Fog is a Linux-based, free and open source computer imaging solution for Windows XP and Vista that ties together a few open-source tools with a php-based web interface. Fog doesn’t use any boot disks, or CDs; everything is done via TFTP and PXE. Also with fog many drivers are built into the kernel, so you don’t really need to worry about drivers (unless there isn’t a linux kernel module for it). Fog also supports putting an image that came from a computer with a 80GB partition onto a machine with a 40GB hard drive as long as the data is less than 40GB.
Fog also includes a graphical Windows service that is used to change the hostname of the PC, restart the computer if a task is created for it, and auto import hosts into the FOG database. The service also installs printers, and does simple snap-ins.
May 13, 2009
My Experience with Free Ghost (FOG)
May 9, 2009
Login Graphically to A Computer in a Remote Location
The ability to login graphically into any computer from a remote location has a number of uses. In my case it allows me to create a setup where students in my school can easily login graphically into the universities computer lab and use many of the applications which are installed there (like Matlab which is only licensed to run on our lab computers) It also allows me to log into my work computer from home. To create this setup we would need a tool called Freenx.
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April 17, 2009
An easy way to Spilt or Merge PDF Files in Linux
I work as the IT guy of a school that runs free software on all our computers. So far majority of our computing needs has been met by free software. ( all of them if we exclude matlab and some freedom hating multimedia codecs.) One area that has been quite shaky is a good tool that can be used for merging different pdf files into one. There is a tool called pdftk but its command-line and while i don’t have a problem using it, its hardly the tool i want to recommend for our staffs and students, so when this morning i saw a dent on identi.ca about a tool called PDF-Shuffler which among other things provide an easy way to merge PDF files i decided to to Investigate.
PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split PDF documents. You can also rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface.
April 12, 2009
Give Ubuntu Jaunty An Apple Flavour
So this month i decide to give my laptop an apple flavor, God knows how much i hate Macs and some element of their interface, like the lack of right click-right out of the box (i initially stated that right clicks doesn’t work out of the box because the mac mini we have at work doesn’t do right-clicks but i have been informed that right-clicking on the mac does work if you have the right mouse), most of all the lack of freedom and ownership it and every other proprietary Operating system makes me feel.
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March 18, 2009
Looking for an easy way to pastebin? Just pastbinit !
In case you dont know what a pastebin is, here is a brief description.
Pastebin is a web application which allows its users to upload snippets of text, usually samples of source code, for public viewing. It is very popular in IRC channels where pasting large amounts of text is considered bad etiquette. A vast number of pastebins exist on the Internet, suiting a number of different needs and provided features tailored towards the crowd they focus on most.
