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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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1

Why I Really Like Linux

March 12, 2026
2

California’s age verification law is bad for open source

March 10, 2026March 9, 2026
3

Announcing the 3rd Edition of “Using and Administering Linux”

March 7, 2026March 7, 2026
4

Fresh KDE Innovation Meets Ubuntu Stability

March 5, 2026March 4, 2026
5

Make your first contribution to open source

March 2, 2026February 28, 2026
6

The Fedora “Everything” 43 Image Changes Everything

February 27, 2026March 6, 2026
7

Getting Help for Linux

February 24, 2026February 24, 2026
8

Nine traits of the veteran Unix admin

February 20, 2026February 24, 2026
9

A Distributed WordPress Cracking Attack

February 16, 2026February 16, 2026
  • Home
  • Jim Hall
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jhall

Jim Hall is an open source software developer and advocate. His first contribution to open source was in 1993 with a patch to GNU Emacs, but he is probably best known for his work on FreeDOS, the open source version of the DOS operating system, and for his work on usability in open source software. In addition to writing open source software, Jim also writes about open source software, including Both.org and All Things Open, and about technical writing at Technically We Write.
Command Line Fun Linux

Viewing PDF documents in console mode

I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that’s sat unused for the last few years. I used to run the Raspberry Pi as a personal “home...

Jim Hall
June 6, 2025May 31, 2025
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Fun Linux Raspberry Pi

Loving the command line with the Raspberry Pi

I’m going to show my age when I share that my first Unix system was a Sun 3/50 workstation in our campus computer lab, when...

Jim Hall
June 4, 2025May 31, 2025
Read More
Education Open Source Tools Writing

Writing with open source tools

Aside from my other work, I also teach a few university courses about technical writing. One class I like to teach is about writing with...

Jim Hall
June 2, 2025February 4, 2026
Read More
Command Line Linux

Extracting text with awk

The awk script interpreter is a very handy tool for systems administrators, and anyone else who uses Linux at the command line. With awk, you...

Jim Hall
May 30, 2025May 28, 2025
Read More
Fixing problems I really borked it this time Problem Solving System Administration

My first sysadmin mistake

If you work in IT, you know that things never go completely as you think they will. At some point, you’ll hit an error, or...

Jim Hall
May 29, 2025May 27, 2025
Read More
History Linux

A brief history of the Linux desktop

Let’s look back on a brief history of the Linux desktop.

Jim Hall
May 19, 2025May 18, 2025
Read More
Programming

How I use GNU Indent

Let GNU Indent make your source code easier to read.

Jim Hall
May 12, 2025May 5, 2025
Read More
Linux QEMU

Emulating systems with QEMU

Here’s how I boot other systems using virtual machines in QEMU

Jim Hall
May 9, 2025May 9, 2025
Read More
Hardware Linux

Make typing faster with the Keebio BDN9 macro pad

My brother recently gave me a Keebio BDN9 macro pad. It’s a configurable 9-key keyboard that supports all kinds of customizations, including little keycaps that...

Jim Hall
May 8, 2025May 4, 2025
Read More
FreeDOS Fun Programming

Code like it’s the 1980s

Our computers are so powerful today that it’s hard for younger developers to understand what early desktop computing was like. Even more experienced folks can...

Jim Hall
May 7, 2025May 4, 2025
Read More
Programming

Draw in color using Portable Pix Maps

Create colorful images using the Portable Pix Map format.

Jim Hall
April 25, 2025April 19, 2025
Read More
Programming

Grayscale images with Portable Gray Maps

Learn to write grayscale images using the Portable Gray Map format.

Jim Hall
April 23, 2025April 19, 2025
Read More
Programming

Write tiny images using PBM

The Portable Bit Map (“PBM”) image file format was invented in the 1980s as a way to transmit small black and white images as plain...

Jim Hall
April 21, 2025April 19, 2025
Read More
FreeDOS

Get started with FreeDOS 1.4

A lot has happened in DOS since FreeDOS 1.3. Here’s what to expect in FreeDOS 1.4, available now.

Jim Hall
April 9, 2025April 7, 2025
Read More
Linux 101 Opinion

Moving from Windows 10 to Linux

Instead of purchasing a new computer just to run a new version of Windows, consider installing Linux.

Jim Hall
March 27, 2025February 4, 2026
Read More
File Management Linux

Connect to a Windows drive from Linux

Here’s how I connected my Linux system to a Windows AD fileshare.

Jim Hall
March 21, 2025March 8, 2025
Read More

Posts pagination

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Random Quote

If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.

— Laws of Computer Programming

Why I’ve Never Used Windows

On February 12 I gave a presentation at the Triangle Linux Users Group (TriLUG) about why I use Linux and why I’ve never used Windows.

Here’s the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/live/uCK_haOXPFM 

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)“.

“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
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