The Linux kernel remains the beating heart of the OS. In 2026, we’ll likely see: New Long-Term Support (LTS) Baselines: With releases like 6.18 already declared LTS and successor branches maturing, ...

ALSA stands for the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. It consists of a set of kernel drivers, an application programming interface (API) library and utility programs for supporting sound under Linux.

Why it’s great: Ubuntu is one of the most recognizable Linux distributions, and for good reason. It offers a polished graphical interface, a massive community, and extensive documentation. If you’ve ...

Editors' Note: This article has been updated since its original posting. Software and hardware engineers who have to deal with byte and bit order issues know the process is like walking a maze. Though ...

Many Linux administrators and support technicians regularly use the top utility for real-time monitoring of their system state. In some shops, it is very typical to check top first when there is any ...

Looks simple enough; you would think there is not much overhead with only those two system calls. In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth. Behind those two calls, the data has been copied ...

As more people and companies start to write Linux kernel code, understanding acceptable kernel programming coding style and conventions is very important. This article starts out by explaining the ...

Although the differences are sometimes made opaque in casual conversation, there is in fact a complete difference between archiving files and compressing them. Archiving means that you take 10 files ...

Have you ever wondered how system calls can be intercepted? Have you ever tried fooling the kernel by changing system call arguments? Have you ever wondered how debuggers stop a running process and ...

In the early twentieth century, Heinrich Schenker developed a method of analyzing tonal music that ties a piece's melody, harmony and form to a simple underlying musical idea. To illustrate his theory ...

On Linux kernel programming mailing lists oriented toward new developers (see the on-line Resources), a number of common questions are asked. Almost every time one of these questions is asked, the ...

The Linux command line is a text interface to your computer. Also known as shell, terminal, console, command prompts and many others, is a computer program intended to interpret commands. Allows users ...