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?
LILYGO has added the T-Echo Lite Kit to its product lineup, a compact LoRa development device based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 microcontroller and an SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The kit includes a 1.22-inch e-paper display, a 5 × 4 keyboard shield, audio hardware, a vibration motor, and optional GNSS and IMU features.
GPD has launched an Indiegogo campaign for the GPD BOX, a compact mini PC based on Intel’s upcoming Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” processors. The system is available with either a Core Ultra X7 358H or Core Ultra 7 356H processor, up to 64GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, dual M.2 storage, dual 2.5GbE, USB4 v2.0, and a built-in 160W GaN power supply.
Based on the recently released Linux 7.1 kernel series, the GNU Linux-libre 7.1 kernel is here to clean up new drivers for Lontium LT8713SX DP MST bridge and Realtek 802.11be wireless 8922D chips, as well as many new blob names in devicetree files for Qualcomm SoC devices.
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Coming almost a month after DietPi 10.4, the DietPi 10.5 release enables KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) and DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) by default for Raspberry Pi boards when installing a graphical app or desktop environment via DietPi-Software. While this option is enabled by default now, you can control it via a new dedicated entry in DietPi-Config’s Display Options.
Probably the biggest change of the Linux 7.1 kernel series is a new NTFS file system implementation, which has been in the works for the last 4 years, featuring full write support with delayed allocation, iomap, and folio integration to improve write performance, better stability, and a new suite of userspace utilities called ntfsprogs-plus.
The Stonking Stingray development cycle has been nothing but strange until now. First, the daily builds for Ubuntu Desktop, which first appeared around mid-May, were only available for the 64-bit ARM (AArch64) architecture. Then, Canonical decided to release the first Snapshot without providing Ubuntu Desktop 64-bit images.
Released on October 9th, 2025, Ubuntu 25.10 (codename Questing Quokka) shipped with Linux kernel 6.17 and the GNOME 49 desktop environment for the flagship Ubuntu Desktop edition. It was also the first Ubuntu release to default to a Wayland-only experience on the Ubuntu Desktop flavor.
I just remembered that I’ve been using Audacity on and off for about 20 years now. It’s always been the go-to program whenever I needed to trim an audio file or glue two tracks into one, or just extract a sample from an audio track. For me, Audacity was highly effective and reliable for this specific use case.
Shelly is a modern reimagination and alternative to Arch Linux’s default package manager, supporting third-party app stores like AUR and Flathub, as well as AppImages. Shelly comes with both a graphical UI and a CLI version. CachyOS recently adopted Shelly as the default GUI package manager.
Some are tried-and-true and others are newer, but all eight of these Linux tools should be in IT operations engineers' tool belt.