In this week’s Top 5, we highlight two Linux stories, one of theoritical physics and another of the olden days of Linux; and three articles that are part of this week’s sysadmin series celebrating System Administration Apprecaition Day (Perl tricks, revision control, and horror stories).

Top 5 articles of the week

5. 5 sysadmin horror stories

Happy System Administration Appreciation Day! The job ain’t easy. There are constantly systems to update, bugs to fix, users to please, and on and on. To celebrate the hard work our sysadmins do yo keep our machines up and running, we’ve collected five horror stories. proving just how scary the job can be.

4. I’ve been Linuxing since before you were born

Carla Schroder shares tales from when using Linux was a long hike uphill both ways in the snow. Barefoot. This story is part of our ongoing series of personal Linux stories.

3. 5 reasons system administrators should use revision control

Elizabeth Joseph is a system administrator at HPE working on the OpenStack Infrastructure team. For our sysadmin series this week, she shares tips you can use to convince your boss to spend the time to set it up, or if you’re already using it, improve your process.

2. Perl tricks for system administrators

Ruth Bavousett says scripting in Perl is quick and easy, and its portability makes your scripts amazingly useful. She gives us a few examples to get the creative juices flowing.

1. How I use Linux for theoretical physics

While writing his masters thesis, Jonas Hegemann, a physicist in Germany, gained access to a workstation running Scientific Linux. Find out why he loves Linux for science.