobile devices on the planet run Android, a Linux distribution. The cloud is powered by Linux including the Google and Amazon cloud services. More and more appliances are now powered by Linux, including typical ADSL modems, firewalls and TVs. I am not even mentioning the myriad of IoT devices. Even without those, there are more devices running Linux on the planet than devices running Windows…

Not bad at all, hehe, for an operating system created twenty years ago by a young guy still at university.

Linux has won. And this is just the beginning.

It is important for all of us to know how to use Linux. It is a question of staying relevant.

A lot of people regularly ask me what Linux distribution they should use. Naturally, I always tell them to use the one they are the most comfortable with.

Of course, some applications, most notably Oracle software, are certified on only a few distributions so, if the objective is to have, say, the Oracle Application Server running, the choice of the distribution is limited. On the other hand, if the objective is to have a server running an open-source software such as the Apache Web Server, then there is no restriction at all: you can use whatever distribution you would like.

Personally, I tend to favour CentOS Linux. The reason is that, over the years, I have become quite knowledgeable in RedHat-based Linux distributions such as RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) but I prefer using a free Linux distribution as opposed to pay for support. Next week, we will run a Linux training at Knowledge7 and the distribution we will use is CentOS Linux 7.

For historical reasons, I also use Debian Linux on some of my cloud-based servers. A few years ago, there was no automatic migration path from one version of CentOS Linux to another (e.g. from 5 to 6) and I couldn’t accept having to reinstall an operating system from scratch each time a major version was released. This is why I chose Debian Linux which, since it’s inception twenty years ago, can be upgraded to the latest version just by issuing the appropriate command. For the past ten years, Debian Linux has been rock-solid on my servers and there is absolutely no reason for me to change if it ain’t broke.

Linux or something else…

We Linux enthusiasts sometimes forget that other open-source (i.e. free) operating systems exist. One good example is FreeBSD which is a descendant of the original UNIX (by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson) and which is adored by its users.  All usual open-source software run very well on FreeBSD including web servers, databases, etc. I know quite a lot of people, in Mauritius and elsewhere, who run FreeBSD on their production servers and they are very happy.

What is interesting with the open-source ecosystem is that we can try multiple operating systems for free before we decide.

Have fun!

During the next few days, we will train a number of people in various Linux technologies. The list of topics is as follows:

• Introduction to Linux
• Text Editing and Processing
• User management and file permissions
• Administrative tasks (Control services, Logging)
• Networking (and the Secure Shell)
• Devices and File-systems
• Package management and installation
• Process management
• Shells, Scripting and Automation
• Virtualization and Containerization

As you can see, there is quite a lot to cover in five days but we, at Knowledge7, will do our best and, I’m sure, the participants will too.

Last year, Sarvesh Nundalallee, a Business Studies teacher at Curepipe College, in collaboration with Knowledge7 launched an Android application called Business Studies Volume 1. The aim of the app was to provide Business Studies students (at A-level e.g. Higher School Certificate and first year university) a way of preparing for their exams while on the move.

Following the huge success of Business Studies Volume 1, Sarvesh Nundalallee and Knowledge7 are glad to announce the launching of the full Business Studies Q&A application. While the first version covered the Business Environment section of the program, this new version covers all six chapters of the program namely Business and its environment, People in the organisation, Marketing, Operations and project management, Finance and accounting and Strategic management.

Study whenever you feel like doing so

Time is a very precious resource for students. This application allows you to make the most of it by giving you the flexibility to study anytime, anywhere without having to carry a heavy Business Studies book.

Since the app works without an Internet connection, you just have to take out your smartphone or tablet and start browsing through a huge repertoire of questions and answers from exam papers of the past ten years. It allows you to make good use of your free time.

Know exactly what examiners expect from you

Many students are not aware of examiners’ expectations regarding the structure of answers to essay-type questions. Although marking schemes are available to students, many find it difficult to answer appropriately. The Business Studies Q&A app provides a list of model answers. This allows students to better understand how to answer correctly for maximum marks.

Avinash Meetoo, Founder and CEO of Knowledge7, believes that this application will be very beneficial to Business Studies students and that the future of learning resides in leveraging the use of technology to enhance the learning experience. He therefore invites other teachers who would like embark on a similar adventure to contact him on 5493-9394 or send him an email at .

Downloading the app for free

The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store. Questions and answers for the first chapter are free while questions and answers for the other chapters can be activated through in-app purchases. Get one chapter for $1.49 or all chapters for only $4.99.

Have fun studying with Business Studies Q&A. Do not hesitate to share with your friends and family.