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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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1

Introduction to the BtrFS Filesystem

January 5, 2026December 25, 2025
2

Quick Tip for umount

January 3, 2026December 31, 2025
3

The Truth About Disk Fragmentation

January 2, 2026December 24, 2025
4

Prognostications for 2026

January 1, 2026December 24, 2025
5

Version Control Is Not Just for Code

December 31, 2025December 24, 2025
6

Counting files and words from the command line

December 30, 2025December 22, 2025
7

Behind the Badge: Community, Process, and Care in Open Source Exams

December 29, 2025December 21, 2025
8

Edit text with this Emacs-like editor

December 27, 2025December 16, 2025
9

Automate tasks with FreeDOS BAT files

December 26, 2025December 16, 2025
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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.
Email Linux Problem Solving

Email can’t access the INBOX

If you've been reading my posts here, or my books, you know that I like to experiment with many different aspects of Linux and open...

David Both
October 9, 2025October 6, 2025
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EOL Linux System Administration

Planning for End of Life

We hear a lot about end of life (EOL) planning for hardware and software. At this time, the end of Windows 10 springs to mind...

David Both
October 7, 2025October 7, 2025
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Linux Problem Solving

VirtualBox 7.2.2 fails to start VMs

After a recent upgrade to VirtualBox 7.2.2, all of my many VMs would crash within seconds as they tried to start. While this isn't exactly...

David Both
October 1, 2025September 30, 2025
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Environment Linux Moving to Linux Windows

Save the Computers

Computers aren’t as cute as say, baby seals or kittens, but it’s just as important to save the computers.

David Both
September 26, 2025October 3, 2025
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End of 10... Event Installfest Linux News TriLUG

End of 10 event success

This past Saturday, September 20, the Triangle Linux Users Group (TriLUG) held an installfest. We had some good success despite the short time-frame we had...

David Both
September 22, 2025September 22, 2025
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Event Linux Moving to Linux News

Triangle Linux Users Group to hold installfest

Members of the Triangle Linux Users Group (TriLUG) are having a meetup to discuss and demonstrate Linux for you. Keep your old computers that can't...

David Both
September 17, 2025September 17, 2025
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Desktop Distributions Linux Moving to Linux

How do I choose a Linux distribution?

I see a lot of potential Windows refugees asking this question on the two social media sites I still use, BlueSky and Mastodon. While it's...

David Both
September 5, 2025September 5, 2025
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Hardware Linux

What you need to know when you buy a new computer

Author's Note: This article is based on parts of Chapter 4, "Using Linux – Choosing Hardware," of my book, "Linux for Small Business Owners," with...

David Both
September 2, 2025October 16, 2025
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Beauty Elegance Linux Opinion Philosophy

Why beauty matters in computing

Why we should care about beauty as it applies to computing? And how do we define beauty in this context?

David Both
September 1, 2025August 30, 2025
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Environment Linux Moving to Linux

My oldest computer turns 20 today

My oldest computer turns 20 today, August 30, 2025. I use this data because, according to the Dell service information for it, that’s the date that this Dell Optiplex was shipped from the Dell factory. Unable to even install current versions of Windows, I keep it running using the most current versions of Fedora Linux.

David Both
August 30, 2025August 30, 2025
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Environment Linux Moving to Linux

10 reasons to use Linux

Southern humorist, newspaper editor and columnist, comedian, and author, Lewis Grizzard once said that there are two kinds of naked in the south. There's naked...

David Both
August 26, 2025August 26, 2025
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End of 10... Environment Linux Moving to Linux

End of 10…

There’s an interesting new movement gearing up as Win10 nears the end of it’s supported lifecycle. It’s called, “End of 10…” and can help keep 400 million computers out of the recycling stream — or worse, landfills.

David Both
August 21, 2025September 22, 2025
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Hardware Linux Moving to Linux

How to choose a computer store

I’ve never purchased a computer or components from a big box store like Best Buy. And I’ve never had one repaired there either.

David Both
August 19, 2025August 19, 2025
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Both.org Linux News

A great year for Both.org

Both.org is having a great year thanks to readers like you. We’ve got some really great stats and I thought it would be good to share them with you.

David Both
August 16, 2025August 16, 2025
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Both.org Linux Problem Solving

Xfce lock screen fails

I like and frequently use the Xfce desktop because of it's simplicity and relatively small resource footprint. But sometimes, like all things tech, things break....

David Both
August 15, 2025August 17, 2025
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Hardware History Linux

The IBM PC — 44 years old today

On August 12, 1981, the IBM PC — the IBM 5150 — was announced to the world. I’d known about it for several months as I’d written the training course for the IBM Customer engineers who were slated to repair it.

David Both
August 12, 2025August 12, 2025
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Posts pagination

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Random Quote

Any system which depends upon human reliability is unreliable.

— Gilb’s laws of unreliability

End of 10...

  • End of 10…

Links: Humor

  • Linux: A true story

Links: Interesting info

  • Replace Kubernetes with systemd

Links: Linux

  • Fedora
  • KDE for W10 Exiles
  • Linux Mint
  • Ubuntu

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

Links: Open Source Software

  • GIMP
  • I replaced my entire Microsoft Office subscription with free open-source apps
  • LibreOffice

“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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  • 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?
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    • The Open Source Way
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