Hello, G’day, Goeiedag!
Who am I? At first the username “old_bastard” came to mind, as I am officially one (proud member #360122 of the AOOB, the Australasian Order of Old Bastards), not even the first number as I lost track of the older one, but hey: it’s a charity. In the physical world I go by Leon Steyns, so that’s what I ended up using: leonsteyns.
Where am I - based in The Netherlands, being Dutch (it’s an acronym really: Don’t understand the concept here), but in the digital world we’re all over the place - so am I.
When did I start using Ubuntu? Literally yesterday. Downloaded the 24.04 LTS iso, etched it on a USB-stick, plugged it into my now MacBuntu Air (FKA 2012 MacBook Air 11") and here we are. Didn’t even have to get any drivers for the BCM43xx card or anything like it. All working instantly, first pass yield: 1.0! Very impressed already. Need to catch up on anything resembling Unix/Linux as it has been at least twentyfive years or so…
What do I want to do? There’s a whole list… of course learn (in particular security), but also the dot on the horizon for me is to completely go out of any of the big-tech ecosystems. One example is the Apple hardware: apart from the work-issued laptop and this “new” 11" MacBuntu Air, my daily driver is a 2012 13" MacBook Pro running the latest macOS Sequoia over OCLP (Open Core Legacy Patcher, paid) and Windows 11 Pro (licensed) over BOOTCAMP, plus it allows for USB-bootable as work-backup. The hardware that Apple created from the Unibody MacBooks until they went overboard with stuff like the Touch Bar or the Butterfly-keyboard to me is awesomely good as well as repairable/upgradable. And of course Apple came a long way, too: the PowerBook Duo’s that I upgraded and repaired were nowhere near this. Never have I come across the kind of quality built machinery from other manufacturers. But I don’t like the proprietary Operating Systems anymore. And as I started tinkering (again) with soldering stuff, experimenting with micro/mini-computing (Raspberry Pi, ESP32, N100), Meshtastic, HaLow and replacing all the so-called “smart IoT-stuff” in and around the house with Tasmota and Home Automation, Frigate already installed and there’s a Coral Dual Edge TPU waiting. And for sure there’s the need for something that can print 3D objects as it needs to be encased nicely… Plenty of cans-of-worms in storage, way too many areas of interest 
How can you help me getting started? Let me do some reading and learning first, there’s so much already, I go well on learning-by-doing and the quality of the few tutorials I got to so far is great. When the questions come up that I can’t find an answer to or if I get any ideas that seem to be worth sharing, I’ll post them. As mentioned, everything will be migrating away from the locked-down integrated eco-systems - including the mobile stuff and then there’s the challenge of operating the tinkered bits and pieces.
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