Linux in the IT Dept

Ok, so I thought I’d post my usage of my Linux system. I actually use two systems in my day-to-day job. I have a Windows XP Tablet laptop, so I can do my network layouts, drawings, meeting notes, brainstorming, etc. I also use it as my primary Windows workstation, since some companies (blehhh) only develop windows programs.

I also have a Linux laptop, which I do all my troubleshooting and general day-to-day tasks. Below, you’ll see a screenshot. I have split the screen into 4 types of programs, and 2 other items.

• Office Tools
  • OpenOffice 2.x, which does my Excel,
    Word, and PowerPoint files. No one in the office knows I use this
    instead of MS Office. Sneaky, huh? Which proves it works.
  • Internet Explorer - Ughhh. Some websites still require IE 5.x
  • Dia - My Diagramming tool. It doesn’t hold a candle to Visio, but it works in a pinch
  • Blender - This is really for my more fancy diagrams, when I want to WOW someone with my 3D diagrams and flowcharts.
• Development and Reporting
  • Redhat
    Developer Studio (built on Eclipse) - This gives me my reporting
    studio, and few other items, such as JBoss application developement.
  • NetBeans
    6 Beta 1 - This is where the majority of my java application
    development resides. Both desktop applications, as well as, web
    applications.
• Usability Tools
  • Gimp - Photoshop for Linux. I used Gimp to create the desktop screenshot you see.
  • Kontact - This is basically Outlook for KDE. It does my email, calendar, to-do, news feeds, etc
  • Kate - Advanced Text editor
  • Konversation - IRC client. Nice to have, when I need some extra brainpower on some difficult troubleshooting challenges.
  • Wink - Used to create my screencasts, which I import into my videos for training.
  • Kopete - MSN, Jabber, AIM..etc
• Administration Tools
  • Remote Desktop and VNC
  • RTMT - Cisco’s Real Time Monitor Tool for Cisco Call Manager (yep… it runs on Linux!)
  • Nessus
    Scanner - I haven’t used this much, but plan to in the future. It
    allows me to scan for known vulnerabilities beit, Cisco or Windows. It
    also automatically downloads new vulnerability definitions regularly.
  • NMap - Security Auditing, inventory, etc.
  • Wireshark - Network Traffic Analyzer

I
also have two other items to show. On the left side, you can see I
have access to my remote files located on servers. I also am using the
Cisco VPN Client to work from anywhere. Pretty snazzy?

Okay,
well, it’s not THAT exciting, but it does show that Linux is slowly
creeping to be a good desktop tool for the business, though, I do not
believe it’s ready for the end-users yet.

UPDATE:  I forgot to add, that I’m also running Google Desktop.  That’s a lifesaver, when I’m searching through over 2GB worth of PDF files!

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