Unix Sheikh

unixsheikh.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2019

Unix Sheikh writes opinionated essays on FreeBSD, SQLite, browsers, web development, and open source practices.

What HN saysHN commenters recommend it for system comparisons and especially the post arguing that most APIs called REST are not REST, which drew a reply from Roy Fielding.
73HN people shared it
19linked it in comments
102stories submitted
4.6Kstory points
2 years agolast shared
2019people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    Choose your browser carefully (2021)
    10 people · 74 points · first shared 2020 · 36 comments on HN
  2. 2
    Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux (2020)
    6 people · 777 points · first shared 2020 · 363 comments on HN
  3. 3
    Migrate Everything from Linux to BSD
    5 people · 158 points · first shared 2020 · 156 comments on HN
  4. 4
    SQLite the only database you will ever need in most cases
    4 people · 622 points · first shared 2021 · 370 comments on HN
  5. 5
    Important Open Source projects should not use GitHub
    3 people · 59 points · first shared 2020 · 9 comments on HN
  6. 6
    The proper design process in web development
    3 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
  7. 7
    Is the madness ever going to end?
    2 people · 716 points · first shared 2022 · 600 comments on HN
  8. 8
    FreeBSD is an amazing operating system
    2 people · 397 points · first shared 2020 · 189 comments on HN
  9. 9
    How I store my files
    2 people · 251 points · first shared 2021 · 139 comments on HN
  10. 10
  11. 11
    OpenBSD Router Guide
    2 people · 112 points · first shared 2020 · 51 comments on HN
  12. 12
  13. 13
    Poor mans mind mapping tool with just the terminal
    2 people · 59 points · first shared 2022 · 7 comments on HN
  14. 14
    Systemd isn't safe to run anywhere (2021)
    2 people · 40 points · first shared 2020 · 7 comments on HN
  15. 15
    So called modern web developers are the culprits
    2 people · 37 points · first shared 2021 · 23 comments on HN

What HN people wrote when they linked it

billyhoffman · 2023-02-16
Only you can’t copy it if it’s in the middle of a transaction or you corrupt it and have to roll back the Journal. And coping the journal, WAL, and DB itself directly and trying to backup from that isn’t recommended. In fact SQLite itself has a purpose built backup API. https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/sqlite-the-only-database-you-will-… Yes, technically a SQLite database is just a file on disk. And for the most part, you can treat it like other files on disk. Except for when you can’t. The GP’s questions are valid
iio7 · 2022-08-17
This is one of my favorite posts about it. https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/no-your-api-isnt-rest.html The author got Roy T. Fielding, one of the principle authors of the HTTP specification and the originator of the Representational State Transfer (REST), to comment on this issue by email (was since removed when the author changed his blog).
Pr0ject217 · 2022-02-07
EDIT: Paste this hacky snippet into your browser's console to save all of the links into your clipboard: (() => { let result = [...document.querySelectorAll('td a')] .map((link) => link && !link.href.includes('ycombinator') && !link.href.includes('javascript:void') ? link.href : '' ) .filter(Boolean); result = [...new Set(result)]; result.sort(); copy(result.join('\n\n')); })(); Just to help, here's a compiled-list of all of the links shared here so…
xaxaxb · 2022-02-07
https://unixsheikh.com/. however it may read, it is helpful.
GianFabien · 2024-12-26
I have found some informative comparisons on https://www.unixsheikh.com/index.html. As always, to accurately answer your question, you would need to benchmark your specific circumstances and workload. Personally I use Debian Bookworm as my desktop. But prefer to use Alpine Linux for servers with external access. I have tried various BSDs, but I find the cognitive load of remembering two different ways of doing many sysadmin tasks an unnecessary burden.
jamapy · 2024-01-14
I found this answer the question plus some additional background info. https://unixsheikh.com/articles/the-terminal-the-console-and-the-shell…
unsungNovelty · 2023-10-16
Not specific to desktop per se. But this is a post which made me dig into BSD more: https://unixsheikh.com/articles/technical-reasons-to-choose-freebsd-ov…
lloeki · 2023-08-20
> Could you force a complete rewrite if you wanted to? On btrfs that's a rebalance, and part of how one expands an array (btrfs add + btrs balance) (Not sure if ZFS has a similar operation, but from my understanding resilvering would not be it) Not that it matters much though as RAID5 and RAID6 aren't dependable upon, and the array failure modes are weird in practice, so in context of expanding storage it really only matters for RAID0 and RAID10. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/examining-btrfs-linuxs-perpetu… https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/battle-testing-zfs-btrfs-and-mdadm…
phailhaus · 2022-01-11
I feel comfortable with asserting that the author has never worked on a complex web application. This web-dev hate borders on pathological: this is a guy that seems to specialize in Unix/Linux tooling, doesn't have a single tutorial on web app development [1], and yet has an intense hatred towards a space that he barely understands. These types of arguments are incredibly embarrassing to read, not only because they betray a stunning lack of familiarity with the topic, but it's basically a conspiracy theory: everybody is stupid except me, all these successful companies making billions of dollars and attracting top talent are just throwing money into a fire for fun. [1] https://unixsheikh.com/tutorials.html
1vuio0pswjnm7 · 2021-12-26
links Direct download URL Version: any Connections: 0 It turns out I am not the only person to realise I can do most "browsing" without using a major browser. I have been using this strategy for 20 years now. "Split your browsing up in between a complex browser and a simple browser. Only use the complex browser when you really need it, and use the simple browser (perhaps a console based one) when you don't require any JavaScript or other complex features." https://unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html
compressedgas · 2021-12-26
dottomato · 2021-02-28
I recently read an article about privacy respecting browsers here: https://unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html
gen220 · 2022-03-22
No problem! If you search around for "Debian vs BSD", you'll find more exhaustive explanations [1], but it mostly reduces to the fact that BSD is more coherent & organized than GNU/Linux; it's more feature-rich in the domains that sysadmins and hackers appreciate, but feature-sparse in the domains "normal users" appreciate. Depending on your needs these facts can be advantages or disadvantages. I tend to gravitate towards projects like BSD, since they align with my principles, but you do pay a cost in terms of compatibility with common software. For example, Firefox does not treat BSD as a first class build target, so it's up to community members to build and deploy Firefox binaries, and report feedback on bugs that break BSD installations. If access to the most up-to-date compiled versions of popular software packages is a big sticking point, BSD-land may not be the right choice. But if you're living mostly in `vim`, `bash` and `man`, and are willing to roll up the sleeves, BSD feels cozy. It's maybe a 20% correct analogy (don't read too deeply into it, or you'll draw incorrect conclusions), but C++ is to GNU/Linux, as D/Rust/Zig is to BSD. [1]: https://unixsheikh.com/articles/technical-reasons-to-choose-freebsd-ov…
bunnythefifth · 2022-01-12
> I would not normally be quite so much of a jerk about the numerous syntax errors, except that this ends with a suggestion that people, you know, pay for this writing. I don't expect perfection (God knows I make tpyos all the time), but the closing paragraph starts with a sentence that literally has no verb. Are you really bashing the author for imperfect English? The about page clearly mentions that they are not a native speaker of the language, and even apologises for any imperfections in their writing as a result thereof [1]. I strongly agree with your parent comment that attacking the author for presenting their strong views in an area is unnecessary. Make arguments against what they wrote, not who they are. A little kindness also goes a long way. What the hell is this obsession with hammering everyone down with unwarranted negativity on this forum. [1] https://unixsheikh.com/about.html
jcahill · 2020-07-27
> A giant saltation from most first world computer users being aware of Linux, to hardly anyone knowing what BSD is. You seem to have misread my first sentence. > Schade's few paragraphs here come across as equally gentle and humorous-he's not really aggrieved that FreeBSD is treated like a Linux distro; he would like avoid the confusion that might cause to users who end up liking it. My commentary was in agreement with the blogpost. Me: >> It should go without saying that proponents of the latter have good reason to be grateful for any reason that new outsiders might even remember it exists. But it doesn't go without saying, thus the need for Schade's blogpost. The elitism and intra nix resentment of BSD culture give rise to this problem. My comment aimed to address that. > What, exactly, BSD users ever did to you remains a mystery; They did nothing in particular to me. It's just a descriptive consensus that BSD culture has outsized hostility toward all things linux and toward being mistaken for linux. It's narcissism of small differences[1] and nerd blindness in action. > alas, I haven't the spare lifespan to want to figure that out. My comment contained a stringent critique of a community's corrosive norms, emphasizing how counterproductive those norms are for getting on with building useful things. Your comment just aims to repackage the phrasing as a personal attack. If you have time to work 'saltation' into a sentence, you have time to reply in good faith…
rasengan0 · 2022-09-15
Literally, today, was thinking about leveraging $tree for mindmapping when this dropped: Poor mans mind mapping tool with just the terminal [1] having been inspired by h-m-m (hackers mind map) [2] Went with VimOutliner [3] instead which is one less thing to install and fits so well with a tmux-vim setup. Now all that is missing a sparse tree mode like OrgMode that beats out tabs and splits [4] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32846124; https://www.unixsheikh.com/tutorials/poor-mans-mind-mapping-tool-with-… [2] https://github.com/nadrad/h-m-m [3] https://github.com/vimoutliner/vimoutliner [4] https://orgmode.org/manual/Sparse-Trees.html#Sparse-Trees
sleepingadmin · 2022-01-24
>Brave also collects your data and sells it back to advertisers but they'll give you their fake coins to do it. I was reading this page earlier today. https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html… The criticism against brave seems pretty hollow without really any remaining criticism. Brave does have this: https://brave.com/privacy/browser/ Would be interesting to see a link showing Brave collecting data. My understanding is that they don't collect data. I must admit I am rather ignorant about the fake coins. >Let's also not forget Brendan Eich is anti-gay marriage. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26868536 ~2014. I am curious if his opinion has changed. Sometimes you find yourself on the wrong side of history and re-evaluate positions such as these. Given your link is getting old... maybe he has? If his opinion hasn't changed, I wonder if this political/religious stance really affects my decision of browser? I suspect it doesn't. People are allowed to have political opinions. >He is also a COVID conspiracy theorist. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/brave-brendan-ei... I suppose this is more recent. The problem here is that how many 'conspiracy theories' are now not conspiracy theories. https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1339367981084672000 I suppose in dec 2020 Fauci had admitted that he lied about masks being ineffective. Overall though I really didnt see the content in this nytimes article to justify the title. I…

Keyboard shortcuts

/Search
j kNext / previous blog
EnterOpen selected blog
vVisit the blog site
fFollow / unfollow
lSwitch grid / list view
dSwitch dark mode
g hHome
g pTop posts
g tTopics
g fFollowing
g lLiked
g yHistory
g qFAQ
EscBack / close