Text, word and document processing
- emacs: An instance of the text-editor-as-operating-system thesis.
- WhizzyTeX: WYSIWYG LaTeX editing for emacs.
- AUCTeX: Power-editing LaTeX inside emacs.
- TNT: Instant-messaging inside emacs.
- Aquamacs: An OS X-enhanced port of emacs.
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Related book:
- vim: A text editor that brutally minimizes the number of keystrokes.
- NERDtree: a file browser for vim.
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Related book:
- TeX and LaTeX: High-quality scientific and technical publishing tools.
- qtree: A package for drawing parse trees.
- Active-DVI: A feature-rich DVI viewer.
- ArabTeX: Write arabic script in LaTeX.
- Xy-pic: A graph-rendering language for LaTeX.
- Bibtex: Effortless bibliography and citation management.
- pstricks: Graphics in LaTeX.
- TikZ: Beautiful diagrams in LaTeX.
- eepic: Graphics in LaTeX.
- HeVeA: A powerful LaTeX-to-HTML converter.
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Related books:
For low-level TeX-hacking, Knuth's original is the only guide that helped me write programs in raw TeX:
- gnuplot: Graph data of all kinds; import them into LaTeX.
- Xfig: GUI tool for drawing diagrams for LaTeX. Old, but still useful.
- DOT: For rendering large graphs/networks/charts automatically.
- GraphViz: An excellent OS X interface for DOT files.
- gnumeric + OpenOffice + catdoc and xls2csv: For dealing with Microsoft Office documents.
- Related post: Read/edit/create MS Office without windows
- Google Docs/Drive: Makes cross-platform, multi-user documents easy; it has some support for Microsoft Office documents
Networking, security and system administration
- ssh, scp, sftp, ssh-agent, etc. + putty: The swiss-army knives of secure remote system management.
- Related post: SSH hacks.
- iptables: Flexible firewall and network management.
- ufw: A simple front end for iptables in Ubuntu.
- NFS + samba: Set up a Unix box as a home file server.
- Unison: A file sync daemon, i.e., your own DropBox.
- BIND: Run your own DNS server.
- Apache: A flexible HTTPD.
- htpasswd + .htaccess: Password protect pages.
- VirtualHost: Run multiple web sites off the same server.
- nginx: A high-performance yet still versatile HTTPD.
- Related post: Scaling a web site.
- exim + vexim + courier + null webmail: Run your own mail server.
- GPG: Cryptography for the (educated) masses.
- Related post: HOWTO: Encryption basics
- VNC: Connect to X remotely.
- MediaWiki | MoinMoin: Run your own wiki.
- RootKit hunter + chkrootkit: Check if your machine has been compromised.
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I learned a lot of my admin hacks from these two books:
Window managers
- ion: The only innovative window manager ever.
Web browsing and web development
- Firefox: Great for browsing, great for development.
- AdBlock: No more ads.
- Firebug: JavaScript debugging on steroids.
- Greasemonkey: Add per site JavaScript customization.
- leechblock: Block/restrict time-wasting web sites.
- lynx | links: Browse the web from the command line.
- wget | curl: Scrape the web from the command line.
- nodejs: A non-blocking implementation of JavaScript geared toward writing daemons.
- Related post: Continuation-passing style in JavaScript.
- Ruby on Rails | Perl | PHP: For dynamic pages.
- MySQL | PostgreSQL: Relational database servers.
- CouchDB: A NoSQL database server based in JavaScript.
Mail and messaging
- fetchmail + procmail + mutt + spamassassin + msmtp: A complete tool-chain for mail management.
- irssi | X-Chat: Command-line/GUI IRC chat.
- bip: An IRC proxy that lets you stay connected around the clock.
Command-line control
- bash: An ugly but useful shell-scripting language.
- bash completions: Smart tab-completion for bash.
- Related post: Settling into Unix.
- zsh: A better bash.
- screen | tmux: Leave a console process running; re-connect to it later.
- bc: A command-line calculation language.
- sudo: Delegate partial super-user privileges.
- safe-rm: Eliminate the risk of an accidental rm -rf /.
- ducks: Hunt down space hogs.
- autojump / j: Automatically track/jump to frequent directories.
- Related post: Console productivity hack.
Programming languages and software development
- Scheme Shell + Racket: Robust, hacker-friendly Scheme environments, interpreters and compilers.
- SXML: A nifty encoding of XML into S-Expressions.
-
A guide to learning Racket, motivated by video games:
- (MLton + SML/NJ) | OCaml: High-performance, high-reliability functional programming.
-
Related book:
- Scala: A strictly superior replacement for Java.
-
My favorite guide to Scala, written by its creator:
- haskell: A lazy, purely functional programming language.
-
Related books:
- Java SDK: Beause it runs everywhere.
- javadoc: Source-code documentation management.
- ANTLR | (JLex + CUP): Lexer/parser generators for Java.
- gnu toolchain: Because C is still around.
- lex + yacc: Lexer/parser generators for C.
- Related post: Standalone lexers.
- make: Project compilation management.
- Related post: An intro to make.
- subversion: Centralized source-code version control. (Works great with LaTeX too.)
- git | mercurial: Decentralized source-code version control.
- SDL + OpenGL: A mature cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics libraries.
- WebGL: A JavaScript API for 3D graphics.
- Squeak: An instance of the programming-language-as-operating-system thesis.
Text manipulation
- m4 + awk + sed: Macros and regular expressions.
- Related post: Sculpting text.
- diff + patch: Study file changes; make patches.
Digital media viewing and manipulation
- (VLC | MPlayer) + MEncoder + DeCSS tools: View DVDs and transfer them to a compressed file.
- xmms | (mpg123 + mp3blaster): MP3 playback and management.
- ImageMagick: Handy command-line tools for image processing.
- gimp: Photoshop for Linux.
- lame: Encode MP3s.
- X-CD-Roast: Burn CDs under X.
Dealing with Windows
: Run Windows (or Linux) on Mac OS X.
Good books
-
The Linux Programming Interface
:
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Unix Power Tools
:
-
The UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook
:
-
Classic Shell Scripting
:
Related pages