>Using [dig] might seem a little intimidating as its syntax is frankly plain stupid.

Dig has one of the least stupid syntaxes, IMO. It'll happily take your query in any order and isn't case sensitive. @ for the dns server you want to ask (or omit for resolv.conf lookup), + for options, otherwise specify name and type (and class if you want) in any order.. the following four queries will all get you the same info back without complaint:

    $ dig TXT google.com. +short @8.8.8.8
    $ dig +short @8.8.8.8 google.com. txt
    $ dig google.com. @8.8.8.8 TXT +short
    $ dig @8.8.8.8 +short google.com. txt

I recently discovered the `-brief` flag to ip(1). It shows a summary table for the address and link commands that can be easier to read than the default output.

Surprised not to see wireshark (or tcpdump) in there. Good list, though.

It's only really mentioned as a tag on the article, but significant portions of this are only relevant to a Linux environment.

That doesn't mean it's not useful, but there are entire swathes of developers who will never deal with Linux, so claiming "every developer" is hyperbole.