Linux & Hosting
In the mid-2000s this domain ran a public mirror of the Linux Documentation Project and the PuTTY website. If an old link brought you here looking for those mirrors, the canonical homes above have everything — and below is what we publish now.
Self-hosting, start to finish
Read in order and you'll go from a blank VPS to a properly run set of services.
- The first 10 minutes on a new Linux server — SSH keys, firewall, automatic updates.
- Self-hosting for beginners — hardware, first services, and the mistakes everyone makes once.
- Docker Compose basics — the 20% of Compose that runs 95% of self-hosted apps.
- Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS (Caddy) — one door, clean hostnames, free certificates.
- Backups that actually restore — 3-2-1, restic, database dumps, and the restore drill.
Linux fundamentals
- File permissions explained: chmod, chown and the numbers — the answer to half of all "permission denied" errors.
- PuTTY and SSH clients — connecting to Linux servers from Windows.
- VLC media player: where to download it safely
Hosting, explained honestly
- Web hosting explained: types, costs and how to choose — the map of the whole market.
- Shared hosting vs VPS: which do you actually need? — written by people who ran a shared host.
- How to choose a VPS in 2026 — the specs that matter, the ones that are marketing, and fair prices.
The revived SQL Help archive covers the MySQL side of running your own stack.