In Linux, there are two types of file links: hardlinks and softlinks. This article shows the difference between hard and soft links, how they work, and explains when you should pick a softlink over a hardlink.

Malta's public administration wants its institutions to increase their use of open source software. In a directive published early last week, the government says it also wants to share more of its own applications by publishing them using the European Union's open source licence.

The administration of a large number of servers can be quite tiresome without a central configuration management. This article gives a first introduction into the configuration management Puppet.

Introduction

Since my "5 Things Every Good Linux Administrator Knows" post the other day, I've received some indirect feedback from friends and readers alike, that admittedly, leaves a little egg on my face.

Learn these 10 tricks and you'll be the most powerful Linux® systems administrator in the universe...well, maybe not the universe, but you will need these tips to play in the big leagues. Learn about SSH tunnels, VNC, password recovery, console spying, and more. Examples accompany each trick, so you can duplicate them on your own systems.

It is important to understand how Linux user accounts work. There are GUI tools for this within GNOME and KDE but here we lift the lid on the bonnet to show what really makes a user exist, and what these commands are doing to your filesystem.