turnkey linux

wags007

Turnkey Linux turns everything up to 12 on their 4th B-Day…

The guys over at Turnkey Linux have released version 12 of their awesome server appliance core platform.  They also added 60+ new appliances.  If you haven’t given them a shot I highly suggest it especially if you are new to Linux.  Heck I am an old time Linux user and love the ability to just download an appliance like the one they that comes setup with the Redmine project management server and Git, Bazaar, Mercurial and Subversion SCM.  Everyone of them is setup and ready for you to use.  Just download the appliance in any of 7 formats from ISO images to OpenVZ VMs and so much in between.  The best feature I have come to love and rely on is their server back and migration tool.  They call it TKLBAM – AKA the TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration system.  It allows you to take any currently existing system and back it up to S3.  Then restore the backup to a new machine leaving you in the same state but on updated software.  All the benefits but none of the pain.  It’s an awesome idea and works well.  Watch for a full review and description of my experience coming soon. 

One really import change is their migration away from Ubuntu to Debian.  Check out the article for a very clear description and explanation of why.  The reasons are sound and hopefully the right people are listening.

Most of all though we would like to wish them a Happy 4th B-Day.  Let’s hope there are plenty more in their future.

wags007

Pre-Built Virutal Machines will Let you JumpStart your next project…

Are you thinking about using Joomla, Tomcat, or a traditional LAMP Stack?  Do you need it up litterally Tommorrow so you can start developing a solution?  Don’t worry there are solutions out there to get you up and running a base configuration before in less time that it will take you to read this article.  This link to itworld.com has a great article about two solutions providers.  Getting servers up can’t be any easier with the solutions provided by both Jumpbox and Turnkey Linux.  Our experience so far has been that these pre-built servers proved an awesome jump start and save hours and days of reading documentation about how to set up the software.  Very often the control panels that these two companies include can help even teams of people with minimal Linux Skills to get systems up and running.  All of these machines should run in VMWare, Virutal Box, Parrallels and any other technolgy that supports the virtual disk/system standards.  In our upcoming article about Zenworks and Groundwork wouldn’t have been possible if I would have installed the systems from scratch.  The use of their Virutal Machines let me get the system up and running in about an hour each.  I didn’t need to setup MySQL, Apache, or anything else just download it and started it up on my VMWare server host.  So the next time you are planning a project check out these great companies and the solutions they offer before you spend to much time trying to figure stuff out before you know you have choosen the right software.