Everything you wanted to know about Linux, but were afraid to ask...

These pages were originally from my friend Scott Robbins' website. Check out his site, because it's a great resource; and, he's been a great friend all these decades!

When you see this page, and the information, it might come as a surprise to learn that I know nothing about making a website, or designing pages. It's all just done with the Vim text editor in a Linux terminal.

Let's get one thing out of the way...

Linux is actually the name used for any operating system using The Linux Kernel. You can read more about "Linux" at The Linux Foundation website. May I insist that you also read about Linus Torvalds, who created Linux in the first place. This history is something you should know if you want to get involved with Linux in a meaningful way. It's not required at all, but we do owe a debt to Linus for this awesome creation!

The reason I started using Linux as the operating system for all my computers is because the Windows operating system had bugs, and things would break, as they do in any OS (operating system). Windows, being closed source code, does not allow you to fix those broken items. Linux systems, on the other hand, are almost completely open source software, and as such, you can patch the code and fix it on your computer without anyone's permission, or waiting for them to do so.

Not only that, but you can customize almost everything about your Linux OS. There are so many different ways to use it, and programs, and even looks. We will have some different pictures to look at in the future to explain. "Every picture tells a story, don't it!"

If you're wondering where to find me try IRC (internet relay chat) at Libera Chat, nickname mingdao.

So, without further ado....

Linux Tips and Articles

Cool Linux things

This is where the fun begins...

Q: How to make this computer stop beeping at me?!?!?

A: In a plain Linux console (no graphical X11) you can turn the beep off with the command:


setterm -blength 0

When working under X11 (no matter if KDE, Gnome, XFCE, or ... is used) you turn off the beep with:

xset b off

To turn it off in the Bash shell:

set bell-style none (in either /etc/inputrc or $HOME/.inputrc)