I use a Linux laptop (T42 running Suse Pro 9.3/KDE 3.4) for my everyday work. Here is my list of applications that I use everyday in case someone wants to switch at work and not quite sure what to use. Most of these applications are obvious. Let me know what you think and post your own (and alternatives) in the comments section.

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

OpenOffice 2 — For reading and writing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.
Firefox — Web browser supreme. Infinitely expandable. Great with mozilla-mplayer plugin.
Thunderbird — All my email filters through this application with ease (include MS Exchange). Even handles GPG and S/MIME email, and has a decent address book.
KOrganizer — For now, the best calendar for Linux. Uses ical format.
GAIM — For IM, including jabber and Gmail chat.
Eclipse — For coding Java, C/C++, Perl, ColdFusion, and so forth.
Firewall Builder — build all of your firewall rules, whether it is iptables or Cisco Pix.
VMware Player — free VMware player, create new ones for free with qemu.
KPDF — great PDF viewer, can search text and copy text/images.
K3B — best CD/DVD burning application ever.
nmap — best port/host scanner ever.

FUN

Astronomy

• Celestia — 3d universe browser
• Stellarium — neat 3d planetarium
• KStars — star browser/planetarium with links to a lot of info on each object

Games

• XGalaga — best arcade game ever
• TORCS — 3d racing game
• knights — chess
• Uplink — fun hacking game

Multimedia

• Amarok — mp3 player
• Kaffiene — plays everything
• aaxine — great ascii art video player

So here is a debate that I have been having with friends that is sure to rile every one. Most articles focus on the OS X versus Windows choice, which is a no brainer if those are your only 2 options (OS X).

I have been considering purchasing the new MacBookPro versus a similar Dell or Lenovo and running Linux on it. The requirements are a business and home laptop that can do pictures, movies / dvds, documents/spreadsheets, and so forth. We are all geeks so the fact that Linux can be harder to do some of these things isn’t an issue.

One side is that Linux is better than OS X because it is infinitely more customizable, has more software available for it than OS X, and most of the applications are free and open source. The other side is that OS X is easier to use and is more mainstream than Linux, and therefore tends to be more supported en masse. And then there is the darwine and fink projects that bring some Linux applications to OS X.
So what do you think — todays geek should go with OS X or Linux on a laptop? Post your comment below (moderated).

In the past few years, there seems to be a move from IPSEC based VPNs to SSL VPNs. Recently, I had to evaluate different SSL VPN solutions and settled on an open source software solution called SSL Explorer.

Browser-based, or “clientless” VPNs are essentially public reverse proxies for web applications and other services that are hosted on a private, internal network. SSL Explorer is a Java-based solution that will run on multiple operating systems (Mac, Linux, Windows) and only requires Java 1.5. For those with large IT budgets, the SSL VPN hardware devices from Juniper and Array Networks are worth looking at, but if your budget is small SSL Explorer is an excellent replacement.

SSL Explorer can use Active Directory, LDAP, RADIUS, or local database for authentication of users. Once the user is authenticated, a Java applet that does the VPN-like tunneling opens and proxies all requests for resources through. SSL Explorer can be used to tunnel any traffic, including SSH, VNC, RDP (Terminal Services), FTP, and so forth. It can allow remote workers to access intranet resources using web forwarding (think Intranet web site access without a VPN client need).

I have tested access to SSL Explorer on Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux (SuSE and Kubuntu) in a variety of network settings and have had almost no issues. Most firewalls allow ports 80 and 443 open anyway, so this makes deployment easier.

One of the nice things about SSL VPNs in general is that users are not establishing a tunnel to your local network over an insecure network, like IPSEC VPNs. It only allows you to access to resources that the SSL VPN gives you, like specific websites and specific VNC servers.

There is an Xtra version of SSL Explorer that enables PKI authentication (certificates) as well, but costs extra (not very expensive, though, at around $1900 for 50 concurrent users).

I have been very happy with the quality of the software and the support. Check out their Feature set to see what they offer. The documentation on their site is pretty comprehensive as well.