What is Linux iowait? (Explained With Examples)
iowait (wait, wa, %iowait, wait%, or I/O wait) is often displayed by command-line Linux system monitoring tools such as top, sar, atop, and others. On its own, it’s one of many performance stats that…
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Choosing a Network Switch – 6 Essential Tips
Choosing a switch can feel deceptively simple, until slow file transfers, port shortages, and similar unexpected upgrade costs remind you otherwise. Before you click “Buy,” it helps to step back and look at…
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Guide to Optimizing PHP for High Traffic Sites
Note: This article serves as an overview and index, connecting you to previous detailed PHP optimization articles. For comprehensive insights on each topic, please follow the provided links to previous articles under the…
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AI in the Workplace: 16 Ways to Stay Ahead in 2026 & Beyond!
As we stand on the brink of 2024, 2025, 2026 AI has already established itself as an essential collaborator in the workplace. The relationship between humans and AI is growing, moving beyond just…
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50 Top Observability and Monitoring Solutions – 2026
“A more targeted list that includes 50 server and observability solutions for 2026” Back in 2014, I compiled a list of top server and application performance monitoring solutions. Sharing that list publicly was a great…
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Free Linux Server Monitoring and APM solutions for SysAdmins
Today’s software applications require developers, testers, and SysAdmins to work together (DevSecOps) more seamlessly than ever before. A single line of code or poorly configured service can negatively impact your application’s performance, causing…
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25 Best CDN Providers 2026
A content delivery network, also referred to as a content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of data centers containing proxy servers. CDN providers serve internet content, including web objects (text, graphics, and scripts), downloadable…
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DigitalOcean is chasing me for $0.01: What it taught me about automation
There are three kinds of emails that can ruin a quiet Saturday: a security warning, an outage alert, and, apparently, a repeat reminder that you owe a cloud provider one cent, yes, $0.01….
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Linux Troubleshooting: These 4 Steps Will Fix 99% of Errors
I’ll admit, I hesitated a bit before writing this post. The whole point of this linuxblog.io and linuxcommunity.io forum is to bring together like-minded Linux users and professionals so we can troubleshoot, share…
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Docker Alternative: Podman on Linux
This article is inspired by our LinuxCommunity.io forum discussion thread (thanks to users @tmick and @shybry747 for the feedback). Let’s walk through what Podman is and how to use it as a Docker…
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How to Install Docker on Linux and Run Your First Container
Docker is a platform for packaging and running applications in isolated units called containers. Each container bundles an application together with its libraries and dependencies, sharing the host’s Linux kernel instead of a…
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Linux benchmark scripts and tools
This list of Linux benchmark scripts and tools should prove helpful for quick performance checks of CPU, storage, memory, and network on Linux servers and VPS. Check each script before running it from…
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Choosing the Best Linux Server Distro 2026
Choosing a Linux server distribution for your projects can be a daunting task, especially with the many options available. This guide aims to simplify your decision-making process by highlighting the key features and…
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Linux top: Here’s how to customize it
The top command (referred to below as Linux top) is a command on Unix and Unix-like systems such as Linux, which provides a dynamic real-time overview of a running system. It can display system…
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Tar Command in Linux with Examples
The tar command (short for Tape Archive) is one of the most widely used utilities in Linux for archiving multiple files and directories into a single file (an archive). It’s commonly used for…
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Raspberry Pi Not Booting: How to Repair Micro SD Card
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 (2 GB RAM) that’s been running my UniFi Network Controller for about four years without issues. Yesterday it was unresponsive and would not boot at all. The…
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Linux Performance: Almost Always Add Swap Space – Part 2: ZRAM
In the previous article, we looked at how swap space, particularly swapping, can severely slow down Linux performance. We then tweaked Linux kernel parameters to better use server memory and avoid heavy swapping….
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I was wrong! zswap IS better than zram
Rule of thumb / TL;DR:If your system only uses swap occasionally and keeping swap demand within ~20–30% of your physical RAM as zram is enough, ZRAM is the simpler and more effective option….
