Among certain circles, there is a general agreement that university Computer Science courses don't teach practical basics, or equip students to work with actual computers. This begs the question, what would a reasonable course look like?

When I worked at an IT outsourcing company, I would test people's computer skills. …

I can't stand coding helpers which suggest auto-completions, and this is why.

When the spelling checker came along, it helped writing a great deal. Nobody wants the job of looking up how to spell words. Then one dark day, I wrote a twisted sentence, subverting some standard English phrase in order to emphasise a point …

Arch Linux often does what Ubuntu tries and fails at.

I started with Arch due to a simple problem; every so often I'd read on some cool new program I wanted to check out, then feel disparaged as I read over the instructions.

1sudo apt update
2sudo apt install lib-xyz kitchen-sink python3-kitchen-sink

In the early days …

I cannot fathom why anyone debates this topic, because the answer sits plainly in front of you.

1. Shops
2. Schools
3. Advertising
4. Games
5. Precedent

Before you use a computer, you must buy it. You buy it from a shop. The shops have no Linux laptops. Linux laptops only come from very recent, and still entirely obscure, computer …

I feel that the i3-gaps window manager perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If you haven't read it, I won't repeat it, but perhaps this will make sense anyway.

For a perfectly Romantic desktop environment, we have the classic Mac (and please picture every stereotype you think …

Soft Serve is a git server for the command line. You can see the maintainers' version here, with ssh:

1ssh git.charm.sh

It looks like this:

 1
 2   Soft Serve 
 3
 4  • Repositories    About
 5
 6  ┃ Bubble Tea …

Automation is more than time-saving, it lets you do and create what you otherwise never would.

I publish these little articles with as much automation as you can imagine. If I did this manually, the steps would be:

1. Add a publication date for the future to evenly space articles (I write loads, then stop for ages) …

The original terminal interface let you type to the computer in a type-writer, and the computer would type back - no screen required, just typed-text. Since then, computers have become so fast that no human could possibly read the text spat back out at the user.

I don't think proper distinctions have been made with a …

• A Linux installation guide for standard Windows users.

You will need the following:

1. Check your software works on Linux
2. Backups
3. USB stick
4. Spare computer
5. Peace of Mind

Now for the steps in detail:

Check your software works on Linux

Change your software to Linux software before you switch operating systems.

If you …

I was working on the tech-support frontdesk from my flat when my girlfriend-at-the-time asked how to watch films on Linux. I was maybe 30 minutes into some bullshit ticket, and probably watching a crappy web-interface load.

[ 00:00 seconds ]

I turned to her, stared for a moment, and thought 'popcorntime'. This program …