ELX(Everyone's Linux), is a Linux focused company based in India. ELX's first product, ELX Power Desktop, received very good reviews during its early stages but for the past several months, the product has been very quiet. I spoke to ELX's President, Abhi Datt and asked him what was going on with ELX. Abhi explained that ELX had been working with major partners on a variety of projects and that their development on Power Desktop and Biz Desktop had unfortunately taken a back seat.
Abhi asked me to take a look at their Power Server 1.0. At first, I was skeptical. I assumed with ELX's strong background with Red Hat, that Power Server was probably just another rehash of Red Hat 9.0 or Fedora. When Abhi told me that Power Server was based on Trustix, I was quite intrigued.
Trustix is a hardened (secure) version of Linux designed for server based applications. Trustix, like ELX, is based on Red Hat. Trustix uses Anaconda from Red Hat 7.1. Trustix has received very positive reviews for security features, but Trustix has very limited functionality and is not easy to setup and administer.
Abhi explained that the main reason that ELX built Power Server was to provide an easy to install platform to support both Oracle Forms and Oracle Database. Abhi claims that Power Server is essentially a plug and play platform for Oracle. There is an Oracle configuration rpm in the Utils directory of the CD. This single rpm makes ELX Power Server 100% ready for Oracle database and Formserver install.
ELX Power Server is easier to install than the other available server based Linux. The entire package installs from a single OS. Only needed files that are trusted get loaded. The install is simple. There are a variety of server options for specific applications provided in the installation menu. It is possible to create a simple, dedicated server in as little as 100 MBs. The full install is under 1GB.
ELX Power Server implements a client server environment for using and administering applications. It is possible to use X Windows on the client. For my testing, I used a NorhTec Microserver HP set up as 10.0.0.10.
Suppose I wanted to administer the server using XWindows. I can use the command xhost+ as follows xhost+ 10.0.0.10. Then I would use the command export DISPLAY=10.0.0.10:0,0. Now I can run X Windows based tools or install applications that need X Windows to install.
Besides being easy to install, Power Server is also easy to administer. ELX has integrated Webmin. Webmin is a program that simplifies Linux and Unix management. It allows you to administer the system using a browser.
To access Webmin, simply use SSL and point your browser to port 10000 of the ELX Power Server. In my case, I would type https://10.0.0.10:1000. I will be presented with a login screen. You can log into the system using root and your user name.
The first time you log into the system, you will probably want to set up Webmin to suit your personal tastes.
Webmin is integrated into most applications available with ELX Power Server. One exception I found was Hylafax. Hylafax is a fax server that you can set up. I tested Hylafax and found that installing it using just the command line was very straightforward. By invoking the faxsetup application in Hylafax, it is possible to set up a networked based fax server by following the simple install instructions. A third party Webmin module for Hylafax can be found here http://doxboy.8u8.com/index.html.
An easy to setup module for voice mail server for Webmin is included. You need to create your greeting using any program that generates a .wav file. The program will convert this into a file that is compatible with your modem. Using a server with a hardisk allows the user to store many more messages than a conventional answering machine. It is also possible to e-mail incoming .wav files so that individuals can setup voice mail that will automatically send these messages to the user – no matter where they are.
Some modern phones or wireless PDAs will allow people to keep up with their voice mail no matter where they are located. For both Hylafax and the voice mail program, it is best to use an external modem that supports both fax and voice. Many new PCI card based modems are softmodems. Softmodems require special drivers and are often difficult to support on Linux. For voice and fax, you can dig up one of your old 33.6 modems and plug it into an available serial port.
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