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News, Opinion, Tutorials, and Community for Linux Users and SysAdmins
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  • End of 10 Events
    • Wake Forest, NC, — 2025-09-20
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    • Why I use Linux
    • The real reason we use Linux
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    • systemd for Linux SysAdmins
    • Using and Administering Linux – Zero to SysAdmin: 2nd Edition
    • The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
    • Linux for Small Business Owners
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      • Errata for The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 1st Edition
      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 2nd Edition
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1

Why I prefer tar to zip

January 15, 2026January 14, 2026
2

Development isn’t over until it’s packaged

January 14, 2026
3

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

January 13, 2026January 6, 2026
4

Using Wildcards on the Bash Command Line

January 12, 2026January 14, 2026
5

2025 — a Great Year for Both.org

January 10, 2026January 11, 2026
6

How Immutable Linux Could Save Libraries Thousands

January 9, 2026December 31, 2025
7

The difference in open source licenses

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026
8

Counting words from online articles

January 7, 2026December 29, 2025
9

Buying a Linux laptop that will last

January 6, 2026January 6, 2026
  • Home
  • David Both
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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.
Linux Tips and tricks Upgrades

How many releases of Fedora can I upgrade from?

Upgrades are an important part of a SysAdmin's job, whether you know you're one or not. If you think about updates and upgrades, then you...

David Both
December 13, 2024December 10, 2024
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Linux Open Source Tools

Best Articles of 2024 about Linux system tools

Linux has many excellent tools that allow SysAdmins to manage our systems. We've published many articles this year about those tools, and here are 9...

David Both
December 12, 2024December 12, 2024
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Linux

Happy birthday Both.org

On December 11, 2023. Both.org morphed from being simply my personal website to being a replacement for Opensource.com (OSDC). On that day, a small group...

David Both
December 11, 2024December 10, 2024
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Linux News Open Source

Top 5 open source stories of 2024

2024 has been an interesting year in the news for many reasons. The open source world has been generating a lot of news this year....

David Both
December 5, 2024
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I really borked it this time Linux

Stupid SysAdmin tricks

When working on multiple remote systemd using the command line -- Be sure you're working in the terminal for the correct system before entering the...

David Both
November 30, 2024November 30, 2024
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Linux

Why doesn’t my dict command work?

I upgraded to Fedora 41 as soon as it became available about a month ago. Most things worked as expected, but the dict command started...

David Both
November 28, 2024November 28, 2024
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Boot Linux Problem Solving

Fedora rescue mode fails

Have you ever noticed the bottom line on the GRUB bootloader menu? Well, you won't unless you're looking for it during the very first part...

David Both
November 26, 2024November 25, 2024
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Kernel Linux System Administration

Linux signals — sending system-level commands to programs

A user and SysAdmin guide Let's say you've got a program running that you want to terminate. Or that you want to power off or...

David Both
November 25, 2024November 25, 2024
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Command Line Linux System Administration

How I find and kill rogue programs

As useful and important as Firefox is to my ability to interact with the outside world, create on this website, manage my money, and much...

David Both
November 22, 2024November 21, 2024
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Linux System Administration

Another reason I like Linux

I like and prefer Linux for may reasons. Today provides one example. I like to install updates on all my Linux systems ( I don't...

David Both
November 18, 2024
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Linux

An introduction to the Network Time Protocol

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? -- Chicago, 1969 Perhaps that rock group didn’t care what time it was...

David Both
November 16, 2024November 16, 2024
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Linux System Administration

sync — The command you never heard of

Have you ever heard of the sync command? Have you heard of it but then forgotten all about it -- like me? The sync command...

David Both
November 15, 2024November 15, 2024
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Linux

Why should I subscribe to Both.org?

We're hoping you'd want to subscribe to our site to begin conversations with our writers and with other readers. This can be done by commenting...

David Both
November 13, 2024November 11, 2024
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Bash Code Linux

How I delay code execution in Bash until a remote host is responding

I have recently been working on some code that needs to run on a remote host using SSH. I describe this in my article, Using...

David Both
November 12, 2024November 9, 2024
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Hardware Linux Linux Philosophy Software

The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, Tenet 15 — Strive For Elegance

Author’s note: This article is excerpted in part from chapter 17 of my book, The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, with some changes to update the...

David Both
November 11, 2024July 6, 2025
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Linux

A quick look at DNF5

DNF5 is the new DNF. With Fedora 41, it replaces DNF, and brings with it a new command as well as some new, upgraded, and...

David Both
November 10, 2024February 3, 2025
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Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 8 9 10 … 28 Next

David Both ATO Interview

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

Random Quote

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far the universe is winning.

— Rich Cook

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
    • Submission and Style guide
    • Advertising statement
  • Downloads

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