Enterprise open source Toolkit

Ten obscure Linux applications you need to try

Jack Wallen Tech Republic

Published: 18 Mar 2009 17:42 GMT

8. Nano
Nano is one of my favourite editors. For years I used Pico, until it was crippled by licensing issues. Nano took Pico's place. Nano is an Ncurses-based text editor that is far easier to use than either Vi or Emacs.

Nano takes Pico and improves it, offering UTF-8 support, better colour syntax highlighting, copy text without cutting, verbatim input, repeat last search, spell-check, indent marked text, search within file browser, and more. Nano works within any terminal window, has an incredibly small footprint, and is as reliable as any editor available. And unlike Pico, Nano is simple to install on nearly any distribution.

9. MultiTail
Imagine being able to use the Tail command to follow multiple files in one window. That facility is exactly what MultiTail offers. MultiTail is a Linux administrator's dream come true.

With the ability to follow any, and as many log files as you can stand in one window, MultiTail can stack multiple tails of log files vertically or horizontally, with colours or without. Commands, such as multitail -s 2 /var/log/messages /var/log/security.log, will follow the Messages and the Security.log logs in two vertical columns in one window. MultiTail is very easy to use.

10. TinyCA
The command-line creation of certificate authorities requires a veritable dance of the fingers at the keyboard. The TinyCA application takes care of all of that typing for you. TinyCA makes the creation of certificate authorities a breeze. With TinyCA, you can create unlimited CAs and SubCAs, server and client certificates with multiple language support. If your IT department needs a CA-management tool, you should look at TinyCA first. TinyCA is open source, written in Perl/Gtk, and works with OpenSSL.

What tools are you hiding? Most of us rely on at least one tool that nobody seems to have heard of. What's in your toolkit that more administrators should know about?

Credit: 10 obscure Linux applications you need to try from TechRepublic.com