Testing Ubuntu Precise (12.04 LTS beta)

OK, this is the coolest thing ever – I decided to download the beta for the upcoming Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (12.04 LTS) release and do some testing.  And I start installing it in a VM, and *while* it’s installing, I see it populate a dialog with Ubuntu-relevant links, and curiously, I click one… and BAM, [...]

Linux Sysadmin 101

I just finished the LibreOffice Impress presentation I’ll be using when I give my first Linux Sysadmin 101 talk at IT-ology this weekend.  The hardest part is always making graphics!

A diagram of the UNIX filesystem structure of a simple webserver

It’s licensed Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike; if you’d like a copy, you can grab one [...]

Graphic Equalizer (Treble/Bass) under Linux/Gnome

One of the things that I’ve missed on the Linux desktop is simple audio tone control in the sound volume applet. It particularly annoys me that Gnome allows you to set cruddy little reverb profiles (wow, all my audio sounds like a dog barking now… uh… thanks…), but if your speakers need a little [...]

Solid State Drives

If you’ve never seen a machine equipped with a good Solid State Drive (SSD)… they’re pretty impressive.  In this clip, I’m putting an Ubuntu 9.10 workstation with an Intel SSD through its paces.

Some of the reason that machine is so fast is Ubuntu – the newest release has some pretty significant disk speed related enhancements [...]