Begin the Journey: Finding a practical starting point with Free Open Source Software
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 2025-07-20 at https://beardystarstuff.net/ and is reproduced here with the author’s permission. As I’m writing this post it’s...
Begin the journey: Why your ethics might require adoption of Free and Open Source Software
My own journey into free software began with my ethics. It was, and is, deeply personal but simultaneously connected to my understanding of the larger world I am a part of.
Bulk Document Conversion Made Easy with LibreOffice
I have many documents created with Microsoft Office for assignments written for graduate school courses years ago. How can I easily convert those dozens of...
Tips for faster note taking with Joplin
Joplin has become my default note-taking app. I use it for everything, whether short notes on what to pick up at the store to saving...
Movie made with open source software makes history
Screenshot from the IMDb database. The Latvian movie, Flow (2024), has made history for more than one reason. Wikipedia describes Flow as "... a 2024...
How to find Open Source Software to replace your Windows software
Author's note: This article is based on Chapter 6 of my book, "Linux for Small Business Owners," with my coauthor and yoga teacher Cyndi Bulka....
btop — the top of my dreams
The top program is the original system monitoring and management tool for Unix and Linux. It performs its task well and with a minimum of...
Open source Tools for Everyday Use
Many people don’t realize the abundance of free and open-source resources available online. Here are some of my favorite open-source tools across different categories, designed...
A Journey Towards Ad-Free Photography Sharing
I’ve been interested in photography since I co-opted my father’s Kodak 620 camera as a young boy. I used it to take pictures of the...
Top Five reasons I use Dolphin as my file manager
Linux has many file managers, and all of us have our favorites. I’m currently using Dolphin. Find out why.
5 note-taking apps for Linux
Notes are part of any writer’s life. Most of my articles begin in a note taking application and that’s usually Joplin for me. There are a large number of note taking apps for Linux and you may use something other than my favorite. A recent blog article reminded me of a half dozen of them. That was an invitation to learn more about how each of these applications came to be and who were their developers.
SpamAssassin, MIMEDefang, and Procmail: Best Trio of 2024
This trio of applications can be combined to manage server-side email sorting in a beautiful and elegant way. They are my “Best Trio,” because resolving the problem I set out to fix—effective server-side email sorting—took three pieces of software working together. Here’s how I got everything to work using SpamAssassin, MIMEDefang, and Procmail–three common and freely available open source software packages.
Exploring the history of technology
Learn about these important milestones in computing history as you experiment with writing your first program.
How to configure an Apache web server
Learn to host your own website with Apache, a solid, well-known, and easy-to-configure web server.
Manage your APC battery backup system with this Linux command
Protect yourself from power incidents by running a simple utility: apcupsd.
Chart Your Course: Essential Open Source Software for Boat Owners
Whether you’re sailing down a local river or setting out on the open seas, keep track of your nautical location with OpenCPN.