How to choose a computer store
I’ve never purchased a computer or components from a big box store like Best Buy. And I’ve never had one repaired there either.
Manage multiple service instances with systemctl
Services, services, services. A service is a huge part of computing. You're reading this article on a service. Your computer is running services. The internet...
A great year for Both.org
Both.org is having a great year thanks to readers like you. We’ve got some really great stats and I thought it would be good to share them with you.
Xfce lock screen fails
I like and frequently use the Xfce desktop because of it's simplicity and relatively small resource footprint. But sometimes, like all things tech, things break....
Introducing Jan: A Privacy-Centric, Open-Source GPT for AI Enthusiasts
Are you looking for a locally hosted open source GPT that protects your privacy while allowing you to leverage the latest AI models? Then you need to download Jan. Jan is easy to install on Linux, macOS, and Windows and has excellent documentation to guide that process.
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...
The IBM PC — 44 years old today
On August 12, 1981, the IBM PC — the IBM 5150 — was announced to the world. I’d known about it for several months as I’d written the training course for the IBM Customer engineers who were slated to repair it.
An Open-Source AI Tool for Voice Generation
Are you a scientist, developer or just a tinkerer like me? Are you fascinated with the power of AI to generate and clone a human...
Microsoft Nonsense
This morning, as I was reading various newsfeeds, I found some news about Microsoft these days. That's not interesting in itself, but the items I'm...
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.
Why I support the “Right to Repair”
I have a friend who wanted some help with her Dell laptop. I converted her to Linux several years ago but this system is now...
David Both to have book signing at ATO
I've just completed arrangements to do a book signing at the All Things Open (ATO) conference this year. I don't yet know when I'll be...
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...