David M Williams
Sunday, 15 March 2009 12:52
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Recently, I blogged that every good IT technician really needs Linux in their toolkit – even if you're strictly a Windows shop. Here are more good reasons why a bootable Linux CD can really save your bacon including indispensable tools you must have.
In my
previous story I spoke about how I couldn’t copy data off a dusty old Windows ’98 computer which had a decade of purchase order history on it.
The floppy drive was gummed up with dirt, there was no Internet connection, and Windows ’98 first edition didn’t support USB. Yet, I booted from a Linux Live CD and by using a modern operating system on the old hardware – without having to actually install anything on the computer – I could copy files effortlessly to a USB disk.
Additionally, I spoke about a terrific (and tiny) bootable CD image that lets you reset the administrator password on Windows computers. The magic under the hood was Linux; the CD boots a tiny Linux distro and auto-runs a tool that can read and modify the important files where Windows stores its username and password records.
The story was well received, both here on iTWire and other sites that link to us, from Windows and Linux users and admins alike so I thought I’d follow up with a couple more.
In fact, there’s almost no shortage of ways Linux is useful to Windows users because of two simple facts.
Firstly, Linux can boot from a CD or memory stick without having to modify the hard disk in any way at all. You just can’t do this with Microsoft Windows. You can’t find or make a Windows CD that boots and runs on most any hardware, operating solely in RAM and off the CD.
Straight away this makes Linux a natural choice for troubleshooting systems. Even if you boot Windows into safe mode there are still files which are locked and can’t be replaced, or faulty hardware drivers used. You simply can’t get a pure, clean, totally isolated system under Windows unless you physically remove the hard drive and insert it into another computer which is not always an option.
However, even so, Linux has another reason up its sleeve making it is compelling.
This reason is my
second simple fact that makes Linux useful to Windows, namely it’s impervious to Windows viruses, malware, Trojans and other nasties.
Even the most virus-infested Windows installation is rendered entirely harmless when examined under Linux. By contrast, that’s not certain if you’re inspecting the drive on another Windows system.
That’s why you really ought to download the following Linux tools and make sure they feature in your toolkit.
