How-To Geek

Whether you're running a home server or building out rack-mount data centers, Linux is the OS of choice for servers, and for good reason. But what distro should you go with? Here are the best choices for reliable server distros.

The internet is an invaluable part of day-to-day life, but what happens when you don't get the speed you need? How do you even notice, and how can you tell if the problem is on your end or with your ISP?

Whenever I see a pretty notebook sitting on a store shelf, I imagine taking it home and all the great things we can do together. Too bad it rarely works out. Now that I've used a touchscreen with a stylus, I find physical notebooks hard to use. There's so much digital notetaking brings to the table that I miss when I pull out pen and paper.

Have you ever felt like you keep seeing the same song, show, or movie recommendation on a streaming service? Recommendation fatigue is real, and it can be frustrating to deal with if you're trying to find new options or stray away from your usual tastes.

Google's Pixel A-series has been a great choice for anyone wanting an affordable Android phone that doesn't compromise on camera performance or software support. The Pixel 10a has now arrived, and it carries on that tradition with a few helpful enhancements.

Windows 10 had a powerful productivity tool that functioned as a literal time machine for your computer. It was known as Windows Timeline, and it is suspiciously similar to another feature that would come much later, which is not as good.

SSDs have a lot of behind-the-scenes error correction. That's fantastic, but it also means they can fail at 100% health, and you'll be none the wiser.

Microsoft has a really long and complicated history with things like desktop widgets and dynamic tiles. This feature, which the company keeps canceling, renaming, and then aggressively bringing back, has become a persistent, annoying part of the Windows environment. We really have to ask why this feature keeps coming back, even though users consistently ignore or outright reject it.

British TV has spawned some of the biggest shows in the US. Popular shows, including The Office and House of Cards, are based on successful British shows that have been remade for the US audience. You don't need to wait for the remake, however; Netflix has a wide selection of current British shows that you should be watching.

Hybrids are having a real moment right now, especially as the early EV hype has cooled off for a lot of U.S. buyers. For plenty of drivers, they’ve become the sweet spot between fuel savings, price, and everyday usability.

Programming languages pop up, morph, and disappear constantly, so spending your valuable time mastering a dead language probably sounds completely ridiculous. However, it's actually one of the best ways to understand programming without the regular trial and error.

A smart bulb was the first smart home device I ever bought, and before long, I had multiple smart bulbs all around my home. It took one of my smart bulbs dying to make me realize what I'd been doing wrong from the start.

BYCOL is the ultimate tool for scalable column math in Excel. By replacing dozens of individual formulas with one "brain" cell, you eliminate the risk of manual errors and broken ranges. It's the fastest way to upgrade a fragile spreadsheet into a future-proof, automated dashboard.

Going into this review, I thought the Logitech MX Master 4 was going to be yet another minor upgrade over the previous generation. I was wrong, and in a way that I never expected—one single button. Here’s why I think the MX Master 4 might be worth upgrading to because of one small update that changed my entire workflow.

The price of a new car in the United States has climbed so high that even households earning six figures can struggle to afford one without stretching their budget. With the average new vehicle sticker price hovering around the $50,000 mark, and many popular SUVs, electrified models, and luxury-trim variants pushing past $55,000 or more, what used to feel like a comfortable middle-class purchase now often feels out of reach for many buyers.

Hollywood loves a good Stephen King book. There have been over 90 feature-length movies based on King's works, with several of his books getting multiple adaptations, including The Running Man. Written under King's pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Running Man is a dystopian adventure where one man enters a deadly game show to win money. There have been two movie adaptations of The Running Man: the 1987 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 2025 version with Glen Powell, with the latter climbing the streaming charts.

Google I/O is one of Google’s major annual events, with announcements for Android, Google services, Chromebooks, smart home devices, and (occasionally) Pixel hardware. Now, we have a date for the 2026 event.

If you're regular about your file backups, you're already miles ahead of most of my friends and relatives, so well done. But are you sure you're not trusting those backups a little too much?

Three years after Christopher Nolan's epic movie first opened in theaters, Oppenheimer is returning to cinemas next month for a special rerelease.

Fire TV devices are finally getting an overhauled home screen, with easier navigation and faster performance. The update was announced back in January, and it’s now rolling out to TVs.