It was Rok Pintar who brought Linux to Slovenia. He published the very first article about it in the Programmer newspaper. And then one day in the early 90ties Rok was kind enough to copy 65 floppy discs for me so I could get to know it too. Coming from CP/M and DOS environments and using Windows 3.11 at the time; I was impressed. Technically Linux was far superior to Windows 3.11.

But frankly I did not know what to do with it. In addition first MSDN was published and many companies started seeking "nigl-nagl-neu" MFC or VB programmers. I was in my early twenties, proficient in Clipper, and eager to earn me some easy money. Or so I thought. So when Windows 95 came I decided to move to this exciting new platform.

Six months ago I got sick of the colorful Vista, the impossible new Microsoft Office user interface and the rest of the kitch. One weekend I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on my home machine to check its progress. And I still use it today.

In my opinion Ubuntu distribution is a solid, mature desktop system. It has everything an office workplace needs. It is not a complete Windows replacement because it lacks killer applications in specific areas, such as - Bloomberg in finance, AutoCAD in engineering, Adobe Premiere in movie post production, etc. But it is apropriate for most workplaces now.

Now it needs a push by its community. To attract new generation of techies we need publicly available knowledge in areas of IT system architecture and programming that is not available for this platform today.

For example, when I install Windows network there are books available to tell me about Windows AD domain as optimal solution for security. But when I install Ubuntu there are no sources to advice me about using NIS / NIS+, Kerberos and other solutions.

Googling these issues soon leads to information overkill. A newcomer is confused. He has all these technologies for creating small Ubuntu LAN available but yet he is not even able to create common network user names for workstation users and common folders.

Ubuntu programmers face similar troubles. Every child can pick a book and read about developing a three tiered business application for Windows using SQL Server and .NET. But there are no good resources about business application programming for Linux. While there is abundance of know-how about SQL Server, chained security,.NET, and web services; the situation is different for Ubuntu. We're pretty much on our own. It's easy to develop web service in .NET. There is only one way to do it. It's hard in Ubuntu and there are many different solutions; from creating your own server to using PHP.

Thus as I uncover the secrets of Unix business programming I will share them with you on this blog. I will write from the perspective of former C++/VB/.NET/SQL Server developer. I will develop a framework that will provide guidelines and best practices and enable rapid business application development to hobby programmers (like myself) and/or to professionals who might some day follow my path to the uncharted area of Ubuntu business application development.

At the end I promise to follow one very important rule. I will not publish "40 ways to establish a LAN domain in Linux" articles. I will only describe the best (and most Unix) way of doing it. And stick to it. This blog will be about solutions; not about choices.

If you are like me and are interested in developing for Unix, why don't you join me in writing this blog?

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