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1

Triangle Linux Users Group to hold installfest

September 17, 2025September 17, 2025
2

Why do you love Linux?

September 16, 2025September 13, 2025
3

Minty Fresh on a Meerkat: My Latest Linux Setup

September 15, 2025September 10, 2025
4

My start with BASIC programming

September 12, 2025September 8, 2025
5

Read long lines with getline

September 11, 2025September 8, 2025
6

Rhythmbox is a great music player for GNOME

September 10, 2025September 8, 2025
7

Reading the command line with getopt

September 9, 2025September 8, 2025
8

How do I choose a Linux distribution?

September 5, 2025September 5, 2025
9

Using QGIS and MerginMaps for Geospatial Data Work

September 4, 2025September 3, 2025
  • Home
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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

Using ‘grep’ to play a word game

You can use regular expressions to match letters and patterns, to help you play a letter game.

Jim Hall
May 13, 2024May 9, 2024
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FreeDOS History Open Source

MS-DOS 4.00 released as open source software

Why it’s important that Microsoft released this old version of MS-DOS.

Jim Hall
May 1, 2024April 26, 2024
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History Programming

Writing your own ‘fmt’ program

Learn a little programming to write tools that do things the way you want to do them.

Jim Hall
April 20, 2024April 14, 2024
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Bash Fun Programming

Learn Bash by writing a number guessing game

Learning a new programming language can be a fun exercise.

Jim Hall
April 14, 2024April 5, 2024
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Code Community Fun

Temporary fixes that become permanent

We asked our community for their stories about a “quick fix” that became a permanent one.

Jim Hall
April 13, 2024April 11, 2024
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Command Line Linux Storage Management System Administration

Tweak your system performance with ‘noatime’

Turn off “access time” to make a slight but noticeable improvement on system performance.

Jim Hall
April 11, 2024April 5, 2024
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Fixing problems Web Server

How to debug a web server error with ‘wget’

The wget command line tool can provide detailed information about what’s happening on a web server.

Jim Hall
April 10, 2024April 5, 2024
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FreeDOS Linux VirtualBox

How I boot FreeDOS using QEMU

QEMU is a fast and flexible virtual machine that you configure using command line options.

Jim Hall
April 8, 2024April 2, 2024
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Linux Open Source Software Programming

Exploring the history of technology

Learn about these important milestones in computing history as you experiment with writing your first program.

Jim Hall
March 22, 2024March 16, 2024
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Bash Command Line Tips and tricks

Using ‘if’ in a Bash script

Writing a short Bash script can save typing lots of instructions at the command line.

Jim Hall
March 15, 2024March 15, 2024
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Community Curiosity

How to write your first article

Open source is for everyone! And at Both.org, we encourage everyone to share their open source journey.

Jim Hall
March 6, 2024March 6, 2024
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Fun Programming

Draw a heart for Valentine’s Day

With a bit of programming, you can draw your own Valentine heart in graphics mode on FreeDOS.

Jim Hall
February 14, 2024February 3, 2024
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Community Open Source

Looking ahead to 30 years of FreeDOS

Learn about the origins of this classic open source operating system.

Jim Hall
February 10, 2024February 10, 2024
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Community Programming

You don’t need a computer science degree to work with open source software

Open source makes software knowledge accessible to anyone, so formal training isn’t the only path to a technology career.

Jim Hall
February 1, 2024January 23, 2024
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Open Source Tools

Teaching technical writing with open source

In addition to my work as a consultant, I also teach a few courses on technical writing. One of these is a course about writing...

Jim Hall
January 8, 2024December 28, 2023
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Code

Holiday snow on your terminal

I live in Minnesota and we haven't gotten a lot of snow yet, so I figured I'd add a little "holiday cheer" by writing a...

Jim Hall
December 19, 2023December 19, 2023
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Posts pagination

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Random Quote

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

— Arthur C. Clark

End of 10...

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Links: Humor

  • Linux: A true story

Links: Interesting info

  • Replace Kubernetes with systemd

Links: Linux

  • Fedora
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  • Linux Mint
  • Ubuntu

Links: Moving to Linux

  • 7 Reasons Fedora Might Be a Better Windows Replacement Than Linux Mint
  • Best Linux distros to try before Windows 10 support ends
  • Isn’t It Time to Switch to Linux? 12 Reasons to Abandon Windows
  • KDE for W10 Exiles
  • Linux: A true story
  • Why I Switched to Linux From Windows

Links: Open Source Software

  • GIMP
  • 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.

2nd Edition now Available

All three volumes of this best-selling second edition of my Linux Self-Study course are now available from Apress and Amazon. See the details of this 3-volume self-study course.

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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      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 1st Edition
      • Errata for Using and Administering Linux — 2nd Edition
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