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Dave McKay

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Dave McKay first used computers in industry when punched paper tape was in vogue and he has been programming ever since. His use of computers pre-dates the birth of the PC and the public release of Unix. He has programmed in everything from 6502 assembly to Lisp, and from Forth to C#.

He is currently a Data Protection Officer and has worked as a freelance programmer, the manager of an international software development team, and an IT services project manager. Dave is a Linux evangelist, an open source advocate, and an inveterate tinkerer. He has used Ubuntu as his only operating system for over a decade but has recently hopped distro to Manjaro.

Dave doesn't know how many Raspberry Pi's are in his house.

About How-To Geek

How-To Geek is an online technology magazine and one of the top 500 websites in the US. Since it was created more than a decade ago, the site’s 10,000+ in-depth articles have been read over 1 billion times. More than 15 million people read our articles every month.

We're the people you turn to when you want someone to explain technology, whether that means detailed troubleshooting guides or in-depth explainers on the latest tech. Our team of expert writers and editors have decades of experience in journalism and technology. Beyond the web, they've written books for publishers like Microsoft Press and have been published in print magazines like PCWorld and Consumers Digest.

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How to Use the rename Command on Linux

Get to grips with the file renaming powerhouse of the Linux world and give mv—and yourself—a rest. Rename is flexible, fast, and sometimes even easier.  Here’s a tutorial to this powerhouse of a command....
Dave McKay

How to Use the timeout Command on Linux

OK, that’s enough computer time. You can give processes time limits, setting a maximum time they can run for with the timeoutcommand. Here’s a tutorial to putting limits on running programs with this command....
Dave McKay

How to Use the time Command on Linux

Want to know how long a process runs and a whole lot more? The Linux time command returns time statistics, giving you cool insights into the resources used by your programs.
Dave McKay

How to Use the wall Command on Linux

Need to get a quick message out to all logged-in users? Linux’s wall command is punchier than email and auto-targets the logged-in users. It broadcasts a message to everyone using a terminal on a system....
Dave McKay

How to Use the yes Command on Linux

The yes command seems too simple to be of any practical use, but in this tutorial, we’ll show you its application and how to benefit from its pent-up positivity in Linux and macOS.
Dave McKay

How to Burn an ISO File to a USB Drive in Linux

Linux users traditionally burned ISO files to DVD or CD, but many computers don’t have disc drives anymore. Creating a bootable USB drive is a better solution—it’ll work on most computers and will boot, run,...
Dave McKay

How to Kill Processes From the Linux Terminal

Killing a process is sometimes the only way to get rid of it. Despite the harsh name, “killing” a process just means “forcing it to quit.” Here’s how to do it from the Linux or macOS command line...
Dave McKay

How to Use the FTP Command on Linux

The File Transfer Protocol is older than most of our readers, but it’s still going strong. FTP doesn’t have the security of a modern protocol, but you may need to use it anyway. Here’s how to do it....
Dave McKay

How to Exit the Vi or Vim Editor

The vi editor is confusing if you’re not used to it. It takes a secret handshake to escape this application if you’ve stumbled into it. Here’s how to quit vi or vim on Linux, macOS, or any other Unix-like sy...
Dave McKay

How to Change the Default crontab Editor

Want to have crontab use the editor of your choice instead of the other way around? This tutorial shows you how. These instructions will work with Linux, macOS and other Unix-like operating systems.
Dave McKay
How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. Want to know more?