Filelight — my new favorite Linux tool
I like to explore all corners of my Linux installations. Sometimes I find interesting and useful new (to me) tools that -- for some reason...
Fixing Ansible playbooks
I've been using Ansible for several years to perform different tasks on my many physical and virtual hosts. It's an excellent tool for defining the...
How I reverted to Name Service Switch (NSS) for name resolution — And why
There are problems with the new systemd-resolved resolver and that gives us some good reasons to keep or revert to the NSSwitch resolver. The Domain...
New book announcement
I'm currently working on a new book that will be available in July 2025, "systemd for Linux SysAdmins: All You Need to Know About The...
Using the dmesg command
As a SysAdmin I frequently need to access the kernel log to obtain information of various types. This can range from searching for why a...
How Linux keeps time
Knowing the exact time is important to computers for many reasons. A GPS, which is a computer, needs to know the exact time so it...
How to get a clean screen — on the command line
After some time using terminal sessions they can get a bit cluttered with previous commands and their output data streams. At other times, I want...
How to do updates on the command line
Keeping your Linux computer as safe as possible from various types of cyber attacks is only possible if you perform updates regularly and upgrade to...
The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, Tenet 16 —Find the simplicity
Author’s note: This article is excerpted in part from chapter 18 of my book, The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, with some changes to update the...
The secrets of the usermod command
Most SysAdmins use a diverse set of commands, but it's usually the same set of commands. And, most frequently, the same set of options for...
Using htop to manage your Linux system
I use a lot of tools in my daily SysAdmin role. One of the most important ones in my toolkit is htop. The htop program...
My mom requests a Linux computer
Image by: Opensource.com Editor’s note: This article by David Both was published by Opensource.com on November 16, 2015. It’s republished here without changes by permission...
Looking forward to 2025
The end of the year is always a good time to look forward to the next year -- and so I will look at a...
Raspberry Pi 500 — a review
I've had several Raspberry Pi Single-Board Computers in the past and used them in interesting ways. Many years ago I even used one as a...
Microsoft Recall still captures your data
Even with "sensitive information" supposedly blocked I don't usually opine about Microsoft, or rant, but this is just ... there are no words. But I'll...
The joy of a modular kernel
What is a modular kernel? Modern modular kernels use a relatively small core that contains only the bare minimum code required to get a computer...