This section encompasses various resources i.e., interviews of Linux giants , comparison of Windows and Linux tools and some tips & tricks for Linux users.The tips & tricks section will be updated regularly.

Interviews:

RichardStallmaninterview.txt          Linus Torvalds interview-1        LinusTorvaldsinterview-2.rtf

Linux & Windows - Tool comparison:

            This table presents the list of Windows tools and its Linux alternatives. Linux tools are free and they are available as a part of the Linux operating system but whereas Windows tools are not free.

	Linux	Windows
Editors	Open Office	Microsoft Office
Database	MySQL	Microsoft SQL Server
E-mail client	Thunderbird, Evolution, Kmail	Microsoft Outlook
Browser	Firefox, Konquerer, Opera	Internet Explorer
Image Editors	Gimp	Adobe Photoshop
Diagram	Kivio	Microsoft Visio
Web Server	Apache Web Server	Microsoft IIS
Accounting	GNUCash	Microsoft Money
Webpage Editors	Amaya, Quanta Plus	Microsoft FrontPage
Media Players	MPlayer	Windows Media Player
CD Burning	K3b	Windows
Firewalls	Snort, PortSentry	Windows Firewall
Instant Messaging Clients	Gaim, kopete	MSN

Tips & Tricks:

1. Recover lost root password:

            Lost your Root Password?. You can recover control over your machine. At LILO prompt type "linux single" instead of linux . This will start your machine in single user mode, and you wll not be asked any password or user name. Type "passwd" at the prompt, then it will ask for new password. Type your new password and quit from single user mode. Now you can logon using new root password.

2. Access Windows partitions from Linux:

            You will be able to access DOS/Windows partitions within Linux. As root edit the file /etc/fstab and add a new entry with these values for each column: /dev/hda1 (or your DOS partition), /mnt/cdrive , vfat , defaults , 0 , 0 . Then issue the command "mkdir/mnt/cdrive" followed by "mount/mnt/cdrive". Your partition is now accessible as /mnt/cdrive. Use the same procedure to add new partitions (change the device partition number-hda(x) and the directory).

3. Viewing startup messages:

            The dmesg command provides an easier way to see the boot messages than trying to read them before they scroll off the screen. When Linux boots, the kernel startup messages are captured in a buffer known as the kernel ring buffer; dmesg prints the contents of that buffer. By default, dmesg prints its output to the screen; you can of course redirect the output to a file:
% dmesg > bootmsg

4. Identifying process consuming more memory:

            To find out the process that consumes more memory, open the konsole and enter the following command:

ps -aux | sort +4n

--OR--

ps -aux | sort +5n

5.Switching between resolutions:

            If you have enabled support for multiple resolutions,you can quickly switch between them by using Ctrl + Alt + <+> and Ctrl + Alt + <-> (numeric keypad). You can enable multiple resolution support by running Xconfigurator and enable all the resolution you will be able to use.

6. Accessing Linux partitions from Windows:

            You will be able to access Linux partitions within Windows. explore2fs utility allows you to access your Linux partitions from Windows. It has a explorer like interface and navigation is similar to that of Windows Explorer. I have used it in Windows XP and have not had any problems. It allows to copy files to Windows partition from Linux.

7. Scan your hard disk with fsck:

            There is a way to perform a scan on your hard drive in Linux and the command is even quite simple. Linux comes with a utility called fsck equivalent to Scandisk in Windows. fsck stands for FileSystem Check. It does not have a graphical interface like Scandisk. Inorder to run the program type /sbin/fsck /dev/hda1.The information on lost clusters are stored in the /lost+found directory.

8. Running Multiple X Servers:

            If you want two graphics X Servers running at once, start the first server then switch to some virtual console, login again and type startx-- /usr/X11R6/bin/X:1; use Ctrl+Alt+F7 and Ctrl+Alt+F8 to switch between the two.

9. Using documentation for commands:

            Linux comes with documentation for all commands. In order to view the documentation for a particular command use man or info. man pages provide basic usage information while info pages gives a greater detail. Gnome has a graphical help browser for displaying both man and info pages. Select Help System from the main menu to access this. There is another source for documentation called HOWTO pages which is located at /usr/doc/howto directory.

10. System information:

            We can get the information about various system resources. This information is got from the /proc directory. The /proc is a direct reflection of the system kept in memory. For example, the following command provides CPU information.

cat /proc/cpuinfo