The Curious Engineer

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Unix Digest

unixdigest.com

Articles (occasional rants) about open source, BSD, GNU/Linux, system administration, programming, and other stuff - the pragmatic way

Linux / UnixPHPEssays / personalSoftware / engineering practice

’10’15’20’25
Posts
124 from 17 Nov 2007 to 20 Oct 2026
Posting
monthly (9 in the last year)
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personal blog
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2026 8

  1. With "AI" coding the future of software development looks more grim than ever before!
  2. Do you think you can trust the privacy policy of a company or project?
  3. No Linus Torvalds, you are not just using a new and interesting tool
  4. Only the bad part of the software industry has been disrupted
  5. Superintelligence? How about not!
  6. Stop telling people to sanitize user input
  7. Dinit, the init system systemd should have been
  8. The reasons for the big discrepancy between satisfied vs dissatisfied developers using AI for coding

2025 8

  1. Why is your open source project still hosted on GitHub?
  2. If you're a programmer and you feel depressed by AI, don't be!
  3. How I manage my bookmarks
  4. Evilness is when profit is the sole concern
  5. Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company's code is written by AI - no surprise there
  6. The reason why i don't use AI or even code completion
  7. Hypocrisy and politics in free and open source software projects
  8. What if one of your online friends dies unexpectedly?

2024 3

  1. There is only one reason why Microsoft Windows is the dominating operating system on the PC desktop
  2. I passionately hate hype, especially the AI hype
  3. Battle testing PHP fopen, SQLite, PostgreSQL and MariaDB on FFS2, UFS, ext4, XFS and ZFS

2023 6

  1. Are Passkeys really the beginning of the end of passwords? I certainly hope not!
  2. The proper design process in web development
  3. The main differences between OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD and DragonFly BSD
  4. We have used too many levels of abstractions and now the future looks bleak
  5. Bethesda's Starfield is a disgrace to game development and a slap in the face to gamers
  6. One of the most basic requirements for success is also one of the most difficult to get right

2022 19

  1. When you use open source software you are not entitled to anything!
  2. The heavy responsibility of the package maintainer
  3. Is criticizing tech on political grounds valid?
  4. Will the ranting on this website ever stop?
  5. My choice of operating system
  6. Understanding Unix filesystem timestamps
  7. Why you should avoid the news media and what to do instead
  8. Do you feel overwhelmed trying to stay up to date with the latest tech news?
  9. "Zero trust" is being hijacked by the big corporate hype machine
  10. No, you cannot trust third party code without reading it first
  11. The flaws of distro hopping and asking other people about their OS of choice
  12. Don't use Reddit for Linux or BSD related questions
  13. Linux distributions long term support might not be what you think it is
  14. The delusions of Debian
  15. How security is handled by package maintainers
  16. Questions about which operating system is more secure or the fastest make no sense
  17. Advice to business owners and managers, don't use the modern way of web development
  18. Is the madness ever going to end?
  19. My 70 year old mother has been using Linux on the desktop for the past 21 years

2021 26

  1. No, your website is not a web app even if you call it so
  2. So-called modern web developers are the culprits
  3. Using a framework can make you stupid!
  4. How to write software that will keep working for decades without problems
  5. There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet
  6. Use the right tool for the job
  7. Having a solid backup strategy and why you should not rely on fancy tools for backup
  8. Using GitHub Copilot will turn you into a bad programmer
  9. How to stay sane in today's world of tech
  10. Stop submitting to social conformity and use your brain instead
  11. Are you a TLS master?
  12. SQLite the only database you will ever need in most cases
  13. Don't be afraid to code it yourself
  14. Straight forward problem solving mentality
  15. Stop being frantic about code testing
  16. How do I know if I really need object-oriented programming?
  17. Procedural programming in PHP
  18. No more object-oriented programming with PHP
  19. JavaScript malware infested nightmare
  20. Code has to be simplified until it becomes absolutely correct
  21. This is how you keep your dignity and not sell your soul
  22. One sure way to determine if what you are doing is stupid
  23. Are you trusting open source blindly? Then you're in for a world of hurt!
  24. Some of the problems with the GPL
  25. Future prediction: The so-called modern web will die soon
  26. The terminal, the console and the shell - what are they?

2020 12

  1. The Social Dilemma
  2. Important open source projects should not use GitHub
  3. Choose your browser carefully
  4. Come full circle - back to HTML
  5. Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux
  6. Vim - I hate to love you
  7. Turning suckless into suckmore
  8. Some of the great GNU/Linux distributions
  9. Choosing between OpenBSD and FreeBSD
  10. Why you should migrate everything from Linux to BSD - part 2
  11. FreeBSD is an amazing operating system
  12. Why you should migrate everything from Linux to BSD

2019 9

  1. Job interviews in tech gone haywire
  2. When the modern approach is nothing but hype
  3. My favorite note-taking method
  4. Go (Golang) - understanding the object oriented features with structs, methods, and interfaces
  5. Go (Golang) - Errors and panics
  6. Go (Golang) - Logging that matters
  7. Stop pushing JavaScript!
  8. When abstractions, design patterns, and design principles lead to spaghetti code
  9. Battle testing ZFS, Btrfs and mdadm+dm-integrity

2018 3

  1. The real motivation behind systemd
  2. Void Linux - a great and unique Linux distribution
  3. OpenBSD is fantastic

2017 2

  1. Stay away from Cloudflare
  2. The typical discussions about BSD vs Linux

2016 2

  1. No your PHP framework isn't MVC, but don't worry, it really shouldn't be!
  2. Programming languages and programming paradigms

2015 7

  1. Bummer PHP
  2. Composer and Packagist - a bad implementation!
  3. To framework or not to framework?
  4. No your API isn't REST, but don't worry, it really shouldn't be!
  5. Design Patterns Can Be Very Evil
  6. Procedural Programming vs Object-Oriented Programming
  7. Web application with a single entry point

2013 4

  1. Trying out Arch Linux again
  2. PSR-0 is not a solution it is a bypass!
  3. Most PHP Frameworks are not for programmers
  4. When template engines for PHP get in the way

2010 8

  1. Benchmark 4 - Notes About Caching and Benchmarking
  2. Benchmark 3 - The Alternative PHP Cache (APC)
  3. Benchmark 2 - MySQL Cache
  4. Benchmark 1 - Dynamic pages vs. static pages vs. Memcached
  5. Social networking is a poor substitute to real human interaction
  6. The Book "Pro PHP Refactoring"
  7. Code comments are good right? Well, not if there are too many!
  8. Code Navigation, Design Patterns, and Too Many Functions

2009 2

  1. Passwords from the attackers point of view
  2. Why I do not like derived Linux distributions

2008 2

  1. Trying out Arch Linux
  2. Ubuntu as in Debian?

2007 3

  1. Programming in C, Cpp, and Ada
  2. Choosing a good book on programming
  3. Revision control