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1

Thinking about Algol 68

June 27, 2025June 26, 2025
2

The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, Tenet 22—Mentor the young SysAdmins

June 25, 2025June 27, 2025
3

Do I have enough space for that?

June 24, 2025June 20, 2025
4

A beginner’s guide to dc

June 23, 2025June 20, 2025
5

Strange problems with switches

June 19, 2025June 21, 2025
6

Nextcloud is a snap

June 18, 2025June 17, 2025
7

Website problems circumvented

June 17, 2025June 17, 2025
8

Breaking Free from Windows 10: KDE Plasma Is Your Upgrade to Freedom

June 17, 2025June 17, 2025
9

I need a list of URLs

June 16, 2025June 10, 2025
  • 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.
Problem Solving Programming

A little programming goes a long way

It helps to know some programming to solve these little problems.

Jim Hall
May 21, 2024May 19, 2024
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Compatibility Hardware Linux

Linux desktops and laptops

How do you run Linux? We asked our community to find out.

Jim Hall
May 20, 2024May 17, 2024
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Fun History Opinion

My open source story

How I got started in open source, from GNU Emacs and installing Linux in 1993.

Jim Hall
May 19, 2024May 19, 2024
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Fun Programming

My first programming language

Apple BASIC was how I first learned how to write my own computer programs.

Jim Hall
May 18, 2024May 25, 2024
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Curiosity Programming Tips and tricks

3 ways to read files in C

There’s the simple way, and there’s the fast way. Let’s compare.

Jim Hall
May 17, 2024May 15, 2024
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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
Read More

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Computers are unreliable; humans are even more unreliable.

— Gilb’s laws of unreliability

Interesting Links

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Links: Moving to Linux

  • 7 Reasons Fedora Might Be a Better Windows Replacement Than Linux Mint
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  • KDE for W10 Exiles
  • Why I Switched to Linux From Windows

Linux

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Open Source Software

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“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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    • The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
    • Linux for Small Business Owners
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      • 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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