11 Classic Jokes Only Linux SysAdmins Will Understand

 

I am not going to bore you with old Linux one-liner jokes that you might have come across several times already. It’s 2021 and we still don’t have a decent compilation of new funny Linux jokes.

So, I took some time and searched on various social media platforms for some really witty Linux humor.

If you are an intermediate to experienced Linux user with some knowledge of networking, you’ll have no difficulties in understanding the jokes at all. If you are a sysadmin, even better. I am not a sysadmin but I studied in-depth about computer networking during my masters, so it was easy to grasp the underlying fun.

Don’t worry, if you are a novice to Linux or have no previous knowledge of networking protocols, I have included some hints to the jokes here. I know that the best jokes are the one that need no explanation, but when geek humor is involved, a little explanation doesn’t harm. I mean, that’s the reason why there is a website dedicated for explaining xkcd geek jokes.

11 funny Linux jokes

Funny Linux Networking Jokes

These jokes are one-liners and do not include images. If geek humor interests you, I advise you to follow It’s FOSS collection on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

  • I’ll tell you a DNS joke but be advised, it could take up to 24 hours for everyone to get it.
  • I think there is a duck in my router. It always goes NAT, NAT, NAT.
  • So I want to dress up as a UDP packet for Halloween, but I don’t know if anyone will get it.
  • I could tell you an ICMP joke but it would probably be repetitive.
  • I wanted to write an IPv4 joke, but the good ones were all already exhausted.
  • IPv4 address space walks into a bar and yells “One strong CIDR please, I’m exhausted!”
  • Knock knock.
    Who’s there?
    SYN flood.
    SYN flood who?
    Knock knock.…
  • Q. What is a Unix or Linux sysadmin’s favourite hangout place?
    A. Foo Bar
  • A RAID member disk walks into a bar. Bartender asks what’s wrong?
    “Parity error.”
    “Yeah, you look a bit off.”
  • Linux geek started working at McDonalds. A customer asked him for a Big Mac and he gave him a bit of paper with FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF written on it.
  • Q. What kind of doctor fixes broken websites?
    A. A URLologist.

If you did not understand any of the above jokes, you can refer to the explanation below. But before that, if you liked these Linux jokes, don’t hesitate to share it :)

[Tweet “11 jokes only #Linux users will understand. #GeekHumor “]

Explanation

  • When there is a change in DNS, it needs to be propagated to all other servers. This process takes up to 24 hours in completion.
  • IP addresses are scarce. NAT (Network Address Translation) protocol is the way in which all devices connected to the router have private IP address while the router is connected to the real networked world. Ducks are supposed to be sound like nat-nat.
  • UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a networking protocol which doesn´t guarantee the delivery of data packets. Normally, we use TCP protocol to communicate with the internet. UDP is mostly used in real-time systems.
  • Open a terminal and use the command ¨ping www.google.com¨. You´ll understand the joke.
  • There are limited number of IP addresses available in IPv4. With the rapid expansion of the internet, IP addresses have been exhausted. Read this for more info.
  • CIDR was introduced to mitigate the IPv4 exhaustion.
  • Read this to know about how SYN flood is used for DDoS attacks.
  • Read this to know about Foo bar.
  • In RAID, an additional parity bit is added to detect error. If this parity bit is off (i.e. 0), it indicates an error.
  • Every networking devices, your smart phone, computer etc, has a MAC address that is often represented in hexadecimal format and looks like 01:23:45:67:89:ab. These MAC address are used to determine which device would receive the data packet.
    MAC address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF is used for broadcasting the data packet to all the devices. This FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF is also called big MAC in networking world.
  • Self explanatory

Sources: 1-7,11 NixCraft, 8-unknow, 9 @SwiftOnSecurity, 10 @GoogleforWork

What’s your favorite?

That concludes this list of funniest Linux jokes. You may call it a list of sys-admin jokes, I won’t mind :)

So, which one is your favorite among the above? If you have something to add it to this list, feel free to share it in the comment section. And don’t forget to check other posts in fun category :)

About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 11 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries 🕵️‍♂️

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