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Linux Tips: A Comprehensive Guide for Optimizing Your System

Welcome to Linux Tips, your ultimate resource for unlocking the full potential of your Linux system. Whether you are a seasoned Linux user or a beginner exploring the world of open-source operating systems, this comprehensive guide will provide you with valuable insights and tips to optimize your Linux experience. From boosting performance to enhancing security, we’ve got you covered. Let’s dive in!

Just for fun, this article was written by an AI with the prompt being:

“Write an article for Linux-Tips.us that is optimized for Google’s search engine results.”

Enhance Performance:

Optimize Startup: Speed up your system boot time by disabling unnecessary services and applications that launch at startup. Use tools like systemd-analyze to identify bottlenecks and systemd commands to manage services effectively.

Monitor System Resources: Keep track of your system’s resource usage with tools like htop and top. Identify resource-intensive processes and consider optimizing or terminating them to free up valuable resources.

Utilize Swap Space: Configure and optimize your swap space to prevent system slowdowns. Tune the swappiness parameter to strike a balance between using RAM and swap effectively.

Improve Security:

Keep Software Up to Date: Regularly update your Linux distribution, applications, and packages to ensure you have the latest security patches and bug fixes. Utilize package managers like apt or dnf to simplify the update process.

Enable the Firewall: Activate the built-in firewall (e.g., iptables or nftables) to safeguard your system against unauthorized access. Configure firewall rules to allow only necessary incoming and outgoing connections.

Utilize SSH Key Authentication: Strengthen the security of your SSH connections by using key-based authentication instead of passwords. Generate SSH keys and disable password-based authentication to prevent brute-force attacks.

Boost Productivity:

Master the Command Line: Linux’s command-line interface is a powerful tool for executing tasks efficiently. Familiarize yourself with essential commands like ls, cd, grep, and find to navigate the file system, search for files, and perform various operations.

Utilize Shell Scripting: Automate repetitive tasks by writing shell scripts. Bash, the default Linux shell, allows you to create powerful scripts to streamline your workflow and save time.

Take Advantage of Package Managers: Leverage package managers like apt, dnf, or yum to install, update, and remove software effortlessly. Explore repositories and learn package management commands to manage your software ecosystem effectively.

Customize Your Environment:

Choose the Right Desktop Environment: Linux offers a variety of desktop environments, each with its own look and feel. Experiment with different options like GNOME, KDE, or Xfce to find the one that suits your preferences and maximizes your productivity.

Tweak Your Window Manager: Customize your window manager settings to enhance your workflow. Configure keyboard shortcuts, window behavior, and appearance options to create a personalized Linux experience.

Explore Themes and Icons: Customize the visual aesthetics of your Linux system by applying themes and icon packs. Tools like GNOME Tweaks or KDE System Settings allow you to easily switch between different themes and icons.

Conclusion:

By implementing the Linux tips outlined in this comprehensive guide, you can optimize your system’s performance, enhance security, and boost productivity. Remember to keep your system up to date, monitor resource usage, and leverage the power of the command line. With Linux’s flexibility and customization options, you can create an environment that truly suits your needs. Embrace the open-source philosophy and unlock the full potential of your Linux-based machine today!

The Real Closure:

So, I just wanted to share this with you. We worry about AI, but do you think this is an appropriate article for this site? Better still, do you think this is optimized for Google? It’s none of those things. You can tell by the wording that it wasn’t written by a human. Even better, you can tell right away that it wasn’t written by me.

But, let’s see how well this article does in Google’s search results. I’ll report the results (if they’re worth reporting) and I suspect this article won’t rank all that well – if at all. I doubt it shows up in the top ten results for any keywords. If it does, I’ll let you know. I pay attention to that sort of stuff.

Of course, you could say that it’s contaminated by the actual real closure, but the whole article is failing the formula I’ve been using since my earliest articles. It is what it is and I’ll say that it’s ‘close enough for government work’ and we’ll see how well it ends up doing in Google’s search results. It barely qualifies as an article for this site. My articles are very different – and, well, I’d say they’re much better.

Thanks for reading! If you want to help, or if the site has helped you, you can donate, register to help, write an article, or buy inexpensive hosting to start your site. If you scroll down, you can sign up for the newsletter, vote for the article, and comment.

Meta: The State Of Linux-Tips #18

Today we’re just going to have another meta article, as I like to do now and then. We haven’t had a meta article in quite a while. These are articles that are just a quick look at what goes on here behind the scenes, an article about how the site is coming along.

I would like to do a meta article every month but there’s not always something worth writing about. As such, I haven’t needed to write a meta article in going on two months. Not much has changed but now’s a fine time to write one.

So, things are going just fine. You may have noticed an outage. The outage was because we were being whisked away to a new server and things did not go as smoothly as planned. Things might have gone better, but I have a fairly complex setup and use a CDN that requires things like an IP address.

I couldn’t even log in to the WordPress control panel, so I knew something was wrong. I was initially concerned that we were hacked, but we weren’t. There had been a DDoS (or at least a whole lot of traffic), but that was at the server level, not the account level. Or, at least it wasn’t my site being attacked specifically.

So, we’re now housed in a New York data center. We moved from Dallas. You won’t notice because I use a CDN. Very little traffic reaches the server directly. You access cached content at a server in your geographical location.

There are endpoints around the globe that cache my content and present it to you. That’s why my site should appear to have nearly 100% uptime (barring server moves) and why the site should load quickly, irrespective of your location on the planet. Ideally, you never even need to know that the server is located in New York, but now you do.

I am sorry about the outage and the trouble caused. I take full responsibility. There’s no reason to think this will happen again in the near future. We should be just fine for the foreseeable future, though I may someday need to move to a bit more robust hosting. This is starting to get to be a large site.

A Meta Article:

So, things are going about as well as they were. Traffic ebbs and flows and we’re in the “summer slowdown” right now, which is when people spend more time outside and not online. This is a well-known internet phenomenon and appears to apply to Linux geeks as well. That’s okay, I’m still getting plenty of traffic.

I’ve decided to share a couple of pictures. They’ll explain a bit. However, you should be aware that web stats aren’t ever all that accurate. These are close enough…

Let’s look at the operating systems that visit Linux Tips:

Statistics - operating system — Those are the operating systems visiting the site.

Let’s have a look at the browsers used by Linux Tips visitors:

These are the browsers that visit Linux Tips. — Again, the accuracy is limited. Chrome will be browsers that identify as such.

So, those are the operating systems and browsers used to visit us here at Linux Tips. You can notice a trend. Those numbers have been pretty static for a while, or at least similar in their percentage values.

This will make the 414th article.
I’ve never missed a publication date.
There are more than 300,000 words in these articles.
The average is 769 words per article.
It’d take you 20h 43 minutes to read the site.
It’d take longer, as you have to wait for load times.

My most popular pages have changed recently. I do not know why. I do not understand the workings of Google. I try to practice good SEO and have a bunch of articles that rank okay for some search terms, but I don’t know why some are ranked higher than others – especially as I write almost all of them to a formula.

Anyhow, these are the most Googled pages:

How To: Quickly Restart The Cinnamon Desktop Environment
Pause And Unpause Your Terminal
Disable Printing And CUPS

I have no idea why those articles are now more popular, but they are.

Either way, I’ve already used up about 20 GB of traffic so far this month, and we’re not even 2/3rds of the way through the month. I did get a donation, which was pretty sweet. The CDN appreciated it. As I’ve said before, there are donation links on every page – but the site’s gonna stay up and running even if you do not donate. So, while they’re appreciated I’m still going to pay for the hosting and extra bandwidth.

Oh, most of my traffic (by far the vast majority of my traffic) comes in via search engines. But, Linux.org is where I get most of my direct referral traffic. Most of you use the “www” subdomain:

Most of my direct referral traffic comes from Linux.org. — See? Those Linux.org folks visit fairly regularly.

I don’t do much with Reddit. The links just get automatically published there, but it’s a small subreddit that pretty much only gets my posts. It has almost no subscribers. I don’t try to promote it. I probably should, ’cause Reddit has a whole lot of traffic.

Let’s see… I’ve covered almost everything, I think…

Oh, there are ads. If you would like to do so, you can easily whitelist this site in your ad-blocking extension. They don’t pay much, but it’s nice that they do.

Yeah, I think that’s about it.

Closure:

Well, there you have it… You have another article and this time it is a long-overdue meta article. They’re a pain in the butt to write and it’s easier to write about technical things, but I try to remember to write one every so often. Today just seemed like that day.

This time, I mixed it up and included some graphics. That’ll save me some time! (Actually, I probably could have typed out the necessary data faster than I could have taken the screenshot, uploaded it, edited it for publication, and inserted it into the article.) But, still, it’s something different.

News: Linux-Tips Has Reached It’s Two Year Anniversary!

The headline says it all, Linux-Tips has reached its two-year anniversary! Let me tell you, it has been a whole lot of work! Oh, man, has it been a lot of work. If you want another meta article, read on to appreciate the news with me!

A bit like Sisyphus, there’s always another article two write – and the boulder never reaches the top of the hill. As I finish one article, I’m already starting to consider what the next article will be.

But, I’ve had some help. Out of the 366 (this will make the total 367 published articles) posts, about 10 will have been from other people. I’m grateful for every single one of those. Man, am I grateful…

I suck at making images, or I’d make a celebratory image to show the joy of reaching this milestone. So, use your imagination and pretend I created such an image – and did a good job at it.

I’m aware that this is the 2nd meta article in a row.

I do not care. Nope. I care exactly none. I have none cares.

See the first article was:

Welcome to Our New Home!

The first article with real content came one day later (instead of the usual two days later) because it seemed like the thing to do at the time. It’s an article I’ve referenced a couple of times, but it never got much attention. I used it as the litmus test when checking to see if the site was being indexed in search engines. So, at least it served some purpose!

How To: Generate Sufficiently Complex Passwords In The Terminal

We’re older than two years, as there was an earlier site. That site still exists, but many articles will automatically redirect to here. That original site was the motivation to start this site. That site was the motivation to write a new article every other day. That site is:

Original Linux-Tips

Celebrating a Two-Year Anniversary!

Before starting this article, I did some checking…

The site’s articles total more than 270,000 words. That’s a whole lot of keyboard pounding! I regret nothing!

If you read 250 words per minute, it’d take more than 18 hours to read the entire site, from the first post to the last post! Good luck with that!

The site has shown millions of pages to hundreds of thousands of people. Only about 180 comments have been written, but that’s not bad for a site of this nature.

I don’t even want to guess how many hours I’ve invested in creating, maintaining, and curating this site. Depending on the article, we’re looking at about an hour as an average – counting research, writing, formatting, and editing. Things then get scheduled for automatic publication, ensuring I have a new article every other day.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The article gets shared and I deal with questions, suggestions, and general feedback. I pay attention to search engine optimization, doing my best to rank well in the search engines (I’ve given up on ranking at Bing). I also then pay attention to the ads, though that’s not all that tough. Most of you have blocked ads and not whitelisted my site. (Hint! Hint!)

Today, the site ranks near the top for a whole lot of search terms. Alas, they’re not the most popular search terms – but it’s nice to see the site in the top position for some words and phrases. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s big to me!

Man, if you only knew…

While the site looks nice and simple, there are a whole lot of changes between this and regular WordPress sites. (WordPress is the software that runs the site, which I use as a CMS more so than a blog.) For example, there are seventy-something plugins. Those all must be maintained.

Further, there are daily backups, a duplicated process with weekly updates being done in triplicate. Fortunately, those are processed more or less automatically, though I do sometimes need to test them to ensure they work. Those have to be monitored.

There’s always something that needs to be done and seldom is there enough time (and motivation). Still, I take a bit of pride in keeping my site secure – and keeping private any information you share with me. Heck, I probably pay even more attention to security because I am responsible for some of your private data.

Wow…

You know, I started this project not knowing where it would lead me. I don’t think I expected to make it two full years without missing a single publication date. I don’t think I expected to make it a full year. I also didn’t expect the results, and those results (including the feedback) are what seems to keep me motivated to keep this project going.

I complain about the cost, but it’s not too expensive. It’d be nice if it paid for its expenses, but that’s fine. I think you can be pretty sure that I’ll find a way to keep the site up and running, regardless of costs. Y’all chewed through a bunch of CDN bandwidth last month, but it looks like it’ll be cheaper this month.

Meh… It’s not too expensive, though this site consumes enough resources to warrant moving it to a VPS. Right now it’s still on shared hosting. I could probably find someone willing to sponsor the site (a hosting company) given that it’s all about Linux. I don’t think I’m going to bother doing so.

All-in-all, I think the majority of articles have done alright. Boy, have I whiffed on a few of them. Fortunately, someone’s always willing to chime in when I’ve made a mistake! (I’m very, very grateful when people do so and I try to make any necessary corrections promptly. I am not perfect, however.)

So…

Yeah…

That’s it… It’s been two ****in’ years! I’m as surprised by this as you are!

Closure:

I think I’ll have a glass of wine or three to celebrate the two-year anniversary. This isn’t the kind of article to bother optimizing for search engines, which is nice. I will kinda proofread it, though lately I’ve been cheating in that department and using Grammarly. That helps and has impacted my writing style – in a good way.

But, perhaps there’s an article in that? Some future articles, perhaps? LOL Maybe I should sign up as an affiliate and then write the article while using affiliate links?!? You never know. Heck, I don’t even know. So, if you did know, you should tell me so that I would know… That sounds reasonable!

NEWS: List Your LUG At A New LUG Repository

Today’s article is just going to be a brief new article where I share the news of a new LUG repository. It’s an effort to provide a centralized location for those looking to find or promote a LUG. Read on, to learn about a new LUG Repository.

What is a LUG?

A ‘LUG’ is a Linux User Group. You’ll sometimes see folks call them a GLUG, which would be a GNU/Linux User Group. A LUG is a group of Linux users that have formed an organization, often a loosely organized group, to help and inform people interested in the GNU/Linux operating system.

Though they’re not as popular as they once were, there are still many of them, though the pandemic appears to have slowed some down. They still exist and there’s no real central repository – until now.

By the way, local user groups existed long before Linux was around. The PC market was largely prompted by people who participated in groups like that, as OEMs came to realize that the niche could be profitable. Today, you’ll find people still meeting in person, meeting online, or meeting both online and in person.

The Solution:

The admin, @Rob, saw the problem – that there’s no centralized place for people to find their nearest LUG. You can use your favorite search engine and hope for the best, but finding a good repository of LUG information wasn’t realistic – and those that do exist are often woefully out of date and appear to be unmaintained.

Because of this, the Linux.org site now has a way for you to add (or convince your LUG leaders to add) your LUG to a repository that will hopefully become a great asset for LUG-organizers and those searching for their local LUG.

If you are an organizer or can ‘speak for’ your LUG, you can add your LUG to the repository here:

Linux.org LUG Repository

To avoid abuse/spam, you will need to register to manage your LUG. Once registered, you can then manage your LUG’s information after listing it.

The goal here isn’t to control anything but to provide a service that was otherwise lacking. So, there are no costs associated with adding your LUG to the repository.

Disclosure:

I am ‘KGIII’ on Linux.org and am a moderator of the forum. All attempts have been made to remove any potential biases.

Closure:

There you go. There’s a bit of news. Some of my readers will come from Linux.org already, so they should already know this. However, a bunch come from elsewhere, far more than come from Linux.org, so this is aimed at those users – especially if they want to add their LUG to the LUG repository.

A Few Good Linux Channels

Today’s article is going to be a nice and quick one, where I show you (what I think) a few good Linux channels – on YouTube, of course. Why? Because why not! It’s a good thing to share more content and all sorts of people like video content. So, to find my opinion on a few good Linux channels, read on!

I actually may have different picks than other sites. Well, I assume other sites have top-ten lists of good Linux channels. See, I don’t prefer to learn via video, at least not Linux things. I prefer text, as it’s far more information-dense per unit of time invested. Well, it *can* be far more information-dense per unit of time.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t watch any Linux content, it’s just not that often and my picks might be different than what you pick. If you have a favorite channel list, you can always add it as a comment. Heck, if you leave that comment here this might turn into some sort of repository of solid Linux channels. I have an edit button!

Alright, this intro is long enough. It’s a quick and easy article!

A Few Good Linux Channels (On YouTube):

You don’t need an open terminal for this exercise! Imagine that! You have a browser open already, so you’re all set.

I don’t know how to embed a full channel, though I do know I can embed single videos. You don’t want to watch those channels on this site, you want to watch them where they came from, so I’m not going to bother embedding a video or trying to figure out how to embed a full channel.

1. Linus Tech Tips

Description:

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of “professionally curious” experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips

2. Switched To Linux

Description:

Switched to Linux is a channel about Technology, Privacy, and Linux. What sets this channel apart from my colleagues is that this channel focuses on real world applications with Linux. We have moved beyond theory and get down to what is important: Production.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoryWpk4QVYKFCJul9KBdyw

3. Brodie Robertson

Description:

He hasn’t written one. So, I’d say:

Good, solid contributions to the Linux-education realm. He’s fairly opinionated but a fun channel to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCld68syR8Wi-GY_n4CaoJGA

4. Average Linux User

Description:

His has not written a good description. I’ll say:

More great content. His content is definitely one of the more thought-out content out there. He also offers his videos in text format. That’s something I appreciate.

And there you have it… I ended up sharing four of them because I figure we’d count Linus’ page by default. I figure most Linux users (that frequently consume video) will already be subscribed to his channel.

Again, feel free to add your favorites. Who knows? It might end up as an article that gets edited with new material when said material becomes available.

Closure:

There you have it, another article! This time, we’ve covered what I think are a few good Linux channels. If you’re going to watch Linux content, you might appreciate these channels as much (perhaps more than) I do. I will not be doing a YouTube channel. You’re welcome!