8 Linux Tools IT Operations Engineers Should Master
Some are tried-and-true and others are newer, but all eight of these Linux tools should be in IT operations engineers' tool belt.
Tux Machines
Do you waddle the waddle?
Do you waddle the waddle?
Highlights of DXVK 3.0 include support for dxbc-spirv for shader compilation, which should fix rendering issues in games, Shader Model 1-3 support for D3D9, support for the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap Vulkan extension by default on drivers that support it, and support for shared resources to work on Wine’s upstream implementation.
Featuring a 16-inch display with 1920×1200 resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio and a high-quality aluminum chassis with no branding, the Librem 16 is powered by a 13th-generation Intel Core i7-13620H processor with 10 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.9 GHz clock speed, and Intel UHD Graphics, up to 64GB DDR4 RAM, and up to 16TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD storage.
As previously reported, the KaOS Linux devs have decided to move away from systemd and the KDE Plasma desktop environment after more than 12 years of using them by default. Earlier this year, in February, they dropped KDE Plasma for a Niri/Noctalia setup, but they were still working on replacing systemd with another init system.
The June 23rd, 2026, Steam Client update is here to improve the PipeWire session logic on Linux, which means that when persistent capture permissions are granted to the Steam Client, there will only be an active PipeWire session when streaming or recording.
LILYGO has listed the T-Impulse Plus, a low-power wristband-style development board based on the Nordic nRF52840 microcontroller. The device offers LoRa connectivity, Bluetooth 5 support, GNSS positioning, an IMU, a small OLED display, power management, and a vibration motor in a compact wearable enclosure.
The June 2026 release of DietPi v10.5 updates the dietpi-config display options, with several Raspberry Pi-specific changes related to graphics drivers, camera support, and display configuration. The release also adds ARMv7 support for the RustDesk Client package and includes several bug fixes affecting NanoPi K2, RTC configuration, and ownCloud Infinite Scale installations.
Crowd Supply recently featured QuadRF, a 4×4 MIMO software-defined radio platform designed for spatial RF visualization, beamforming, and phased-array experimentation. The platform includes four coherent transmit/receive channels, swappable dual-polarization antennas, an integrated Raspberry Pi 5, and a browser-based interface for viewing nearby wireless activity.
Some are tried-and-true and others are newer, but all eight of these Linux tools should be in IT operations engineers' tool belt.