Julia Evans
Julia Evans — Software developer and creator of Wizard Zines
Approachable explanations of Linux, networking, and debugging through zines and comics.
jvns.caIt feels really good when every problem I'm ever going to have has been solved already 1000 times and I can just get stuff done easily.
The blog that makes you feel like understanding computers is actually possible. Julia writes about systems programming, networking, and debugging with genuine curiosity and zero condescension. She's also the creator of Wizard Zines — illustrated guides that have become a beloved resource for developers at every level. Her superpower is remembering what it felt like to not understand something.
Written by Julia Evans since 2013.
Occasional
Publishes a few times per month
12
Independent Blog
English
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Notes on clarifying man pages
Hello! After spending some time working on the Git man pages last year, I’ve been thinking a little more about what makes a good man page. I’ve spent a lot of time writing cheat sheets for tools (tcpdump, git, dig, etc) which have a man page as their primary documentation. This is because I often find the man pages hard to navigate to get the information I want. Lately I’ve wondering – could the man page itself have an amazing cheat sheet in it? What might make a man page...
Some notes on starting to use Django
Hello! One of my favourite things is starting to learn an Old Boring Technology that I’ve never tried before but that has been around for 20+ years. It feels really good when every problem I’m ever going to have has been solved already 1000 times and I can just get stuff done easily. I’ve thought it would be cool to learn a popular web framework like Rails or Django or Laravel for a long time, but I’d never really managed to make it happen. But I started learning Django t...
A data model for Git (and other docs updates)
Hello! This past fall, I decided to take some time to work on Git’s documentation. I’ve been thinking about working on open source docs for a long time – usually if I think the documentation for something could be improved, I’ll write a blog post or a zine or something. But this time I wondered: could I instead make a few improvements to the official documentation? So Marie and I made a few changes to the Git documentation! a data model for Git After a while working on th...
Notes on switching to Helix from vim
Hello! Earlier this summer I was talking to a friend about how much I love using fish, and how I love that I don’t have to configure it. They said that they feel the same way about the helix text editor, and so I decided to give it a try. I’ve been using it for 3 months now and here are a few notes. why helix: language servers I think what motivated me to try Helix is that I’ve been trying to get a working language server setup (so I can do things like “go to definition&r...
New zine: The Secret Rules of the Terminal
Hello! After many months of writing deep dive blog posts about the terminal, on Tuesday I released a new zine called “The Secret Rules of the Terminal”! You can get it for $12 here: https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal, or get an 15-pack of all my zines here. Here’s the cover: the table of contents Here’s the table of contents: why the terminal? I’ve been using the terminal every day for 20 years but even though I’m very confident in the termin...
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Julia makes complex systems feel approachable — and makes you excited to dig in rather than intimidated.