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One of the primary design principles for Linus Torvalds when creating Git is that it should be a distributed system, capable of working with multiple remotes.

It is widely accepted that there is an AI bubble in the financial markets at the moment.

While many Western democracies seem to be in a state of decay and are no longer the safe, civilized and prosperous countries they once were, there are still some European countries that are governed well.

The RISC-V CPU architecture has been gaining a lot of popularity since it launched in 2014, and now that the industry is standardizing on the RVA23 level that includes vector support as a mandatory extension, we are likely to see a lot more edge- and IoT…

Being persistent, sticking to a plan and showing up to work every day is generally valued highly across all cultures as virtuous behavior.

I mentor several people in Debian, and have been repeatedly asked to offer an opportunity to ask questions on a live call.

Linux kernel security modules provide a good additional layer of security around individual programs by restricting what they are allowed to do, and at best block and detect zero-day security vulnerabilities as soon as anyone tries to exploit them, long b…

The AI hype is based on the assumption that the frontier AI labs are producing better and better foundational models at an accelerating pace.

Ubuntu Pro is a subscription offering for Ubuntu users who want to pay for the assurance of getting quick and high-quality security updates for Ubuntu.

If you care about supporting open source software, and still use MySQL in 2026, you should switch to MariaDB like so many others have already done.

In January 2024 I wrote about the insanity of the Magnificent Seven dominating the MSCI World Index, and I wondered how long the number can continue to go up?

I am a huge fan of Git, as I have witnessed how it has made software development so much more productive compared to the pre-2010s era.

The discovery of a backdoor in XZ Utils in the spring of 2024 shocked the open source community, raising critical questions about software supply chain security.

Locking down database access is probably the single most important thing for a system administrator or software developer to prevent their application from leaking its data.

I’ve noticed that procrastination and inability to be consistently productive at work have become quite common in recent years.

Historically the primary way to contribute to Debian has been to email the Debian bug tracker with a code patch.

Debian packaging is notoriously hard.

This post is based on a presentation given at the Validos annual members’ meeting on June 25th, 2025.

In this post, I demonstrate the optimal workflow for creating new Debian packages in 2025, preserving the upstream Git history.

After careful consideration, I’ve decided to embark on a new chapter in my professional journey.

Are you a student aspiring to participate in the Google Summer of Code 2025?

In today’s digital landscape, social media is more than just a communication tool — it is the primary medium for global discourse.

Becoming a Debian maintainer is a journey that combines technical expertise, community collaboration, and continuous learning.

Most people with Linux experience have at some point installed .deb files on Debian or the more famous variant of it, Ubuntu.

Considering LLMs are basically massively big statistical machines, a logical assumption would be that they should be well suited for predicting how the economy and the stock market develop.

A large part of a manager’s role is to make decisions and be responsible for their outcomes.

In software engineering, most ideas can be implemented without writing any design document at all.

The XZ Utils backdoor, discovered last week, and the Heartbleed security vulnerability ten years ago, share the same ultimate root cause.

For a software engineering organization to be efficient, it is key that everyone is an efficient communicator.

People usually associate advanced software engineering with gray-bearded experts with vast knowledge of how computers and things like compiler internals work.

What is the single most common action you repeat over and over when using your computer?

Git is by far the most popular software version control system today, and every software developer surely knows the basics of how to make a Git commit.

When people learn programming they – for completely obvious and natural reasons – initially focus on learning the syntax of programming languages and libraries.

The stock market is a powerful globally distributed forecasting system.

First we make our habits, and then they make us ― John Dryden, poet and literary critic Are you perhaps planning to make a new year’s resolution to run a marathon?

In software development, the code review process stands as a crucial checkpoint for ensuring code quality, fostering collaboration, and promoting knowledge sharing among team members.

While large organisations scale best by emphasizing asynchronous communications, in-person or video meetings also have their place.

The key to being productive as a programmer is to have a great code editor.

In popularizing Linux containers, Docker brought about a new era of systems design based on these lightweight platforms, rather than heavy virtual machines.

The perfect home office setup achieves two things: it helps you stay focused for extended periods, allowing you to be in “the flow” and it prioritizes ergonomic design to ensure that long hours at the computer don’t compromise your health.

As a software developer, your core skill is how to improve an existing code base to make the software better iteratively, patch by patch.

The MariaDB server has over 2 million lines of code.

The main test system in the MariaDB open source database project is the mariadb-test-run script (inherited from mysql-test-run).

What is the key to being an efficient programmer?

This is the biggest and most common mistake I see that prevents people from thinking clearly, and it is also the most difficult one to unlearn.

Of all CI systems I’ve used during my software development career, both as developer and manager, GitLab CI has proven itself to be the overall best system out there.

In over 22 years of working with Linux systems, I have often seen people use excessive force to kill various computer programs, causing unnecessary suffering.

With so many options to choose from and with so many solutions offered by others, each screaming pick me!

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, aviator and author This is my favorite quote, and it applies particularly well to our contemporary world, where we have…