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1

SourceForge is ending free personal web hosting

September 18, 2025September 17, 2025
2

Triangle Linux Users Group to hold installfest

September 17, 2025September 17, 2025
3

Why do you love Linux?

September 16, 2025September 13, 2025
4

Minty Fresh on a Meerkat: My Latest Linux Setup

September 15, 2025September 10, 2025
5

My start with BASIC programming

September 12, 2025September 8, 2025
6

Read long lines with getline

September 11, 2025September 8, 2025
7

Rhythmbox is a great music player for GNOME

September 10, 2025September 8, 2025
8

Reading the command line with getopt

September 9, 2025September 8, 2025
9

How do I choose a Linux distribution?

September 5, 2025September 5, 2025
  • Home
  • David Both

dboth

David Both is an Open Source Software and GNU/Linux advocate, trainer, writer, and speaker who lives in Raleigh North Carolina. He is a strong proponent of and evangelist for the "Linux Philosophy." He’s been in the IT industry for over 50 years. He taught RHCE classes for Red Hat and has worked at MCI Worldcom, Cisco, and the State of North Carolina. He has been working with Linux and Open Source Software for over 25 years. David likes to build his own computers to ensure that each new computer meets his exacting specifications. He has written articles for magazines including, Linux Magazine, Linux Journal, and Opensource.com. He currently has five books published with Apress, "The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins", a self-study training course in three volumes “Using and Administering Linux: Zero to SysAdmin,” that was released in late 2019, and “Linux for Small Business Owners” with Co-author Cyndi Bulka.
Event Linux Moving to Linux News

Triangle Linux Users Group to hold installfest

Members of the Triangle Linux Users Group (TriLUG) are having a meetup to discuss and demonstrate Linux for you. Keep your old computers that can't...

David Both
September 17, 2025September 17, 2025
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Desktop Distributions Linux Moving to Linux

How do I choose a Linux distribution?

I see a lot of potential Windows refugees asking this question on the two social media sites I still use, BlueSky and Mastodon. While it's...

David Both
September 5, 2025September 5, 2025
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Hardware Linux

What you need to know when you buy a new computer

Author's Note: This article is based on parts of Chapter 4, "Using Linux – Choosing Hardware," of my book, "Linux for Small Business Owners," with...

David Both
September 2, 2025September 2, 2025
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Beauty Elegance Linux Opinion Philosophy

Why beauty matters in computing

Why we should care about beauty as it applies to computing? And how do we define beauty in this context?

David Both
September 1, 2025August 30, 2025
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Environment Linux Moving to Linux

My oldest computer turns 20 today

My oldest computer turns 20 today, August 30, 2025. I use this data because, according to the Dell service information for it, that’s the date that this Dell Optiplex was shipped from the Dell factory. Unable to even install current versions of Windows, I keep it running using the most current versions of Fedora Linux.

David Both
August 30, 2025August 30, 2025
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Environment Linux Moving to Linux

10 reasons to use Linux

Southern humorist, newspaper editor and columnist, comedian, and author, Lewis Grizzard once said that there are two kinds of naked in the south. There's naked...

David Both
August 26, 2025August 26, 2025
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End of 10... Environment Linux Moving to Linux

End of 10…

There’s an interesting new movement gearing up as Win10 nears the end of it’s supported lifecycle. It’s called, “End of 10…” and can help keep 400 million computers out of the recycling stream — or worse, landfills.

David Both
August 21, 2025August 25, 2025
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Hardware Linux Moving to Linux

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.

David Both
August 19, 2025August 19, 2025
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Both.org Linux News

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.

David Both
August 16, 2025August 16, 2025
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Both.org Linux Problem Solving

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....

David Both
August 15, 2025August 17, 2025
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Hardware History Linux

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.

David Both
August 12, 2025August 12, 2025
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Linux News Opinion Windows

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...

David Both
August 9, 2025August 9, 2025
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Hardware Linux Right to Repair

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
August 7, 2025August 7, 2025
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All Things Open Book Signing Linux

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...

David Both
August 6, 2025August 5, 2025
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IT Disasters

Disk Disaster

Sometimes you're fortunate enough to be on the periphery of an IT disaster and not the cause of it. Even so it can be excruciatingly...

David Both
July 30, 2025July 30, 2025
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Cinnamon Desktop Linux

Three surprising reasons I like the Cinnamon desktop

I wrote about my five reasons to like Cinnamon back in April, and in the time since, I've found even more reasons to like and...

David Both
July 25, 2025July 25, 2025
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Random Quote

Computers are easy; People are hard.

— Bridget Kromhout

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Links: Interesting info

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Links: Linux

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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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    • Using and Administering Linux – Zero to SysAdmin: 2nd Edition
    • The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins
    • Linux for Small Business Owners
    • Errata
      • 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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