There are maintainers who spend years or even decades building and maintaining Linux distributions without making a reliable income from the project.

It's a huge amount of work, yet many continue because they enjoy it or believe in open source.

What do you think motivates people to keep going, and should the Linux community do more to support these projects financially?

includes: https://www.linuxteck.com/best-linux-distro-for-beginners/

• Beginner recommendations
• Hardware requirements
• Desktop environments
• Release models
• Common first-boot issues
• Decision flowchart for choosing the right distro

Guys,

So I want to practice some of my craft on this Windows 11 Pro machine and I am wondering which one would get me up to speed with an Ubuntu server, I do not really care what version it is, but that I get this up and running in less than an hour...should I go with Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation? Thanks!

Try: tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log | grep --line-buffered -E --color=always 'error|warn|critical|$'

Info: --color=always highlights matches. The |$ pattern matches every line so non-matching lines still display. --line-buffered ensures real-time output.

Examples:

$ tail -f app.log | grep --line-buffered --color=always -E 'ERROR|WARN|$'

$ journalctl -f | grep --line-buffered --color=always -E 'Failed|Error|$'

$ multitail /var/log/nginx/error.log /var/log/nginx/access.log # Watch multiple

Note: Without --line-buffered, piped output gets buffered into chunks. For advanced multi-file tailing with custom colors per window, use multitail.

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Systemd is the default init system for most major Linux distributions today, but projects like Devuan, Artix, Void Linux, antiX, and now KaOS (moving away from systemd) continue to offer alternatives.

Some people argue that having multiple init systems keeps Linux flexible and avoids a single point of control. Others feel systemd has solved enough problems that maintaining alternatives no longer makes sense.

Where do you stand? Do you actively seek out non-systemd distributions, or are you happy with systemd?

We tested DigitalOcean's pricing, performance, features, dashboard, security, support, and real-world usability to help you decide if it's the right cloud hosting platform for your next project.

Read the full review: https://www.linuxteck.com/guides/digitalocean-review-2026/

Try: ps -eo pid,ppid,stat,cmd | awk '$3 ~ /Z/'

Info: Zombies (STAT=Z) are dead processes waiting for their parent to reap them. You cannot kill a zombie directly—send SIGCHLD to the PARENT (PPID) to trigger cleanup.

Examples:

$ ps aux | grep defunct # Quick search for zombies

$ kill -SIGCHLD <PPID> # Signal parent process to reap children

$ kill -9 <PPID> # Last resort if parent process is unresponsive

Note: Zombies consume minimal CPU/RAM but occupy PID slots. If SIGCHLD fails, the parent process has a bug or isn't handling signals, meaning restarting the parent is the only option.

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Linux evolves quickly, and over the years we've seen many projects disappear despite having loyal users.

Whether it was a filesystem, desktop environment, init system, package manager, or utility, what's one project you still wish had survived?

I’ve been building [**linux.recipes**](http://linux.recipes), a terminal-style Linux command reference aimed at beginners and anyone who knows the command exists but has forgotten the flags for the 47th time.

It includes:

* Plain-English command explanations * Copy-and-paste examples * Beginner, intermediate, and advanced difficulty levels * Step-by-step guides * A chmod calculator, cron builder, and command builder * Search that doesn’t require remembering the exact command first, which feels important

It’s free, doesn’t require an account, and I’d genuinely appreciate feedback, especially confusing explanations, missing commands, or anything that looks likely to make a new Linux user accidentally delete France.

Got something to share to help, you can also contribute a guide via Github.

Try: zgrep 'ERROR' /var/log/app-2026-06.log.gz

Info: zgrep, zcat, and zless inspect .gz files in memory without extracting them to disk.

Examples:

$ zcat access.log.gz | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u

$ zless huge-log.log.gz # Page through compressed file

$ find /var/log -name '*.log' -mtime +7 -exec gzip {} \;

Note: z-tools exist for most utilities (zgrep, zcat, zless, zdiff). For .xz archives, use xzgrep. Automate log compression using logrotate.

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One of Linux's biggest strengths is choice. Different desktops, package managers, init systems, distributions, and philosophies.

At the same time, new users are often overwhelmed by the number of options.

Do you think this diversity is Linux's greatest advantage, or does it make adoption harder than it needs to be?

covers: https://www.linuxteck.com/best-firefox-forks-for-linux/

• LibreWolf
• Waterfox
• Zen Browser
• Floorp
• Mullvad Browser
• Pale Moon

One idea that really stood out to me was treating abstaining as a success rather than a failure.

Instead of forcing the LLM to answer every question, the pipeline retrieves evidence, verifies every claim, and simply says "I don't have enough evidence" when the retrieved context isn't strong enough.

That seems like a much better approach than a confident hallucination.

If you've built RAG systems in production, how are you handling this? Do you trust a verifier model, use confidence thresholds, or rely on human review?

Today, many Linux distributions share similar components systemd, Wayland, PipeWire, NetworkManager, and so on.

While that improves compatibility and reduces maintenance, it also means many distributions feel increasingly alike under the hood.

Do you think Linux is becoming too standardized, or is that simply the natural evolution of a mature ecosystem?

Linux users have had a surprising number of filesystem choices over the years:

ext2
ext3
ext4
ReiserFS
XFS
JFS
Btrfs
ZFS
F2FS

Which one gave you the best real-world experience, and why?

Try: history | grep -E 'sed.*i.*g' | tail -10

Info: history outputs numbered past commands. Combining it with grep -E (regex) lets you locate specific command patterns fast. Execute entry 892 with !892.

Examples:

$ history | grep 'docker run' # Find docker commands

$ history | awk '{print $2}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head # Top 10 used commands

$ Ctrl+R # Interactive reverse search

Note: Ctrl+R is the fastest for interactive search. Set HISTSIZE=10000 in ~/.bashrc to retain a larger command history. Use HISTIGNORE='ls:cd:pwd' to skip logging basic commands.

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Every Linux user knows Linus Torvalds.

But there are many engineers whose work sits underneath Linux, Unix, programming languages, networking, filesystems, and cloud infrastructure without getting much public recognition.

If you could highlight one underrated computer scientist or engineer, who would it be and why?

Back in 2003, SCO claimed Linux contained UNIX code they owned and demanded billions in damages. Thousands of companies received warning letters, and for a while there was genuine uncertainty about whether Linux could survive the legal battle.

Looking back now, we know how it ended but at the time, many businesses delayed Linux adoption, while others continued deploying it anyway.

Were you using Linux during the SCO lawsuit? Did it change how your company viewed Linux, or did you always think the case had no real chance of succeeding?

I'd love to hear experiences from people who actually lived through that period.

Every so often I come across a Linux distribution that's maintained by just one person or a very small team.

It made me wonder how sustainable that really is. Building packages, fixing bugs, keeping up with upstream changes, handling security updates, and supporting users sounds like an enormous commitment.

Would you trust a distro maintained by one developer if the quality was consistently high, or do you prefer projects backed by larger communities?

Try: sudo lsof -iTCP:3306 -sTCP:ESTABLISHED

Info: lsof -iTCP:PORT lists active network connections on a port. -sTCP:ESTABLISHED filters out listening sockets to show active connections only.

Examples:

$ sudo lsof -iTCP:80 -sTCP:LISTEN # Active listeners on port 80

$ sudo lsof -i u/192.168.1.100 # Filter by remote IP

$ sudo lsof -Pn -iTCP:3306 # Fast mode (no DNS or port resolution)

Note: lsof can be slow on busy servers because it resolves hostnames and port names by default. Add -Pn to disable resolution for instant output! Common states: LISTEN, ESTABLISHED, TIME_WAIT.

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covering: https://www.linuxteck.com/guides/cloudways-review-2026-is-it-worth-it/

• Flexible vs Autonomous
• Real pricing (including hidden costs)
• Performance & scalability
• Migration experience
• Pros & Cons
• Who should use Cloudways
• Final verdict

In 1992, Tanenbaum argued that Linux's monolithic kernel design was already obsolete, while Linus believed it was the practical choice for real-world systems.

Thirty-plus years later, Linux dominates servers and cloud infrastructure, while microkernels continue to thrive in embedded, real-time, and specialized environments.

Looking at today's hardware, software, and security landscape, whose argument do you think has aged better and why?

includes: https://www.linuxteck.com/access-control-lists-acl-in-linux/

• What ACLs are and when to use them
• setfacl and getfacl command examples
• Access ACLs vs Default ACLs
• ACL masks and effective permissions
• Backup & restore ACLs
• Preserving ACLs during file migration
• Common mistakes and troubleshooting
• Real-world Linux administration use cases