BEL Project: It's your Linux

In order to facilitate adoption of Linux and OpenSource solutions for the small business and school markets, BEL Project has a list of distributions and applications we feel represents some of the best OpenSource/Linux has to offer.

By no means is this an exhaustive or conclusive list, merely those the team members of BEL Project have become familiar with, and are comfortable recommending to others based on our own experience and history of installing and maintaining Linux and OpenSource systems.

We will continue to add items to this list as time and opportunity allow us to.

Distros:

Servers: Pretty much any Linux distro can be used as a server, some require a bit more customization from the default presentation than others but overall, we find the following distros to be very useful and effective in that function;

Debian (office LAN/Web server), CentOS (office LAN/Web server) , OpenSuse (office/LAN/Web server), Ubuntu/Server (small office/home server), Mandriva (office/LAN/Web server),

BEL Project believes that some distros, due to the intent and focus of the development team, are better suited to certain areas of use than another distro might be. Again, this isn’t to say any distro couldn’t be customized to be used the way one would like to use it, but rather, how a distro is presented “out of the box”

Home Use: Here, we would have to say that from the word go, PCLinuxOS,  Mandriva and Linux Mint jump immediately to the forefront.  They have the best presentation and inclusions to help make sure the most hardware is identified and usable out of the box.  Their interfaces have been customized to appeal to the home user.

School Use: openSUSE li-f-e project goes a tremendous way to providing the best in FOSS for school desktops.

Office Desktop: An office desktop typically requires more robust and ‘social’ features to allow for multiple forms of communications, team collaboration and increased local productivity.  These are usually the desktops found in admin offices, sales, and any other that might interact with the public using their desktop to communicate and interact with coworkers and customers. Any of the above listed distros in the server list will also do well in these environments, provided some customization is done to them as most default installs are typically geared to generic or home installations.  BEL Project will be customizing and remastering some of these specifically to the task of an office desktop, you will find these on the BEL Project Downloads page.

Office Workstation: An office workstation is usually the type of system setup found on production floors and often the ‘office’ pools’ used by staff and supervisors to print reports, view work orders, have general usage access to tools like basic wordprocessing, email, limited web access, accessing a company wide application for day to day business ( like POS stations, traffic management, etc…) These can be deployed either as ‘stand alone’ installations or as ‘distributed’ desktops, being accessed by thin clients or other ‘terminals’.  Any of the above listed distros in the server list will also do well in these environments, provided some customization is done to them as most default installs are typically geared to generic or home installations.  BEL Project will be customizing and remastering some of these specifically to the task of an office workstation, you will find these on the BEL Project Downloads page.

Web Apps:

Webmin – is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any modern web browser, you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and much more. Webmin removes the need to manually edit Unix configuration files like /etc/passwd, and lets you manage a system from the console or remotely.

OpenBiblio – is an easy to use, automated library system written in PHP containing OPAC, circulation, cataloging, and staff administration functionality.

AjaXplorer -is an easy-to-install file explorer for remotely managing files on a web server. Its “rich client” layout and actions make it accessible to any end-user for a variety of purposes: file management/sharing, photo gallery, code browsing, etc.

OpenSiS- is a free student information system that rivals costly commercial alternatives in looks, functionality and ease of use and administration.

OpenGoo -  is an Open Source Web Office. It is a complete solution for every organization to create, collaborate, share and publish all its internal and external documents.

Books:

Linux Administrator Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to Linux Certification Skills (Paperback) by Roderick W. Smith (2006)

Linux Administration: A Beginner’s Guide By Steve Shah, Wale Soyinka (2008)

Linux: The Complete Reference, Sixth Edition. By Richard Peterson (2008)

The Book of Webmin…or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Unix. By Joe Cooper (2003)

The Linux Networking Cookbook By Carla Schroder (2007)

The Linux Cookbook By Carla Schroder (2004)

Installable Apps:

XAMPP – is an ‘all-in-one’ grouping and installation of the popular OpenSource apps Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl, along with others with versions for Linux, Windows, Mac and Solaris.

Web Hosting:

Some times it makes more sense to go with online hosting rather than putting together your own hardware server, especially as costs have gone down to entry level prices below ten dollars a month. We will list some of BEL Project team members favorite web hosts, and why we recommend them.

Google Education Apps Suite – is a free suite of hosted communication & collaboration applications designed for schools and universities.

Google Non Profit Apps Suite -lets you offer email, instant messaging, and calendar accounts on your own domain name (for example, jsmith@your-group.com), to keep your group close and build its online identity. You can also design and publish web pages to show others what you’re all about.

Google Business Apps Suite – Whether your business is moving everything to the cloud, just wants an affordable email solution or struggles to give employees access to critical information, Google Apps will help you stretch resources and work smarter.

InMotion Web Hosting – Not only is InMotion the host for BEL Project, they are very good to work with.They have affordable pricing with responsive support available in multiple formats.