Linux

Hi Erin,

Honestly both databases will do the job just fine. I personally prefer Postgres.

Much more important is how you store the audio. While you could technically use a blob type column, it's really not ideal to be storing audio files which are "several hours long" in a database row. Instead consider storing the audio files in an object store (hosted options include backblaze b2 or aws s3) and persisting the key (which references that object) in your database column.

Hi Erin, Chances are you would want to store the files in a blob type. Both MySQL and Postgres support this. Can you explain a little more about your need to store the files in the database? I may be more effective to store the files on a file system or something like S3. To answer your qustion based on what you are descibing I would slighly lean towards PostgreSQL since it tends to be a little better on the data warehousing side.

If you're already using Prometheus for your system metrics, then it seems like standing up Elasticsearch just for Linux host monitoring is excessive. The node_exporter is probably sufficient if you'e looking for standard system metrics.

Another thing to consider is that Metricbeat / ELK use a push model for metrics delivery, whereas Prometheus pulls metrics from each node it is monitoring. Depending on how you manage your network security, opting for one solution over two may make things simpler.

Hi Sunil! Unfortunately, I don´t have much experience with Metricbeat so I can´t advise on the diffs with Prometheus...for Linux server, I encourage you to use Prometheus node exporter and for PCF, I would recommend using the instana tile (https://www.instana.com/supported-technologies/pivotal-cloud-foundry/). Let me know if you have further questions! Regards Jose

Here you go: Vulnhub

It is a list of Linux virtual machine you can use, to complete challenges. Like, "it's your goal to hack this machine in 3 hours!". Also, you're not hacking actual servers. It's all safe and you cannot cause damage.

Good luck!

most people would recommend kali linux .. it's a debian based distro designed for cybersecurity needs .. so it's useful for hacking/ penetration testing

If you want an alternative to pgAdmin there is phpPgAdmin and it's also Open Source like pgAdmin, which is just like phpmyadmin which works for MariaDB and MySQL. I have not used it as I run pgAdmin4 in a Docker container.

Difference here is if you like to SQL edit, then pgAdmin is the best solution as it provides syntax highlighting whereas phpPgAdmin does not. Hope this is useful enough.

EDIT: Otherwise a good idea is to read on the differences between the two. Though I believe it as a personal preference.

If you just want the basic orchestration between a set of defined hosts, go with Docker Swarm. If you want more advanced orchestration + flexibility in terms of resource management and load balancing go with Kubernetes. In both cases, you can make it even more complex while making the whole architecture more understandable and replicable by using Terraform.

I recommend whatever you are most comfortable with/whatever might already be installed in the system. Note that, for personal dotfiles, it does not need to be containerized or have full automation/testing. It just needs to handle multiple OS and platform and be idempotent. Git will handle the heavy lifting. Note that you'll have to separate out certain files like the private SSH keys and write your CM so that it will pull it from another store or assist in manually importing them.

I personally use Ansible since it is a serverless design and is in Python, which I prefer to Ruby. Saltstack was too new when I started to port my dotfile management scripts from shell into a configuration management tool. I think any of the above is fine.

You should check out SaltStack. It's a lot more powerful than Puppet, Chef, & Ansible. If not Salt, then I would go Ansible. But stay away from Puppet & Chef. 10+ year user of Puppet, and 2+ year user of Chef.

I've been using arch linux for the past 3 years, but I don't recommend Arch Linux if you just jumped into Linux System, a debian based linux like kali, ubuntu or debian itself is more beginner friendly and kali can be used to learn security and pentesting. if you want to learn in a hard way, arch linux is a good option.

Hey there,

I have been a huge fan of Linux ever since I was as kid, about 13, or 14 years old. I started off toying around with Ubuntu and even then I found it to just be, well, pretty inconvenient. The good news is, this is really no longer the case - there is a much much great amount of widespread support for Linux as well as program alternatives to your typical Windows or macOS suites, and i think it was about a year, almost a year and a half ago that I made the full switch to Arch. Now, I wanted to recommend one particular flavor of Arch Linux that I think you will really enjoy, and there is truly something for everybody. You'll notice I marked both Arch Linux & Manjaro, and while those are both going to be good experiences - albeit, Arch is going to be much more, well, as they say, "the Arch Way" (don't let that intimidate you - you will need to read the wiki, the forums, don't be afraid to ask questions etc, but as long as you do those things, it's honestly just a matter of following instructions) - And with Manjaro, you're going to have a lot more stability.

What I would much rather recommend and I honestly can't stress how great these guys are in particular enough! That would be Arco Linux - they are a project that will walk you from Point A - your very first Arch-flavored install - to point Z and beyond, where you will learn the skills to even build your own Arch ISO images and essentially make your own custom Arch flavors! It's a great deal of fun and I can't even tell you how helpful the whole community is.

I didn't see them listed on the drop-down selections, but please don't hesitate to look them up. Second to that, I would suggest Manjaro. Then Arch would be third, but I would still recommend that, if you find it challenging, you go with a project that isn't really "traditional" Arch, but perhaps an Arch installer such as Arch Labs, or Anarchy Installer. Manjaro also has Manjaro "Architect" and it's a good tool for have "TUI" (terminal user interface, go not quite 'graphical') guiding you through the process, but it's also not going to stop you from breaking stuff lol. That's really meant to be the experience - you go through trial and error and learn and quite frankly will continue to make mistakes but it's ALWAYS rewarding to learn new things, even years later! Even stuff you may think "crap, why did I not realize this!?" after 2 years of daily use haha. It's a wonderful experience and offers a lot of opportunity for growth and understanding of *nix operating systems in general.

I think a great learning path would be to start with Arco Linux - just go to their website, and it will seriously walk you right on through it and hold your hand the whole way - if you want!! - you can also jump as far ahead as you feel comfortable! And then, once you start to get the hang out things and really feel like you understand it, I would recommend trying out some of the more modern and complex filesystem architectures. The most common would be something like LVM or LVM on LUKS (Luks is a disk-encryption, and LVM is Logical Volume Management, and enables you to take atomic "snapshots" for quick data recovery among other neat things), and there is also BTRFS, and ZFS, and all sorts of combinations and configurations.

The second option of Manjaro is going to be just as enjoyable as well I am sure, and you can even get acquainted with a more familiar interface that way if you prefer, and then work your way toward the more complex stuff. I promise it will only be complicated to others when you are explaining it with excitement ;) It truly is a lot of fun, especially if you like troubleshooting.

Now, as far as Kali is concerned, you should understand that it's not going to offer you much if you're really considering Arch vs Kali like you say. I say this because, the tools which Kali comes equipped with, are very intentionally and specifically designed for sophisticated penetration testing (hacking, if you like). If you are looking to get into hacking some stuff, and I will just assume for good reason ;) Then even still... I think Arch is your better bet. You need to have an understanding of what it is you are trying to break into before you will even begin to become proficient at it. Just imagine if I handed you a full soldering it, complete with micro-electronic bread-boards and circuitry blueprints, and I told you it was all in front of you for you to assemble a component, that you had no idea what would even be doing in the bigger machinery it was destined for. Well. I think it's kind of like that. Now, there are certainly discrepancies between bones that make up both Arch and Kali, but they are very similar with the exception of their package management systems, which are mostly what you will be learning to deal with first. Both of these systems (unless you chose an even more alternate route, such ad Void Linux, which is well, Arch, but lacking a very key .... uhm... You know, that is where it gets tricky! But interesting) My Point is, there are enough similarities betwen t the two systems at a core level, but at the same time, they are radically different.

Here's how you should weigh it, in my humble opinion: 1) Do you want to learn intricacies of the underlying systems? 2) Do you want to be presented with an easy to use interface, but with a bunch of tools you don't maybe have use for, or at the least, will have to learn and all of which have different purposes that are very specific? 3) Do you want to have the freedom to expand and build in any direction you please? 4) Do you want to specifically go down the "hacker" path?

Well, 1 and 3 are explicitly Arch I am referring to, and as you probably guessed, 2 and 4 are Kali... but also Arch!!! You can form it into ANYTHING you want. There is even (I would argue) MUCH more radical, fully equipped "hacker" suite called Black Arch that you can just ... install on your Arch System that you already have running, if you wanted to one day. Or install it outright from the beginning!

Hope this helps! Here are some links :) ARCO Linux Manjaro Linux GitHub - Various Arch Install Scripts/Guides Anarchy Linux - Arch Linux Installer ARCHFI - ArchLinux Fast Installer ALIS - Yet another ArchLinux Installer/Helper!

These are just what I have come up with very quickly. There are many more! I encourage you to go to DistroWatch and look at some of the Arch derivatives there as well!!

DistroWatch - Arch-based Distributions

Among the top listed there you will find Manjaro and ArcoLinux, as well as another fantastic derivative called EndeavourOS

Honestly, I hope you have a ton of fun!! I know it's brought me lots of joy and I am happy to be able to share just a bit of it with you if only the resources to get you started!!!

Cheers!

I don't know much about Xamarin but I know about PyQt and React Native.

However, I don't recommend PyQt because the apps made using PyQt are not that suitable for mobile apps. If you take a look at the PyQt interface, you will be able to see that the features are more of a desktop apps kind.

React Native uses JavaScript. React Native is immensely flexible in upgrading your apps because it allows you to formulate your app code into independent blocks.

In Xamarin, you have to write the code in .NET . The best thing about Xamarin is, that it extends the.NET developer platform with tools and libraries specifically for building apps for Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows

While the best choice for you depends on various factors but React Native app development is a promising overall choice. In today’s scenario, React Native has steady growth, flawless code structure, and brilliant and large community support. We suggest you go for React Native for your next project owing to its outstanding support from developers, easy availability, and cost-effectiveness.

It seems like your app is not really using any native functionality on the phone. I have experience with cross platform iOS & Android development. They are all really good tools! Xamarin (all the project on the website portfolio I attached) is awesome for accessing native functionality (NFC, Sensors, Bluetooth, etc), and I have built apps that have millions of downloads, some that hit Top 5 on Utilities, another that hit Top 50 in Finances. You just have to look at what your application intent is, it seems like it's just to read and post data. For that they are all pretty good, but you should also look into Ionic which may serve the same purpose

Well, it is alway a matter of taste.

But to share my own experience, using Unix Shells ever since 1988, and also PowerShell for some period of time. If you want to script Windows OS as an Administrator, PowerShell is a good option. If you want to administer all different kinds of UNIX OS, bash will be available on almost all of them. If you want to develop software and have the freedom to choose, I recommend zsh, better yet oh-my-zsh.

I use GNU bash - the latest version, currently 5.2 - as my daily driver, on macOS, Linux, and Windows regularly.

I do this because modern bash has features comparable to zsh with the largest community.

On Windows, I use git-for-windows bash which is GNU bash compiled via the msys2 project, which also bundles various GNU/Linux core utilities. If you're using Windows, you should get to know the https://msys2.org/ and https://gitforwindows.org/ projects, which themselves rely on cygwin. Mainly keep in mind the helper cygpath to convert paths back and forth - some things will need Windows style paths.

You can also easily call powershell from bash.