Tips

If you’re new to the Linux operating system, you might be a bit confused about exactly what is stored where on your hard drive.  Directories like /etc and /bin might seem confusing to you if you’re used to Windows‘ directory structure. This article will tell you what everything is. As an end-user, you’ll probably only need to worry about the actual contents of a few of these directories – /home, /etc/, /var, /srv, /media. The contents of the other directories are mostly managed by package managers (for installing software) and system services … Read more

This article will explain what the kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, tebibytes storage units are in relation to Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes. … So What are They? Simply, they are a different set of storage units used to express/measure file sizes. They are analogous to kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes – and often used interchangeably – but they are not the same. Kilobytes, megabytes, etc., all measure units in thousands – 1000 kilobytes to a megabyte, 1000 megabytes to a gigabyte, and so on. This is the decimal measurement system of … Read more

Want to keep the kids busy over the holidays? Get them interested in computing. It’ll keep them busy for the rest of their lives. Computing is a huge field that covers many different subjects and skills – programming, digital art, music-making, engineering – and understanding computing concepts is increasingly important, and it opens the way for learning about just about anything else one might want to learn. A computer can’t just be a tablet playing youtube videos – kids need to be able to understand … Read more

Concerned that you have a failing hard drive? Make a backup. Then, use these Linux tools to check your disk/drive. Not concerned that you have a failing drive? Back up anyway. It could be failing, and you don’t know it. Or it could get stolen. Or a meteorite could hit it. Back. Up. Your. Files. What is SMART? S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is the system most hard disks use to report their health to the installed system. This information can be queried to find out whether a drive is … Read more

Want to run a program, command, or script when you start or log into your Linux OS? This article will show you how. Running Scripts on Startup with Crontab The best way to run a command whenever your system starts is using crontab. cron is the job scheduler used by Linux to schedule the execution of tasks. The crontab is the text file where those tasks are defined. There is a system-wide crontab file, and each user also has their own individual crontab file for scheduling their own tasks. Adding a System-Wide Startup … Read more

This article will show you how to set up a command to run automatically each time you (or any user) log in on the Linux operating system. Several tasks may be useful to run on login – perhaps you want to connect to a network share or mount a USB drive each time you log in. You might even want to write a script that emails someone to let them know you’ve arrived at work safely and have it sent automatically when you log in. … Read more