Lately I have been fiddling around with PHPlogcon. I wanted to consolidate logs from our servers on a single machine, which is a breeze to set up using any standard Linux syslog daemon. Furthermore I wanted a graphical front-end (a website is just fine) to enable access to the logs for the not-so-linux-savvy admins. So PHPlogcon fit the bill perfectly. It supports flat-file logs (yay) and even MySQL.

The Windows servers need an additional piece of software to get it to forward the “Eventlog” messages. The default “Windows Eventlog parser” which is shipped with PHPlogcon only works with a proprietary Windows Eventlog forwarders (Adiscon’s EventReporter and MonitorWare Agent), so I wrote my own parser for the Open Source SNARE Eventlog Agent. (sourceforge)

Just put the parser in classes/msgparsers/msgparser.eventlogsnare.class.php and add something like the this to your configuration file and you are done:

$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['ID'] = 'Source5';
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['Name'] = 'EventLog';
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['ViewID'] = 'EVTRPT';
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['SourceType'] = SOURCE_DISK;
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['MsgParserList'] = "eventlogsnare";
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['LogLineType'] = 'winsyslog';
$CFG['Sources']['Source5']['DiskFile'] = '/var/log/win_eventlog.log';

I just read “Windows 8 RTM to Hit in July 2011″ on Tomshardware. I suddenly remembered that Windows did not have a lot of ‘new’ versions in the past so I did some research.

Operating System

According to wikipedia the last couple of end-user Microsoft Windows versions were released on: Windows XP (October 2001), Windows Vista (January 2007) , Windows 7 (October 2009). There is a huge gap after Windows XP and now the marketing machine started to work again at full speed, since Windows 8 will probably appear in 2011. This means you will have buy an upgrade (the cheapest solution) for your operating system every 2 years nowadays. A fresh install is often recommended to an upgrade, but that is even more expensive. I checked out amazon.com to see how much a Microsoft Windows license (cheapest / most expensive) costs:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic with SP1 (upgrade) will cost you about $84
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (full version) is available for about $209
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (upgrade) costs about $110
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (full version) will be yours for about $273

I wonder how much Microsoft will make you pay for Windows 8…

Office suite

What is an Operating System without an Office suite? This is what makes a computer really useful for a lot of people. Let us look at the prices for Microsoft Office (again, from amazon):

Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 (upgrade) will cost you about $119
Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (upgrade) will go for about $179
Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (full version) will only cost you about $366
Microsoft Office Professional 2007 (full version) will go for about $404

Wow, I was really amazed how expensive this Office Suite can be!

Note: Please do not use “Office” if you specifically mean “Microsoft Office”.

Final thoughts

I haven’t even looked at the prices for ‘normal’ security applications for anti-virus and firewalls, so you Microsoft Windows desktop is ‘ready for the internet’. Fortunately there are also free alternatives for all of the above (if you use Microsoft or not). Remember: you do NOT own a copy of Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office, they merely grant you the ability to use it.

Just imagine how much money you can save by using an alternative such as Ubuntu (which basically is Linux). You will get (but is not limited to) the following:

• A free and user-friendly Operating System (ultimate/full version)
• Free updates and bi-annually upgrades
• Office Suites included
• Free firewall and anti-virus software (although you probably will not need it, since Linux is quite secure)
• An “internet ready” desktop (browser, e-mail applications, chat and more!)
• Free community driven tech-support or paid professional tech-support
• and much, much more…

Since USB is still ‘all the rage’ I thought I might take the time to show you some of my USB devices, which are compatible with Linux and which I personally find useful.

USB – IDE/SATA

Konig Electronic USB 2.0 to IDE / S-ATA adapter (external, CMP-USBIDESAT2)

Just useful if you have some harddrives around which you need to test, format or fill and then want to put away again (or destroy). It ships with an external power supply, so you are all good to go.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 002 Device 008: ID 152d:2338 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JM20337 Hi-Speed USB to SATA & PATA Combo Bridge

USB – RS-232

Belkin USB RS-232 (F5U103v)

RS-232 is still used when you configure switches or as a back-up interface for a server. Unfortunately netbooks do not tend to have a RS-232 port anymore, so this is the perfect solution.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 005 Device 043: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port

USB – Ethernet

Apple USB ethernet

If you need more than your standard (one) ethernet port on your laptop, this is a good solution. It is small and just works. The downside is that it is an Apple product and it’s only 100Mbit/s.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 002 Device 012: ID 05ac:1402 Apple, Inc.

Onze stickerman, ook wel beter bekend als ArmedKing is MIA (Missing In Action). Blijkbaar worden de enveloppen die opgestuurd worden ook niet meer gevuld teruggestuurd. Je kunt dus geen Ubuntu stickers bestellen bij de stickerman.

We zijn dus op zoek naar een nieuwe stickerman (of vrouw), die dit karwei op wil pakken. Als je denkt dat je aankunt, stuur dan even een mailtje naar swat#ubuntu-nl.org.

P.S. Mocht je dit lezen ArmedKing, stuur mij of iemand van het team even een bericht!

Update (09-02-2010): Hij is terecht en doet nog steeds de stickerdistributie! Hoera!

This is not meant as a Microsoft Windows bash post, but just as a reminder of the new Free Software Foundation campaign. The previous “Bad Vista” campaign was focused on Microsoft Windows Vista and had extremely valid arguments. Just as this “Windows 7 sins” campaign has valid arguments about the newest Microsoft Windows release. Sometimes it is just good to hear (or in this case read) the other side of story and not only what the MarketingMachine(tm) wants you to know. Check it out!