I’m Nick. I’ve been a long-time, intermittent Linux user, using distributions like Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, Elementary, and Justin Bieber. I never had a specific reason for being so into it, but recently I’ve started to really appreciate the principles of open source.
After finishing undergrad, I started exploring it more. I’ve tried compiling software from source, ricing my desktop (then back to GNOME due to failure), and regularly troubleshooting Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. I’m also a fan of clean design. Jony Ive’s work has always stood out to me, so I tend to use old Intel Macs for installing and experimenting. Currently, I’m using a Mid 2015 Macbook Pro 15" with Fedora 42.
Outside of Fedora and Linux in general, I work as a technical analyst/consultant. I love listening to and writing electronic music. I enjoy software development (I feel like I have to–I studied it). I sometimes struggle with finding purpose and the motivation to start personal projects, but I’ve always been drawn to low-level computing. One of my favorite classes in college was Operating Systems, and it has inspired an interest in OS design.
I just wanted to say hi and find a happy community to contribute to/with.
Welcome to our community. I’m an EleEng, but when I first started college, I made friends with the resident IBM customer engineer. He taught me how to write machine code for the IBM 360 system and later BAL.
One of my first projects when I went to work was to design the control board for a tape drive to store data on. I included a Motorola 6800 processor on the board then wrote the hex code to take instructions and data from the computer and run the tape drive.
My advice is to try lots of things. Find something to work on because you love it. I was fascinated by electronics and computers from an early age and wanted to know everything about them. I think at last count I’ve written at least one program in about 30 different languages. I continue to find the differences and commonality in grammar and syntax between languages to be informative about how people think. I’ve had a long happy career. following that path I started back when I was about 8.
I agree with you about clean code. In my early days memory was very expensive so I learned to make my code efficient. I still take the approach to keep number of lines of code to do the job at a minimum. Since they’re not included in the memory foot print, I also write lots of comments to explain what each part of the code does and sometimes why it does it the way it does. This is in consideration for someone, maybe me, who has to change something with the code some time later.
Currently I’m retired from working for wages, but still do electronic and software projects for various things none of which are commercial. I help on the Fedora QA team. Though I don’t attend meetings much any more unless I have something to say, I still do lots of testing on each new rev. of Workstation. I gave up windows several years ago and I use and rely on Fedora for everything. There is nothing MS here anymore.
Hi Nick! Great to have you here — sounds like you’ve had quite the Linux journey.
I noticed you’ve had some success with Bluetooth troubleshooting. That’s super helpful, especially since Linux users often run into pairing issues, codec quirks, or getting surround sound to work right. Hope to learn from your experience!
Also, lately I’ve been into Korean hip-hop and new K-rock bands like Silica Gel — fun to see how open culture extends from code to music
