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News, Opinion, Tutorials, and Community for Linux Users and SysAdmins
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    • Wake Forest, NC, — 2025-09-20
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      • Errata for The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
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      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 2nd Edition
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1

Saving Public Library Computers With Linux Mint MATE

January 22, 2026January 21, 2026
2

Network Upgrades at Both.org

January 21, 2026January 22, 2026
3

Why I Didn’t Convert My Primary Workstation to BtrFS

January 21, 2026January 18, 2026
4

Create a Linux kiosk at your library

January 20, 2026January 14, 2026
5

Writing a fun turn-based game

January 19, 2026January 7, 2026
6

Converting to BtrFS — Episode 5

January 16, 2026January 14, 2026
7

Why I prefer tar to zip

January 15, 2026January 14, 2026
8

Development isn’t over until it’s packaged

January 14, 2026
9

Tinkering with Immutable Linux: How Fedora Cosmic Atomic Won Me Over

January 13, 2026January 6, 2026
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dboth

David Both is an Open Source Software and GNU/Linux advocate, trainer, writer, and speaker who lives in Raleigh North Carolina. He is a strong proponent of and evangelist for the "Linux Philosophy." He’s been in the IT industry for over 50 years. He taught RHCE classes for Red Hat and has worked at MCI Worldcom, Cisco, and the State of North Carolina. He has been working with Linux and Open Source Software for over 25 years. David likes to build his own computers to ensure that each new computer meets his exacting specifications. He has written articles for magazines including, Linux Magazine, Linux Journal, and Opensource.com. He currently has five books published with Apress, "The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins", a self-study training course in three volumes “Using and Administering Linux: Zero to SysAdmin,” that was released in late 2019, and “Linux for Small Business Owners” with Co-author Cyndi Bulka.
In Depth Linux systemd

Linux Boot and Startup

Understanding the boot and Linux startup processes is important to being able to both configure Linux and to resolving startup issues.

David Both
January 5, 2024January 10, 2024
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Filesystems Linux

Everything is a file

When everything is a file Difficult things are easy and impossible things are merely hard.

David Both
January 4, 2024January 3, 2024
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Linux

Working with data streams on the Linux command line

Learn to connect data streams from one utility to another using STDIO. Everything in Linux revolves around streams of data—particularly text streams. Data streams are...

David Both
January 3, 2024November 10, 2025
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Linux System Administration

How I migrated a WordPress website to a new host

Use this simple approach to migrate a website and manage firewall configurations.

David Both
January 1, 2024January 1, 2024
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #8: Initialization and sanity testing

In previous articles of this series we created our first, very small, one-line Bash script. We also explored the reasons for creating shell scripts and...

David Both
December 29, 2023December 29, 2023
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #7: Bash Program Needs Help

So far in this series we created our first, very small, one-line Bash script. We also explored the reasons for creating shell scripts and why...

David Both
December 28, 2023December 29, 2023
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #6: Creating a template

In the previous article in this series we created our first, very small Bash script. We also explored the reasons for creating shell scripts and...

David Both
December 27, 2023December 29, 2023
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Filesystems Linux

An Introduction to Linux Filesystems

This article is intended to be a very high-level discussion of Linux filesystem concepts. It is not intended to be a low-level description of how...

David Both
December 26, 2023December 5, 2025
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #5: Automation with Scripts

For sysadmins, those of us who run and manage Linux computers most closely, we have direct access to the tools that can help us work...

David Both
December 26, 2023December 29, 2023
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In Depth Linux

An introduction to Linux’s EXT4 filesystem

Take a walk through EXT4’s history, features, and optimal use, and learn how it differs from previous iterations of the EXT filesystem.

David Both
December 25, 2023January 14, 2024
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #4: Using Loops

The ability to iterate over a section of code using various types of loops is one of the most important tools we have for performing...

David Both
December 25, 2023December 29, 2023
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #3: Logical Operators

In this series of articles we are looking at Bash as a programming language. In the second article, we explored some simple command line programming...

David Both
December 24, 2023January 21, 2024
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #2: Getting Started

Bash as a programming language We have all used Bash to issue commands. They are usually fairly simple and straightforward. But Bash can go beyond...

David Both
December 23, 2023December 29, 2023
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Linux Tips and tricks

Make swap better with zram on Linux

The ideal swap configuration depends on your use case and the amount of physical RAM in your host computer. Zram is a compressed RAM disk...

David Both
December 22, 2023December 19, 2023
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Bash Linux Programming

Programming Bash #1 – Introducing a New Series

I use Bash all the time, in part because it is the default shell for most Linux distributions, including Fedora and CentOS, the ones I...

David Both
December 22, 2023June 3, 2024
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Linux

Drop swap for zram on Linux

Zram is a tool for creating an in-RAM compressed cache, specifically for use as swap space. I spend a lot of time playing (I mean...

David Both
December 21, 2023December 19, 2023
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Posts pagination

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ATTENTION — System Maintenance January 23 — 25

Starting Friday morning, January 23, I’m having Google fiber installed. It’s 3Gb symmetric, which is 3x my ATT fiber, costs less, and gives me more control.

I’ll be upgrading the firewall and Both.org server with new NICs and replacing the slower Gb switch as part of this upgrade.

So the web site will be down at various times Friday and through the weekend as I upgrade my network to take advantage of that speed.

I’ll try to choose low traffic times for upgrades, but they’ll probably require an hour or more of downtime. You may experience one of those outages. Please try again later if you do.

Your patience is appreciated.

David Both ATO Interview

Last October at All Things Open (ATO) I was interviewed by Jason Hibbits of We Love Open Source. It’s posted in the article “Why today’s AI isn’t intelligent (yet)“.

Random Quote

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

— Carl Sagan

Links: Moving to Linux

  • 7 Reasons Fedora Might Be a Better Windows Replacement Than Linux Mint
  • 7 Reasons Why Windows Users Avoid Linux (Which Aren’t True Anymore)
  • Best Linux distros to try before Windows 10 support ends
  • How to switch your Windows 10 PC to Linux Mint – for free
  • I replaced my entire Microsoft Office subscription with free open-source apps
  • Isn’t It Time to Switch to Linux? 12 Reasons to Abandon Windows
  • KDE for W10 Exiles
  • Linux: A true story
  • Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux
  • Why I Switched to Linux From Windows

“systemd for SysAdmins” Now Available

May 13,2025

My latest book — a #1 New Release on Amazon — “systemd for Linux  SysAdmins” is now available from my publisher, Apress, and on Amazon.

Technically We Write — Our Partner Site

Our partner site, Technically We Write, has published a number of articles from several contributors to Both.org. Check them out.

Technically We Write is a community of technical writers, technical editors, copyeditors, web content writers, and all other roles in technical communication.

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  • About Us
  • End of 10 Events
    • Wake Forest, NC, — 2025-09-20
  • Linux
    • Why I use Linux
    • The real reason we use Linux
  • My Linux Books
    • systemd for Linux SysAdmins
    • Using and Administering Linux – Zero to SysAdmin: 2nd Edition
    • The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
    • Linux for Small Business Owners
    • Errata
      • Errata for The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 1st Edition
      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 2nd Edition
  • Open Source Resources
    • What is Open Source?
    • What is Linux?
    • What is Open Source Software?
    • The Open Source Way
  • Write for us
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    • Advertising statement
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