What Is jvns.ca (Julia Evans' Website)?

Updated

jvns.ca is the personal blog of Julia Evans. It is a place to read her writing about programming and computer tools, browse every post she has written by category, and subscribe to a weekly digest of new posts. The site also points readers to the computer zines she publishes at Wizard Zines.

What you'll find on the site

The homepage opens with a short welcome from Julia and a link to the full archive, organized by category. From there, the content falls into a few clear areas:

  • A complete post archive — every post she has written, grouped by category, with a separate list of popular posts.
  • A weekly digest subscription — a way to get new blog posts delivered as a weekly email summary rather than checking the site.
  • A link to Wizard Zines — her separate outlet for computer zines.

How the posts are organized

The archive is split into categories, and the homepage shows the most recent ten posts with dates. The visible categories include:

Category What it covers (based on listed posts)
Uncategorized Recent posts on a wide mix of topics, from bike-light batteries to Django, SQLite, CSS, and Vue
Cool computer tools / features / ideas Notes on tools and workflows such as Go web development, the fish shell, Linux VMs on Mac, containers, SQLite utilities, nginx, esbuild, and command-line tools

The "Cool computer tools / features / ideas" category is the most clearly defined on the page, and its posts are a good sample of the site's overall focus: practical notes on tools she has tried, plus explanations of how things work.

What kinds of posts are published

The recent posts show the range of subjects:

  • Replacing the battery on rechargeable bike lights
  • Notes on Django and on running SQLite
  • Moving away from Tailwind and structuring CSS
  • Testing Vue components in the browser
  • Examples for the tcpdump and dig man pages, and notes on clarifying man pages
  • A data model for Git
  • Switching to Helix from vim
  • Using make to compile C programs

The pattern is hands-on: posts tend to record what she learned while using a tool, fixing something, or reading documentation, and they often explain a concept for readers who are new to it.

Who it's for

The site suits readers who want practical, experience-based writing about programming tools and the command line, and who prefer browsing by topic over scrolling a single feed. If you want to follow new posts without revisiting the site, the weekly digest subscription is the intended route. If you're looking for her published zines rather than blog posts, follow the Wizard Zines link.

How to use the site

  1. Start on the homepage to see the ten most recent posts and the category list.
  2. Open a category to browse related posts, or use the full archive to see everything by category.
  3. Check the popular posts list if you want a starting point rather than the newest entries.
  4. Subscribe to the weekly digest if you'd rather receive posts by email.

The page does not state pricing or login requirements for the blog or the digest, so treat access details as something to confirm on the site itself.