My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)

Posted Apr 1, 2006 2:47 UTC (Sat) by jmmc (guest, #34939)
In reply to: My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com) by TwoTimeGrime
Parent article: My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)

sir/maam - in moments of weakness, I've taken the name of 'ol JC (and his Pop, to be fair) in vain many a time as much as anybody, but this place, time and reason does not warrant, imho. Go hit /. if you want to take such a surly tone...oh come on, I jest... ;)

seriously, and not to come off as too glib, the 'my sysadmin toolbox' series is one of the first things I read when I see them posted (ed. take note). They're a short read, to the point and each one has mentioned a program I'd never heard of before. I've been administering a half-dozen Linux boxen (Slackware/LAMP stack) for about seven years now, and I'm always interested to hear what other SysAdmins use to solve/attack/resolve issues in Linux. I enjoy the series.

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My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)

Posted Apr 1, 2006 4:51 UTC (Sat) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link] (2 responses)

> I've taken the name of 'ol JC (and his Pop, to be fair) in vain many
> a time as much as anybody, but this place, time and reason does not
> warrant, imho.

I'm not sure what taken a name in vain means. English is not my mother tounge. Unless that is a fancy way of saying written.

> seriously, and not to come off as too glib, the 'my sysadmin toolbox'
> series is one of the first things I read when I see them posted (ed.
> take note).

I didn't know it was a series. I like it and find it useful too but I notice that there is some overlap when they are posted. A lot of people like the same tools which makes the list a little less useful. Several people have mentioned how useful SSH is. That's like listing how useful 'ls' is. It would be nice if people who write new articles for the series could make sure that their list of tools is something that hasn't been mentioned before. Even if they list just one tool they use a lot and hasn't been discussed before, and write more extensively about it, I think it would have more value than writing two sentences saying that they use GNU Emacs.

I guess this is the wrong forum for this. I'll email the Linux.com people. Maybe they can encourage a bit more variety in the series.

> Go hit /. if you want to take such a surly tone...oh come on, I jest... ;)

Sorry, I didn't mean to make this place seem like Slashdot. :-) I left that place years ago.

My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)

Posted Apr 3, 2006 1:33 UTC (Mon) by jmmc (guest, #34939) [Link] (1 responses)

> I didn't know it was a series. I like it and find it useful
> too but I notice that there is some overlap when they are posted.

really ? Perhaps, but if so I haven't noticed, maybe due to how the articles are spaced out.

> A lot of people like the same tools which makes the list a little less useful.

Not really, at least to me. I think you're exaggerating.

imho, if there is some so-called 'overlap', so what ?! That way I see it, Linux.com asks Linux folks what they use to admin their systems, and the folks reply. Period. End of story. I don't think a lot of editing goes into it and I don't it's the goal of the articles to reveal some 'never been used before' tool to wow the GNU/Linux crowd.

Curious, were you upset that LWN continues to link to these 'Toolbox' articles, or more upset with the content itself (which would be something to take up over at Linux.com) ?

My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)

Posted Apr 23, 2006 15:00 UTC (Sun) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

>> A lot of people like the same tools which makes the list a little less useful.

>Not really, at least to me. I think you're exaggerating.

Not exaggerating. OpenSSH covered yet again in the last two issues: http://lwn.net/Articles/179944/ and http://lwn.net/Articles/180951/

Not only that but one of them covering obvious basic usage like remote running of commands. One article even had a two sentence paragraph about ping. He mentioned two alternatives saying they were "better versions with more options" but didn't say anything else about them.

I would really like to see more discussion of one or two tools rather than listing one tool. In the latest article the person talks about tripwire. I'd like to see a my sysadmin toolbox article where they talk more about that tool.

> Curious, were you upset that LWN continues to link to these 'Toolbox'
> articles, or more upset with the content itself (which would be something
> to take up over at Linux.com) ?

Somewhat both. I see these articles as being "me too" articles. Like on usenet when someone says "post your power bash prompt" and 80% of the people have the same prompt that does the same thing. I see that happening to a smaller degree in these articles. By extension I was getting annoyed that LWN was still linking to them.