Hi. I'm Brian. And I'm a systems administrator.

The good old days...

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I started LinuxLaboratory.org in the summer of 2001. I was a mid-level systems administrator at that time, and was at a job that afforded me the opportunity to do a lot of research into Linux, various distributions, testing service deployments and integration, etc. I kept copious notes, but also had a habit of blowing them away by installing new OS images without first copying the notes to a safe place. A website seemed a natural remedy to this problem of mine, and LinuxLaboratory.org was born.

I wrote a couple of articles for online and print publications that year, and eventually landed more regular writing gigs. The publications I've worked with have been very kind to let me retain the copyright to all of my work, and so those parts that are still relevant today are still published here. If you're looking for an article you know I wrote but can't find, check Linux.com, the O'Reilly website, TUX magazine, or Linux Magazine. I've written for a few other places, but those publications encompass most of my writing.

I was also lucky enough to land a book writing deal with O'Reilly in 2005. The book was well received, thanks in part to my co-author Bill Von Hagen, our editor Dave Brickner, and our publisher, O'Reilly Media.

Today

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The site you're reading is roughly the fifth iteration of LinuxLaboratory.org. It now runs on Drupal. It has run in the past on PHPX, MediaWiki, PHP-Nuke, and Postnuke. In weeding out other products, we've tested over 50 different CMS solutions since the initial launch.

Another recent change is I've added an additional site administrator and contributor to the site. Chris St. Pierre has joined the LinuxLaboratory.org team and has made available new and original works to both the Articles and Downloads section. We have also collaborated on various bits of code, most (if not all) of which are also contained in the Downloads section.

The future, and beyond

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Beyond staying committed to being a site that provides the best information and tools to Linux admins that we know how, it's tough to say what else the future holds. We don't aim to be the next big technology media company or anything like that. All too often, those ventures morph into being all about getting people to click on ads and less about providing quality content. We're also not out to be another SourceForge or Freshmeat. We're just out to be a "By admins, for admins" site. If it doesn't help you get your work done, we're not likely to be going down that road.

That said, if *you* have tools or information to contribute to LinuxLaboratory.org, please send mail to .