My personal favorite operating system is Linux.  And my favorite distribution by far Slackware.  I have used various versions of Linux and Unix and I am fairly comfortable with these operating systems.

One of my personal favorite past times is working on integrating Linux with other operating systems such as Windows, Netware, and OS-X.  I also enjoy programming and configuring web applications and console scripts to reduce my administrative tasks.

Highlights
SATA Daily backup
The thing I don't like about tapes is they are unreliable and they use sequential access.  One of the worst things in the world is when a user deleted payroll 3 days ago and now you have to restore it from tape.  And mind you, do it without replacing too much data.  Using a standard server and a hot swap drive bay, I created a solution using SATA hard drives and Linux to create a powerful random access and historical backup system.  Right now the scripts I used are very customized for this particular solution, but if you would like help with a similar solution please feel free to e-mail me for ideas.

cl4others
look at my Novell page for more details

RSync
After working with RSync with Netware 6.5 in the fall of 2005 I decided to try it at home.  I now use it to backup all of my home computers to my main Linux sever.  With this I use my VPN from my laptop to perform backups when I'm not home and the great part about RSync is how it only transmits changes.  This feature greatly decreased the amount of time it takes to perform backups.  I have also configured SSH tunnels that can log into remote facilities and perform backups of databases and files systems granting me peace of mind that my data is safe.  With using Cygwin I can even backup my Windows systems with little effort.

OpenVPN 
OpenVPN has to be one of the simplest and fastest VPN solutions I have seen.  I have found this to be a very usefully program.  Besides allowing me to have access to my entire network from a remote location it also allows me to redirect all of my network traffic to my home system for when I am on insecure networks.  And while I don't believe it as the most ethical use of network resources is has also allowed me to get out of some networks that have relaxed firewall rule sets. 

OpenSSH
When I first started to use SSH I didn't see the real benefits besides the lack of clear text authentication.  But after using it over the past year and trying more of its features  I have come to love it.  For quick access to files on remote servers or transferring files over the Internet, SSH is by far my favorite tool.  I also like the port redirection and ability to ride on an HTTP proxy.  This makes it a very good tool when you are stuck in a bind and you don't want to have to open the firewall just to transfer a single file.   I have also started to install Cygwin + OpenSSH on most of my Windows systems for quicker access to files (no more having to configure shares and samba just to download or edit a config file).

Asterisk
I had seen Asterisk on the Internet for sometime but I had never seen it in use until I went to a conference in April 2006.  After seeing it run and how powerful this FREE phone system was I decided to build one at home.  I have it installed on a Pentium II, 400 MHz with 128MB of RAM.  To be more specific I am running Asterisk@Home.  This distribution runs on CentOS (Branch from RedHat) and has some fairly easy to use web management interfaces to run the system.  I also purchased a Digium X100P off of email and connected my system to the phone system.  With this I am now able to make and take calls from anywhere I have Internet Access.  I have also tied it into Free World Dialup for VoIP termination.  The system works great, has low latency and works great over OpenVPN.