ShareThisI got an email from a young friend wanting to know my opinion on the latest virus scare on the internet. He wanted to know if I thought it was a hoax.   Tonight as I thought more about his question I pondered the relatively peaceful existence I lead as a Linux user. Viruses don't really figure in my computing life. They are a non-issue for a Linux user.   Add to that pleasurable experience is the pleasure of using a host of other free software applications. Today an IT intern from a neighboring school district spent the day learning all I could teach her about Ubuntu Linux in one day. That's a tall errand and one that really boggles the mind, but I had a  lot of fun demonstrating some of the intricacies of the Synaptic package manager, the relative ease installing applications using apt-get. Network tools like Ethereal, Etherape, and Tcpdump and finally a full install of MySQL, Apache, PHP and PHPMyAdmin.  After nearly five hours of teaching and sharing my student left with a Dell Optiplex 745 completely equipped as a web enabled database server. I also demonstrated free tools available from MySQL and non-free tools available from DBQwikSite and Navicat.