Today security has become one of the most sought after
concerns for any network administrator. With outbreak of recent
viruses, spams, adwares & spy wares (all types of viruses ) a
network administrator runs helter-kelter all the day to just keep
the system virus free.

But in a typical IT department that is perhaps how a network
administrator justifies his day’s salary.

On the contrary there are very strong and robust operating
systems which hardly gets affected by these viruses.

- UNIX , BSD (Barkley Source Devices) and Linux are
to name a few such operating systems.

The file systems of these OS’s are not like windows. Windows
file systems are FAT16 ,FAT32 or NTFS type. Here one can save a
file anywhere he likes. (Just like saving your file at C:\ or at
C:\xyz\abc or at c:\windows\Documents\) but in Unix , BSD or in
Linux an user can save his / her file only in /home/user-home/
directory only. This gives a very robust kind of data directory
structure and immunity to virus attack.

In ext2 or ext3 file structure (Linux file system) the ‘file
permission’ adds up to this immunity. In linux / Unix everything is
considered to be a file . It can be your pen drive ,it can be your
TV tuner card or a webcam or a simple presentation. Unless one
has the right kind of permission one cannot read , write or edit a
file or device.

Unix / Linux are born with network whereas the
windows are born first and networked later. On a networked
environment it is natural for Unix / or Linux to work relentlessly
without any virus attack than that of a windows kind of PC.

It has been seen that on a dual boot computer (Both windows
and linux installed) the windows is affected by many viruses
whereas when it is booted on Linux it works just fine.

The ext2 / ext3 file system can mount a FAT16 / FAT32 or NTFS on
same computer whereas the vice versa is not possible. Such is
the power of Linux.

The outlook or the outlook express is a potential plague house of
viruses. Whereas in linux the evolution email system works with
no threats at all. In case your office uses lotus domino email
system you can use thunderbird email sysetm which works just
like domino. Setting up of thunderbird email is also very easy.

Nonetheless it is identical to outlook. The windows viruses just
can do nothing to it. You open it , double click it and it just stays
there and does nothing . The reason being the virus which is
mostly a FAT16,FAT32 or an NTFS file is trying to work on an ext2
/ ext3 system which does not understand it’s commands.

The strongest aversion for not using Linux is it’s uncommonness.
But those days are past now. Now-a-days a Linux desktop is as
easy and as powerful (if not more) as an windows desktop.

The latest openoffice 2.1 (A SUN’s product now) can ‘open’ files
as well as ’save as’ in not less than 200 types of formats (this
includes DOC,XLS,PPT also ). The openoffice can straight away
edit / save a file in PDF Format !!!

For those who love to work on MS ACCESS would love to work
straight away on MySQL through OpenOffice. MySQL is at least
100 times more powerful than MSACCESS yet MySQL is free.

In a typical Government environment what one does on a
Desktop PC can merrily do on a Linux Desktop. The latest
Mandriva or the SUSE linux are very very colorful and far more
easy to install. Just brake the initial inertia of Windows and install
it on your Desktop or Laptop. You will feel the power of Nirvana
from windows slavery.

The linux servers are very robust , takes less memory hog
besides being highly scalable. Majority of servers on internet
runs on Linux (Viz google , rediff ,kerala govt,CG govt, Goa govt,
IIT Mumbai)
Therefore It is high time now to start harnessing the power of
Linux. Both server and desktop models are available for free in
any Linux distribution CD. Installation is also hassle free and
clean. And once installed it is only joy and joy. Nightmare of
viruses will halt on the login prompt. Believe me satisfaction is
guaranteed.