BSM Development - Products that we use

PRODUCTS THAT WE USE

Here is a list of some of the products that we use to build software and run our business. We feel that these products are very useful and have no hesitation recommending them.

CentOS, which is derived from RedHat, is a very reliable variant of Linux. We use it for our main server cluster, our System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) server, several development machines and our twenty-five terabyte database server. For several of these systems, the only downtime is for preventative hardware maintenance, once every couple of years, with uptimes of 750 days not being uncommon.

We use Linux Mint for desktop workstations. It's reliable and easy to install, and comes preconfigured with just about everything you need in your desktop envrionment.

We use Mythbuntu, a variant of Ubuntu, for video processing. It does video recording and playback, as well as capture of network video feeds, all under control of a simple UI and/or a Web-based interface.

XigmaNAS Network-Attached Storage lets us share data over our network, from a centralized data repository, that is easily accessed with any of the common network protocols. XigmaNAS uses ZFS to literally store up to zetabytes of data and shares it with our Windows, Apple, and Unix systems. The data is reliably stored via Software RAID (0,1,5) and can be securely encrypted.

The Apache Web server runs our local intranet and serves all of our own Web sites, plus we freely recommend and deploy it to meet our customer's Web site needs, as well. It has proven to be extremely reliable and high-performance software, with features to meet every need.

We use software distributed by the Free Software Foundation as well as software distributed under the GNU license. Software produced by BSM Development, and distributed by us for general use, is done so under the GNU license.

All of the mail delivered on our systems is delivered by the Open Source version of sendmail. Fast and reliable, sendmail has been delivering millions of pieces of mail every day for years and years.

All of the mail delivered on our systems is filtered by a sendmail milter that checks for viruses and spam. The milter interface is used by our own MailCorral product.

Spam classification for our mail filter is provided by SpamAssassin. With its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text to identify spam, whereupon it is stopped from entering our system.

Virus detection for our mail filter is provided by ClamAV. It employs an automatically-updated set of virus signatures to identify mail that contains viruses, whereupon the offending component is deleted.

For a more secure system, we use fetchmail to pull all incomming mail from our ISP. This prevents any outside users from sending mail through our sendmail.

Much of our Web site development is done in PHP. It is extremely well-suited for Web applications because it can be seamlessly embedded into HTML pages, thereby providing the programming muscle needed for complex page creation.

We use the Perl programming language for many programs because of the possibility for rapid deployment and its regular expression capabilities.

Many of our database needs are admirably met by the open source MySQL database from Oracle. Along with the UnixODBC shim, this database allows us to write applications in PHP, Perl and C. It is fast, can handle large amounts of data and works very reliably. Note: for the free edition, look in the tiny print, at the bottom of the page under Downloads for MySQL Community Server.

BSM Development builds Web pages that are viewable with any browser. We support the "Viewable With Any Browser" campaign. The whole point of Web applications is that they can be viewed from anywhere by anybody. To slap a, "Best when viewed with," sticker on an application certainly violates that premise.

	CentOS, which is derived from RedHat, is a very reliable variant of Linux. We use it for our main server cluster, our System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) server, several development machines and our twenty-five terabyte database server. For several of these systems, the only downtime is for preventative hardware maintenance, once every couple of years, with uptimes of 750 days not being uncommon.

	We use Linux Mint for desktop workstations. It's reliable and easy to install, and comes preconfigured with just about everything you need in your desktop envrionment.

	We use Mythbuntu, a variant of Ubuntu, for video processing. It does video recording and playback, as well as capture of network video feeds, all under control of a simple UI and/or a Web-based interface.

	XigmaNAS Network-Attached Storage lets us share data over our network, from a centralized data repository, that is easily accessed with any of the common network protocols. XigmaNAS uses ZFS to literally store up to zetabytes of data and shares it with our Windows, Apple, and Unix systems. The data is reliably stored via Software RAID (0,1,5) and can be securely encrypted.

	The Apache Web server runs our local intranet and serves all of our own Web sites, plus we freely recommend and deploy it to meet our customer's Web site needs, as well. It has proven to be extremely reliable and high-performance software, with features to meet every need.

	We use software distributed by the Free Software Foundation as well as software distributed under the GNU license. Software produced by BSM Development, and distributed by us for general use, is done so under the GNU license.

	All of the mail delivered on our systems is delivered by the Open Source version of sendmail. Fast and reliable, sendmail has been delivering millions of pieces of mail every day for years and years.

	All of the mail delivered on our systems is filtered by a sendmail milter that checks for viruses and spam. The milter interface is used by our own MailCorral product.

	Spam classification for our mail filter is provided by SpamAssassin. With its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text to identify spam, whereupon it is stopped from entering our system.

	Virus detection for our mail filter is provided by ClamAV. It employs an automatically-updated set of virus signatures to identify mail that contains viruses, whereupon the offending component is deleted.

	For a more secure system, we use fetchmail to pull all incomming mail from our ISP. This prevents any outside users from sending mail through our sendmail.

	Much of our Web site development is done in PHP. It is extremely well-suited for Web applications because it can be seamlessly embedded into HTML pages, thereby providing the programming muscle needed for complex page creation.

	We use the Perl programming language for many programs because of the possibility for rapid deployment and its regular expression capabilities.

	Many of our database needs are admirably met by the open source MySQL database from Oracle. Along with the UnixODBC shim, this database allows us to write applications in PHP, Perl and C. It is fast, can handle large amounts of data and works very reliably. Note: for the free edition, look in the tiny print, at the bottom of the page under Downloads for MySQL Community Server.

	BSM Development builds Web pages that are viewable with any browser. We support the "Viewable With Any Browser" campaign. The whole point of Web applications is that they can be viewed from anywhere by anybody. To slap a, "Best when viewed with," sticker on an application certainly violates that premise.