Lately it seems there’s a lot of hatred directed at Linux. I hear it on certain podcasts, read it on certain blogs and read it in certain articles. Some of these haters are feeling the heat of more and more people switching to Linux. Most of them make their livelihoods sucking on the Windows tit. They feel threatened and scared. It’s the human reaction of your world crumbling around you.

Over the past few weeks several people have asked me if it’s possible to set up a Windows XP/Linux dual-boot system on a PC that already has Windows XP installed on it, and if it’s possible, how easy is the process. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s pretty easy to do.

If you’ve just started using Linux, you’ve probably noticed an interesting phenomenon. You’ve entered a group of rugged individualists, non-conformists, people who know how to pull things apart and put them back together, people who don’t like being spoon fed. There’s plenty about Linux and the various desktops and applications in open source that’s easy and fun to use.

You know how when someone accidentally deletes their files or their hard drive crashes or some other apocalyptic event occurs, the first thing people ask is “where is your backup”? Of course, we’ve all seen it (*ahem* been there :/ ). It’s a bit unintuitive, because backups have no equivalent in the real world. If you drive your car into a lake, there’s no way to get it back.

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) servers are very popular for their ease of use and flexibility. They’re also easy to initiate, because the components are easy to aquire and there’s a lot of documentation available to help with getting started. Read on to find some of the best resources available for creating your own home LAMP server, from installation to maintenance.

For those Linux users who have multiple networked computers and who want to periodically want to get material off of their linux boxes onto their windows computer, many people suggest samba. A much simpler application for someone who does not want to tranfer files the other direction (Windows->Linux) is KPF. It comes with KDE by default, and is very easy to set up.

Ubuntu has become the most popular Linux distribution for new Linux users. It's easy to install, easy to use, and usually "just works." But moving to a different operating system can be confusing, no matter how well-designed it is. Here's a list of tips that might save you some time while you're getting used to Ubuntu.

Once Linux gets enough market share for it to make sense for hackers to start hitting Linux hard, then viruses attempts will start coming. We must remember that where there’s a will there’s a way and that way will probably be found. Viruses, spy-ware, rootkits, etc are big money and people will do anything for that money.

Nathan’s basic question, however, can be paraphrased: why do so many MCSEs have such a hard time learning to use Linux? why do they think there’s no effective help available to them?