en-us https://unixdigest.com Articles (occasional rants) about open source, BSD, GNU/Linux, system administration, programming, and other stuff - the pragmatic way Whether you're dealing with a web application or some other application, all user input should always be considered "hostile" and "dangerous", but you should not just universally sanitize user input. https://unixdigest.com/articles/stop-telling-people-to-sanitize-user-input.html Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT systemd is great as an init system, but - as you know - it's not just an init system, it's a behemoth of a monster. https://unixdigest.com/articles/dinit-the-init-system-systemd-should-have-been.html Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT To some developers AI seems to be the best thing since sliced bread, while to others, AI is more or less useless. I set out to investigate a little about why there is such a big difference in opinion among developers. This is just some my observations. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-reasons-for-the-big-discrepancy-between-satisfied-vs-dissatisfied-developers-using-ai-for-coding.html Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Perhaps the younger generation don't know anything about the past "evils" of Microsoft and naively believe that Microsoft is now the good friend to open source, but the truth is that all Microsoft acquisitions of open source projects is a business tactic that is put in place to improve Microsoft's loosing position to open source. It is a matter of control. And you should not host your open source project on GitHub. https://unixdigest.com/articles/why-is-your-open-source-project-still-hosted-on-github.html Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT As with all automated tools, AIs can be useful to a certain extent, but unlike code completion tools or memory debugging tools or profiling tools, not only does AIs often produce bad code, but you also need to seriously consider the moral implications as well other issues when you use them. Especially if you use any of the products from "Big Tech". You cannot simply turn a blind eye! https://unixdigest.com/articles/if-youre-a-programmer-and-you-feel-depressed-by-ai-dont-be.html Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Bookmarks are great, but just as much as I need them, I also find them dismal. https://unixdigest.com/articles/how-i-manage-my-bookmarks.html Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT When a company is small it's easy to care about the good and the evil it does, but when a company gets big, typically profit becomes the sole concern and that is when evilness takes root and starts to spread. https://unixdigest.com/articles/evilness-is-when-profit-is-the-sole-concern.html Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT According to an article on TechCrunch Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company’s code is written by AI. https://unixdigest.com/articles/microsoft-ceo-says-up-to-30-percent-of-the-companys-code-is-written-by-ai.html Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT When I code, I don't use AI and I don't even use code completion, this post is about why not. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-reason-why-i-dont-use-ai-or-even-code-completion.html Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/articles/hypocrisy-and-politics-in-free-and-open-source-software-projects.html Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT A lot of people experience online friends "vanishing" without notice. A new nonprofit project tries to help prevent this issue and it's worth joining and supporting the project! https://unixdigest.com/articles/what-if-one-of-your-online-friends-dies-unexpectedly.html Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT The Internet is filled with blog posts, articles on tech media, and videos on YouTube about why Linux is not the main operating system on the PC desktop. "5 reasons why", "10 reasons why", bla, bla, bla. But they are all wrong. https://unixdigest.com/articles/only-one-reason-why-windows-is-the-dominating-os-on-the-pc-desktop.html Sat, 24 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT I truly and passionately hate hype. From the fakeness of it to the sheer stupidity it represents, but perhaps most of all, because of the devastating consequence it often results in. https://unixdigest.com/articles/i-passionately-hate-hype-especially-the-ai-hype.html Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT In this article I share the results of a lab test in which I tested writing data to the filesystem directly with PHP fopen versus storing data in SQLite, PostgreSQL and MariaDB on different filesystems, mainly FFS2 on OpenBSD, UFS on FreeBSD, ext4 and XFS on Linux and ZFS on both Linux and FreeBSD, while unplugging power to hard drives and to the machines mid-writing. https://unixdigest.com/articles/battle-testing-php-fopen-sqlite-postgresql-and-mariadb-on-ffs-ufs-ext-xfs-and-zfs.html Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT As of late, Passkeys are promoted as the killer of passwords and a lot of companies are now manically transitioning from passwords to Passkeys. I don't think that is a good idea. https://unixdigest.com/articles/are-passkeys-really-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-passwords-i-certainly-hope-not.html Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT Today web developers are told that in order to do so-called modern web development they need to use JavaScript frameworks because they are an essential part of modern front-end web development. What a load of rubbish! https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-proper-design-process-in-web-development.html Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT People who consider trying out one of the different BSD variants, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD or DragonFly BSD, often ask about the main differences between the four projects. In this article I am going to address that issue. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-main-differences-between-openbsd-freebsd-netbsd-and-dragonflybsd.html Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT A big percentage of so-called experts today only know how to configure tools, but they understand nothing about how things work at the deeper level. This is a real challenge and a big problem for the future. https://unixdigest.com/articles/we-have-used-too-many-levels-of-abstractions-and-now-the-future-looks-bleak.html Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT Nowadays PC gamers are used as guinea pigs when big gaming titles are released with major bugs, major performance issues, and other similar problems. Even though PC gamers are used as guinea pigs, they still often have to pay full price for the games as well. Game development has turned into a circus and Bertheda's latest title Starfield is a disgrace, not only to game development itself, but also to the gaming community. https://unixdigest.com/articles/bethesdas-starfield-is-a-disgrace-to-game-development-and-a-slap-in-the-face-to-gamers.html Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT Throughout my life I have been involved in many different projects and exciting endeavors, not only computer or technology related, but also within other "spheres of life". Often a project has many different requirements for success, but one thing is almost a universal constant, you have to surround yourself with the right people. https://unixdigest.com/articles/one-of-the-most-basic-requirements-for-success-is-also-one-of-the-most-difficult-to-get-right.html Thu, 25 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT Some people who use open source software think or feel that they somehow have a right upon the developers of such software to provide support or service of some kind. Some are even so deluded that they think threating the developers with promises of not using the software will somehow force the developers into compliance. https://unixdigest.com/articles/when-you-use-open-source-software-you-are-not-entitled-to-anything.html Thu, 10 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT Even though being a ports or package maintainer is voluntary, it carries a heavy responsibility. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-heavy-responsibility-of-the-package-maintainer.html Sat, 05 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT I have multiple times criticized tech on political grounds, but is that a valid reason for criticism or does that simply constitute ranting? https://unixdigest.com/articles/is-criticizing-tech-on-political-grounds-valid.html Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT Admittedly, I do occasional rant on this website - sorry! Feel free to only read the tutorials, avoid my website all together, put it in your ad blockers spam list, or simply block it on your firewall :) No one is forcing you to read any of it if you don't want to. https://unixdigest.com/articles/will-the-ranting-on-this-website-ever-stop.html Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Since my article The flaws of distro hopping and asking other people about their OS of choice I have had a number of people writing to me asking for my specific advice regarding their choice of operating system, both for personal usage and for business usage. Last night I received yet another email from someone in the US who wrote to me about a difficult situation they where facing in the choice of operating system for their business usage. So I have decided to write a little bit about it. However, this article is not my professional advice. I don't know you and I don't know your situation and as such, I cannot advice you. Rather, this article is about what I do and why I do it. https://unixdigest.com/articles/my-choice-of-operating-system.html Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT The POSIX standard requires that operating systems maintain filesystem metadata that record when each file was last accessed. Let's take a look at what all that means. https://unixdigest.com/articles/understanding-unix-filesystem-timestamps.html Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT This is a small introduction to a really great article about how toxic it is to follow the daily news and what to do instead. https://unixdigest.com/articles/why-you-should-avoid-the-news-media-and-what-to-do-instead.html Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT Even though the technology related news media isn't about inhibiting thinking or controlling the masses, like the regular news media, the technology media is mostly using the same tactics by creating sensational and story-formattet junk. You can spot a bad technology media (or any news media) by the low level of investigative journalism and the high level of sensationalism it contains. https://unixdigest.com/articles/do-you-feel-overwhelmed-trying-to-stay-up-to-date-with-the-latest-tech-news.html Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT The term zero trust is a security model, also known as "perimeterless security" that has been known for a long time and that was e.g. implemented internally at Google in 2009 in a project called BeyondCorp. In recent years, mainly due to the high amount of IT security problems we all are facing, the term gained renewed focus and popularity when cybersecurity researchers at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released their Zero Trust Architecture publication (PDF).Zero trust is a valuable model that provides many improvements and benefits to the security model of both small and large companies. However, as with so many other terms and concepts, the big corporate hype machine is in the process of hijacking the concept by rebranding their services and turning zero trust into something that it is not. https://unixdigest.com/articles/zero-trust-is-being-hijacked-by-the-big-corporate-hype-machine.html Fri, 12 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT A lot of bad practice has permeated the software development industry, one such practice is to blindly trust code when using third party libraries, frameworks or packages. The reasons why this is taking place is because people want to build stuff quickly in order to save as much money as possible, and they don't want to spend time on security or even performance. But alas, now such companies are beginning to pay the price, a very costly and highly damaging price. https://unixdigest.com/articles/no-you-cannot-trust-third-party-code-without-reading-it-first.html Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT Distro hopping is a term that refers to the activity of computer users constantly installing and trying out different Linux distributions, either on bare metal or in a virtual environment, having a really difficult time deciding what to use. This article is not about simply trying out different options, it's about being stuck because you cannot make up your mind and you just keep trying different things, getting more and more "frustrated". https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-flaws-of-distro-hopping-and-asking-other-people-about-their-os-of-choice.html Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT If you're looking for answers related to Linux or BSD (or anything for that matter), Reddit is often not the right place to search for them. https://unixdigest.com/articles/dont-use-reddit-for-linux-or-bsd-related-questions.html Fri, 08 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT Since I wrote The delusions of Debian, I have received a lot of email. I have therefore decided to do a small follow-up about the true meaning of Long Term Support (LTS). https://unixdigest.com/articles/linux-distributions-long-term-support-might-not-be-what-you-think-it-is.html Fri, 01 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT Debian used to be a very famous Linux distribution in the communications industry and I have been running it in production since about 1998 up until the time when the systemd conflict arose. Since then the priorities of the Debian project changed and Debian was no longer what Debian used to be. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-delusions-of-debian.html Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT A lot of myth and misunderstanding exist regarding how security is handled by package maintainers on the different Linux distributions and BSD variants. Let's take a look at the subject. https://unixdigest.com/articles/how-security-is-handled-by-package-maintainers.html Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT Reddit, fora, mailing lists, etc. are filled with questions and debates about whether operating system A is more secure than operating system B, or whether operating system A is faster than operating system B. Such questions and debates makes very little sense. https://unixdigest.com/articles/questions-about-which-operating-system-is-more-secure-or-the-fastest-make-no-sense.html Fri, 18 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT I have previously written about some of the major problems with so-called modern web development in some of my articles, mainly So-called modern web developers are the culprits and Is the madness ever going to end? and I have addressed the issues to the developers themselves. However, in some cases the business owners and managers are the main driving force behind the bad decisions, so if you're a business owner or a manager looking for the quick fix regarding web development - or software development in general, I advice you to get a cup of your favorite hot beverage and read this article ;) https://unixdigest.com/articles/advice-to-business-owners-and-managers-dont-use-the-modern-way-of-web-development.html Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT There is something seriously wrong with the IT industry. It's so bad that I haven't managed to find a single industry with the same massive amount of stupidity, with the exception of perhaps the fashion industry. https://unixdigest.com/articles/is-the-madness-ever-going-to-end.html Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT My mother turned 70, February 2021, and she has been using Linux on the desktop for the past 21 years. My mother-in-law is 65, she has been using Linux on the desktop since 2015. https://unixdigest.com/articles/my-70-year-old-mother-has-been-using-linux-on-the-desktop-for-the-past-21-years.html Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT As a response to my article, So-called modern web developers are the culprits, someone stated that my advice was outdated because today we make web apps, not websites. I will address that issue in this article. https://unixdigest.com/articles/no-your-website-is-not-a-webapp-even-if-you-call-it-so.html Wed, 29 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT 2022 needs to be the year when we seriously begin to get rid of bloatware, hype and trends in web development. It needs to be the year when we focus on performance and on utilizing the technology in harmony with the intend behind it. I am not saying that we should do all web development in assembly or C, but we need to stop the JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Python with Django and PHP framework madness. https://unixdigest.com/articles/so-called-modern-web-developers-are-the-culprits.html Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT During the last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to work with a web application that required a new user management system. As most people know I am very much against using frameworks - and for good reasons. Let's talk a little about that. https://unixdigest.com/articles/using-a-framework-can-make-you-stupid.html Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT I think that most people in the software industry have been in the situation of running a legacy system that everyone dreads because it was developed on a platform that was outdated a long time ago. In this article I will address the issue of how you develop software that keeps running without fear of breakage even when you upgrade to the latest version of the platform that the system is running on. https://unixdigest.com/articles/how-to-write-software-that-will-keep-working-for-decades.html Mon, 08 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT As soon as you step outside your house or apartment, you're located in the "public arena" where there is no privacy. I don't mean juridically speaking, but practically, as everyone can see you. Now, why would you think it is any different with the Internet!? https://unixdigest.com/articles/there-is-no-such-thing-as-privacy-on-the-internet.html Wed, 08 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT I am sure you have heard it many times, "use the right tool for the job", yet at the same time we're often inclined toward a specific operating system or a specific piece of software. And while it's quite normal to have a favorite operating system or a favorite piece of software, it can be very counter productive to only use a single solution for every problem. https://unixdigest.com/articles/use-the-right-tool-for-the-job.html Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT Have you ever lost important data? I have. I learned doing backups the hard way after I lost a entire book I had just finished writing! https://unixdigest.com/articles/having-a-solid-backup-strategy-and-why-you-should-not-rely-on-fancy-tools-for-backup.html Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT It is extremely disappointing to watch people cheer in ignorance at having their FOSS work and time exploited by one of the largest and crookiest companies in the world (GitHub, i.e. Microsoft), but you also need to understand something else, if you're into programming, using GitHub Copilot will eventually turn you into a bad programmer! https://unixdigest.com/articles/using-github-copilot-will-turn-you-into-a-bad-programmer.html Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT Is it even possible to stay sane in today's world of tech? Well, both yes and no :) https://unixdigest.com/articles/how-to-stay-sane-in-todays-world-of-tech.html Wed, 07 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT Whether we deal with technology, religion, science, or any other subject, nothing has ever been more harmful to the human race, both generally and individually, than people submitting to social conformity rather than use the gift of their intellect! https://unixdigest.com/articles/stop-submitting-to-social-conformity-and-use-your-brain-instead.html Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/articles/are-you-a-tls-master.html Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT The name SQLite is a nice name, but the "lite" part is misleading, it sounds like it is only useful for tiny things - which is very wrong. SQLite should be named AwesomeSQL, because that is what it is. SQLite is probably the only database you will ever need in most cases. https://unixdigest.com/articles/sqlite-the-only-database-you-will-ever-need-in-most-cases.html Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT Have you ever thought about developing some type of application from the ground up while people are telling you that you shouldn't do it, and that it is difficult, and that you shouldn't reinvent the wheel, etc.? Guess what, what you shouldn't do is to listen to such people! https://unixdigest.com/articles/dont-be-afraid-to-code-it-yourself.html Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT In my last couple of articles I have been talking about the problems with object oriented programming theory and implementation, and I have been talking about the problems with frantic focusing on software testing. In this article I'm almost not going to say anything, I'll just recommend a really good talk for you :) https://unixdigest.com/articles/straight-forward-problem-solving-mentality.html Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT Code testing is not only great, it is a MUST as you cannot develop software without testing your code. However, there is something which I like to call "frantic code testing", which is what I believe needs to be avoided. https://unixdigest.com/articles/stop-being-frantic-about-code-testing.html Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT It's easy to determine if you really need the object-oriented paradigm, you just need to look for the things that you can only do with object-oriented programming and then ask yourself whether you really need that. It's called "The Three Pillars of Object-Oriented Programming". If you don't use all three at the same time, then you're not doing object-oriented programming and you don't need it. https://unixdigest.com/articles/how-do-i-know-if-i-really-need-object-oriented-programming.html Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT In this article we'll take a look at some of the benefits of procedural programming in PHP, and in general, and what you need to do in order to do it well. https://unixdigest.com/articles/procedural-programming-in-php.html Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT It has happened again. Another company has contacted me because they had a PHP product developed which has turned into a huge beast of complexity. Basic functionality has stopped working and nobody wants to have anything to do with it. It has serious consequences for the company because they are loosing money since the product isn't up and running. I have come to the same conclusion which I have reached in other similar situations, the codebase is one big pile of complex object-oriented mess. https://unixdigest.com/articles/no-more-object-oriented-programming-with-php.html Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT Are you a JavaScript framework or library fan-boy? One of those so-called front-end developers who cannot figure out how to build a website without completely smothering everything in JavaScript? Well, if you are, let me share a JavaScript nightmare with you. https://unixdigest.com/articles/javascript-malware-infested-nightmare.html Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT If we assume that no security bugs are injected by malicious programmers, then security issues, like other issues, are errors in code introduced by programmers by mistake. This means that the complexity of a program deeply affect the number of mistakes. This also means that one very important goal is to make code as simple as possible, until it becomes absolutely and obviously correct. Complexity is perhaps the most important factor that controls both the creation and defeat of errors, including security related errors. https://unixdigest.com/articles/code-has-to-be-simplified-until-it-becomes-absolutely-correct.html Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT In 2020 Laurent Bercot, the developer of the s6 init tools, was contacted by a recruiter at Google. He wrote an answer which he made public. That answer deserves to be spread far and wide. I present the answer here as a direct copy from the original. https://unixdigest.com/articles/this-is-how-you-keep-your-dignity-and-not-sell-your-soul.html Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/articles/one-sure-way-to-determine-if-what-you-are-doing-is-stupid.html Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT So, you normally do something like pip install foo, or composer install foo, or npm install foo, or perhaps go get foo, and you never read the source code of the package you just pulled down? Guess what, that's one (almost) sure way to blow up your project! https://unixdigest.com/articles/are-you-trusting-open-source-blindly-then-you-are-in-for-a-world-of-hurt.html Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT The GNU Public License (GPL) was created to be the antithesis of the standard proprietary license, let's take a look at some of the problems with GPL. https://unixdigest.com/articles/some-of-the-problems-with-the-gpl.html Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT For many years I have been advocating passionately against the so-called "modern web" because it is a poor excuse of saving money by doing so-called rapid deployment. Many web developers, front-end as well as back-end, haven't got even a basic understanding of the technology or the security involved in the work they do. What is worse is perhaps the fact that a lot of people are doing "modern web development" simply because they are blind followers of hype and trends. Hype and trends that dictate that you have to stuff websites with JavaScript - even though it is mostly unneeded - and slow and crappy frameworks. However, the time has finally come when "modern web development" soon will have to die. https://unixdigest.com/articles/future-prediction-the-so-called-modern-web-will-die-soon.html Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT The other day, as I was going through some of my old notes, I stumbled upon something I had written about the console, the terminal and the shell on UNIX-like operating systems. I have decided to rewrite these notes in order to share them here on my website. So without further ado we will now stroll down memory lane and take a quick look at the origins of the Unix terminal and shell. And I will also give my advice to new users on Linux or BSD regarding the choice of terminal emulator and shell. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-terminal-the-console-and-the-shell-what-are-they.html Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT About a documentary that explores the dangerous human impact of social networking. Tech experts sound the alarm on their own creations! https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-social-dilemma.html Sun, 08 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Thousands of the worlds best open source projects are still hosting their code repositories on GitHub. Since Microsoft has purchased GitHub this has become a serious problem. https://unixdigest.com/articles/important-open-source-projects-should-not-use-github.html Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT Privacy on the Internet is important because privacy risks range from the gathering of statistics on users to more malicious acts such as the spreading of spyware and the exploitation of various forms of bugs (software faults). Many companies, such as Google, track which websites people visit and then use the information, for instance by sending advertising based on one's web browsing history. Sometimes prices on products are changed on the same website, depending on tracking information, and two people may view the exact same product on the exact same website yet be presented with very different prices. https://unixdigest.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html Tue, 20 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT From time to time people email me asking about what kind of work flow I use for this blog. In this article I'll elaborate on the process. https://unixdigest.com/articles/come-full-circle-back-to-html.html Sun, 18 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT I run FreeBSD as my daily driver on both my main workstation and on all my servers and I have been running FreeBSD since about 1999 because I consider it an amazing operating system. In this article I will address some of the technical reasons for choosing FreeBSD over a GNU/Linux distribution. https://unixdigest.com/articles/technical-reasons-to-choose-freebsd-over-linux.html Sat, 11 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT Vim users swear to the increased productivity that Vim provides, yet few Vim users actually realize that they are not really using Vim. Rather, they have stuffed Vim full of plugins and a thousand lines long Vim configuration file that completely change how Vim normally works. https://unixdigest.com/articles/vim-i-hate-to-love-you.html Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT The suckless philosophy is all about keeping things simple, minimal and usable, but some people seem to have misunderstood it completely. https://unixdigest.com/articles/turning-suckless-into-suckmore.html Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT In my previous article titled Why you should migrate everything from Linux to BSD I stated that "BSD is the place to be". However, this doesn't mean that there aren't any good Linux distributions! On the contrary, there exist some really good Linux distributions out there where the developers and maintainers have removed all systemd dependencies, and where people are also aware of the status of the kernel development and Red Hat's and Microsoft's corporate influences in todays development of Linux - taking the control away from the community. Let's take a look at some of these great Linux distributions. https://unixdigest.com/articles/some-of-the-great-gnu-linux-distributions.html Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT A question I frequently get asked is how you choose between the operating systems OpenBSD and FreeBSD. In this small article I'll try to answer that question. https://unixdigest.com/articles/choosing-between-openbsd-and-freebsd.html Fri, 07 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT After I posted the first part of this article it got posted on Hacker News, Reddit and Lobsters, and someone named "harryruhr" posted a response on his blog which he titled Should you migrate from Linux to BSD? It depends.. In the response harryruhr makes a couple of erroneous arguments I feel the need to address. https://unixdigest.com/articles/why-you-should-migrate-everything-from-linux-to-bsd-part-2.html Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT This is a small article about some of my adventures with FreeBSD and why I believe it is an amazing operating system. https://unixdigest.com/articles/freebsd-is-an-amazing-operating-system.html Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT As an operating system GNU/Linux has become a mess because of the fragmented nature of the project, the bloatware in the kernel, but mainly because of the manipulation by corporate interests. There exist several technical reasons for when a migration from GNU/Linux to BSD make sense, but this article isn't about that, it's an "analyzes" of the current status in Linux-land, and it is an opinionated rant, more than anything else. https://unixdigest.com/articles/why-you-should-migrate-everything-from-linux-to-bsd.html Sat, 18 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT A bad trend is becoming a standard at more and more tech companies when interviewing candidates for job positions. https://unixdigest.com/articles/job-interviews-in-tech-gone-haywire.html Wed, 25 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT Usually we regard the phrase "the modern approach" as something that denote improvement over time, something that has changed to the better. However, the phrase "the modern approach" are often abused and we must be careful to separate fact from hype. https://unixdigest.com/articles/when-the-modern-approach-is-nothing-but-hype.html Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT On Hacker News, Reddit, and elsewhere, people often ask about favorite note-taking methods. In this post I share mine. https://unixdigest.com/articles/my-favorite-note-taking-method.html Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT Object-oriented programming is just a programming paradigm that organize code in a different way from that of procedural programming. It is an extension of procedural programming, and it is about avoiding a global scope and about sharing resources between functions. Let's take a look at some of the "object-oriented" features of Go. https://unixdigest.com/articles/go-understanding-the-object-oriented-features-with-structs-methods-and-interfaces.html Sat, 02 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT In Go you have to deal with both errors and panics and while some people consider it one of the worst things about Go, I think it demonstrates exactly how well designed Go is. https://unixdigest.com/articles/go-errors-and-panics.html Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT Some people complain about the logging capabilities of the log package from the Go standard library, but I not only find it adequate, I really like it. https://unixdigest.com/articles/go-logging-that-matters.html Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT Front-end developers are pushing JavaScript as though the web could not function without it. The fact is that JavaScript is one of the top reasons for security breaches on the client computer and client mobile phones, it is a plague that turns privacy into a public exhibition, and it has paralyzed the industry in such a way that you can hardly find a website that doesn't display "the white screen of death" if JavaScript has been disabled in the browser. https://unixdigest.com/articles/stop-pushing-javascript.html Tue, 02 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT If you are thinking about abstractions, design patterns, and programming principles while you are programming, you are not really programming, rather you are wasting valuable time fantasizing. The end goal is always to have good working readable code, not code that has been bent, twisted, and shoved into formations and structures in order to fulfill the vanity of someone living in a fairy tail. https://unixdigest.com/articles/when-abstractions-design-patterns-and-design-principles-lead-to-spaghetti-code.html Sun, 26 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT In this article I share the results of a home-lab experiment in which I threw some different problems at ZFS, Btrfs and mdadm+dm-integrity in a RAID-5 setup. https://unixdigest.com/articles/battle-testing-zfs-btrfs-and-mdadm-dm.html Sun, 05 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT In this article we're going to take a close look at the real motivation behind the development of systemd, and we're going to take a look at some of the future perspectives for GNU/Linux as an operating system. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-real-motivation-behind-systemd.html Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT Void Linux is a great rolling release and independent general purpose Linux distribution that uses the X Binary Package System (XBPS) package manager, which was designed and implemented from scratch. It uses runit as the init system and service supervisor, which is a simple and very effective approach to initialize the system with reliable service supervision contrary to something heavy and bloated like systemd. Void Linux supports both the musl and GNU libc implementations, patching incompatible software when necessary. https://unixdigest.com/articles/void-linux-a-great-and-unique-linux-distribution.html Fri, 30 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT I have been running OpenBSD, a FREE, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system, both professionally and privately since about 2004, and today I'm going to share some of my thoughts about the system. https://unixdigest.com/articles/openbsd-is-fantastic.html Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT Cloudflare has become one of the fastest growing DNS and CDN hosters on the Internet delivering some of the best DNS speeds worldwide, but if you value customers or visitors to your website you maybe need reconsider using Cloudflare. https://unixdigest.com/articles/stay-away-from-cloudflare.html Wed, 20 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT In this article we're going to take a little look at the typical discussions about the differences between popular operating systems such as BSD and Linux. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-typical-discussions-about-bsd-vs-linux.html Sun, 15 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT Most of the popular PHP frameworks postulate that they implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern, but it's just not true. https://unixdigest.com/articles/no-your-web-application-isnt-mvc.html Mon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT The Internet is filled with articles, blog posts, and forum debates about which programming language or which programming paradigm that is better than another. Python vs. Java vs. PHP vs. Ruby. Procedural vs. object oriented, object oriented vs functional, etc. In this article we'll take a much deeper look at programming languages and programming paradigms and try to understand these concepts from a different angle. https://unixdigest.com/articles/programming-languages-and-programming-paradigms.html Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT Since the release of the PHP programming language, PHP has been both loved and hated by many. In this article we'll take a look at one of the reasons why PHP really is such "a bummer". https://unixdigest.com/articles/bummer-php.html Sun, 20 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT On many websites, in a huge amount of Github projects, and in several books, like the book 'Modern PHP, New Features and Good Practices' by John Lockhart, so-called 'modern PHP' is made synonymous to using Composer and Packagist in combination with the usage of the recommendations provided by the PHP-FIG. Lots of people follow these advices almost blindly, but the reality is that this is NOT good practice from a security stand point. https://unixdigest.com/articles/composer-packagist-a-bad-implementation.html Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT What level of complexity do you want to be at? Are you really thinking about and understanding what you're doing or are you just following "trends" and always using a framework?! https://unixdigest.com/articles/to-framework-or-not-to-framework.html Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT In 2008 Roy T. Fielding expressed his frustration with people calling their HTTP-based interfaces for REST API's when in fact they aren't. Today in 2023 nothing has changed, people are still calling their HTTP-based interfaces a REST API, even though they are not. But that's not the worst part of all of this, the worst part is that no HTTP driven API should try to be REST in the first place! https://unixdigest.com/articles/no-your-api-isnt-rest-but-dont-worry-it-really-shouldnt-be.html Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/articles/design-patterns-can-be-very-evil.html Sun, 15 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT What are the facts about procedural programming versus object-oriented programming? https://unixdigest.com/articles/procedural-programming-vs-object-oriented-programming.html Sat, 28 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT I stumbled upon an article called "Writing modern day PHP applications" in which the author states that he sometimes comes across third party code that he believes exhibit features that were "customary in the 90's". One such feature is applications not having a single point of entry. https://unixdigest.com/articles/web-application-with-a-single-entry-point.html Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT I have previously written a small article called Trying out Arch Linux, first in 2008, then revisited in 2009, approximately a year later. At the time of this writing (2013) I haven't touched Arch Linux in four years. I then decided to re-test it and write some notes. In the previous notes I compared Arch Linux to Debian GNU/Linux (and to some extend FreeBSD and OpenBSD), I will again compare it to Debian GNU/Linux, but will not mention the BSD flavors. In these notes I will not address the problems about Arch Linux mirrors not being in sync. The problems however remains. https://unixdigest.com/articles/trying-out-arch-linux-again.html Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT This is a small article that takes an objective look at the PSR-0 autoloader "standard" implemented by PHP-FIG. https://unixdigest.com/articles/psr-0-is-not-a-solution-it-is-a-bypass.html Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT A small article about PHP frameworks, design patterns, and the art of programming with a passion. https://unixdigest.com/articles/most-php-frameworks-are-not-for-programmers.html Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT I honestly believe that many people who use template engines in PHP use them because it's the hip thing to do. https://unixdigest.com/articles/when-template-engines-for-php-get-in-the-way.html Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/articles/benchmark-4-notes-about-caching-and-benchmarking.html Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT This is a benchmark test of the performance of PHP with and without APC (Alternative PHP Cache). The test was performed on an Intel P4 1.7 Ghz with 1036028 kB of memory over a private LAN. The server runs PHP 5.3.3 on a standard Debian installation. Between each change of settings all related processes was restarted. https://unixdigest.com/articles/benchmark-3-the-alternative-php-cache-apc.html Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT This is a benchmark test of the performance of MySQL Cache. The test was performed on an Intel P4 1.7 Ghz with 1036028 kB of memory over a private LAN. The server runs MySQL 5.0.51a and PHP 5.3.3 on a standard Debian installation. Between each change of settings all related processes was restarted. Since Debian Squeeze the MySQL Cache is enabled by default. https://unixdigest.com/articles/benchmark-2-mysql-cache.html Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT This is a benchmark test of the loading speed of dynamic pages vs. static pages vs. pages stored in Memchached using PHP. The test was performed on an Intel P4 1.7 Ghz with 1036028 kB of memory over a privat LAN. The server runs MySQL 5.0.51a and PHP 5.3.3 on a standard Debian installation. Between each change of settings all related processes was restarted. https://unixdigest.com/articles/benchmark-1-dynamic-pages-vs-static-pages-vs-memcached.html Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT Real social value is experienced when we physically get together, when we pay real attention to each other, and when we care and help each other, not when we use Facebook, X/Twitter, Slack, Discord, YouTube or something else! https://unixdigest.com/articles/social-networking-is-a-poor-substitute-to-real-human-interaction.html Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT I just finished reading the book Pro PHP Refactoring by Franvesco Trucchia and Jacopo Romei. The book itself should be refactored - it's not pro at all. The book is an attempt to take the guidelines from the famous "Refactoring, Improving the Design of Existing Code" by Martin Fowler and turn them into PHP refactoring principles. https://unixdigest.com/articles/the-book-pro-php-refactoring.html Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT Too much commenting makes the code difficult to navigate. Experienced programmers try to create code that is self-explaining. Good code is almost always self-explaining. https://unixdigest.com/articles/code-comments-are-good-right-well-not-if-there-are-too-many.html Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT When going into extremes in using a specific programming style or a specific design pattern the result is always bad code - even if it looks nice. https://unixdigest.com/articles/code-navigation-design-patterns-and-too-many-functions.html Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT What constitutes a strong password, let's take a look from the attackers point of view. https://unixdigest.com/articles/passwords-from-the-hackers-point-of-view.html Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT In the world of Linux (also called GNU/Linux) there currently exist a lot of distributions and while most of them look great, only a few of them are worth paying attention to. https://unixdigest.com/articles/why-i-do-not-like-derived-linux-distributions.html Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT I have been using GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD exclusively since about 1999 and I spend time with Linux and BSD every single day both at home and at work. From time to time I still like to test some of the other Linux distributions to see whats new in the world of Linux. This time I decided to test Arch Linux. Arch Linux is really great, but it is not for people wanting a stable desktop or server system. https://unixdigest.com/articles/trying-out-arch-linux.html Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT Ubuntu GNU/Linux has grown to become the most famous Linux distribution in the world. It is the Linux distribution on DistroWatch that currently has the greatest hit rate, and even though it is based completely upon Debian GNU/Linux, it has almost twice as many hits. This articles explains what Ubuntu is and what relation it has got with Debian. https://unixdigest.com/articles/ubuntu-as-in-debian.html Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT One day back in 2007 I was dribbling down some notes about programming languages and compilers with a special focus on the use of C, C++ and Ada. These are some of my dribbles. https://unixdigest.com/articles/programming-in-c-cpp-and-ada.html Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT This is a small article on how to choose a good book on programming. The same method can be applied to other areas as well. It should be noted that the described method is my preferred method, it is not a universal method. https://unixdigest.com/articles/choosing-a-good-book-on-programming.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT In connection with some corrupted files in CVS I decided that it was time to take a look at some other revision control systems. This article is a summary of my three day journey into the land of revision controlling. https://unixdigest.com/articles/revision-control.html Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT