Welcome, @PatMower . I have a ZX81, which I purchased in the early 1980s. Last I checked, it still works, but it is RF-out only, and I would like to mod it for composite out. It’s such a neat little machine. Mine needs a keyboard replacement too.
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You have a very wide experience and history in tech. Honored to have you join us! 
Check out these topics:
Ya know, for years I have wondered about adding a keyboard to mine. Now it is nothing more than a relic, and with the current state of affairs and most “parts stores” disappearing, it’s tough to get the parts one would need. But I feel for ya!
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Thanks for the tips.
Yep, I’ve been at this for a long time. I use just about any distro in linux, but my “goto” is Linux Mint using the Cinnamon desktop. Don’t spend much time on the desktop, and I love and use Manjaro with the i3wm! That makes everything so much faster. One of my friends calls me the “Linux Evangelist”!
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Hi, I’ve been doing software since 1965. Now retired, I still dabble with HTML and PHP, and run Ubuntu, MACOS and Windows 11 on my various computers.
Doug Grant
New Hampshire, USA
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Welcome to our Tech community!
If you have the chance and don’t mind; please Share your OS, Distro, Desktop setup - (screenshots, photos)
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Started on PDP 11/70 and old IBM peg board systems. Network & Systems admin most of my career. 34 years of Unix and evolving Linux servers and workstations. Survived the Unix wars and butted heads with vendors trying to sell networking solutions.
Retired now and loving it. Enjoying the features of current Ubuntu. Even got a few of my friends to switch to Linux from Windows. Retirement does have its good days…
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Have been a Linux buff since 1994 when I installed Slackware on a 486 DX2 66. Am interested in PC’s, philosophy, literature & history.
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Slackware was my first Linux experience as well (not my first Unix experience – that goes to SunOS 4). I remember having install parties where we’d line 5-10 systems up in a row… one person would make floppies, while everyone else would install and pass the floppies down the row, then the floppies were recycled at the end. Good times.
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Sounds like a community of Linux enthusiasts, which must have been fun. The people around me were Mac or Wintel users. What I liked about Linux was its infinite configurability: every aspect of the system was, in principle at least, open to tinkering. With Wintel platforms, “transparency” means opacity. It was a good education. I remember setting up X windows on an early version of Redhat. It involved using monitor specifications (front porch, back porch) & calculations with your video card’s dot clock to write modelines. A lot of trial & error.
Much later, a Linux users group formed in my area, but that group more or less stopped meeting & went virtual. One of my other interests is history. Have you ever read A Quarter Century of Unix? Can you recommend other books on the history of Unix/Linux?
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Hi! My name is Jonathan, i’m a 35 years old dev, who worked mainly on web project but also a lot of devops and some linux server maintenance.
Happy to be here, this website is promising.
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@Harry_Skelton @zarton @krakenweb Welcome to our tech community gentlemen.
Thanks for this suggestion: A Quarter Century of Unix? I have not heard of it.
How about “How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know”?
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Thanks for your tip. The title alone sounds great. I recognize that everything Linux is on the Web, but it usually comes in bits & pieces. Sometimes a book, written from a coherent perspective, will tie stuff together in a way that better furthers your overall understanding.
Hello from India,
I have been a Microsoft lover all my corporate life.!!
Just 8 years ago, my son, then 10, introduced me to Ubuntu Desktop and few linux commands… And helping him learn, made me grow as an open-source techie.
Currently, trying to keep pace in fast changing tech world and work as free-lancer CyberSec Consultant.
Nonetheless, I am happy to connect with everyone here and offer my 2 cents to discussions hereon.!!
Regards
Kinshuk Joshii
CyberSec Consultant
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First a shoutout to my fellow ZX81/Timex Sinclair 1000 peeps! Still remember typing in the code for a Frogger-like game and saving that to tape so I didn’t have to type it all in again.
Been at it since 6th grade, but really didn’t get back into tech until college when I took a couple semesters of C/C++. Been using my English major skills in IT for over twenty years now.
Started with comercial LaserJet support, technical writing, project managing the technical writing, and eventually went back to the support world and now find myself trying to tame the beast of Splunk and all things logging and monitoring.
Looking to build out a home lab so I can work on my packet capture/analysis skills. Glad to be hear 
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Welcome @CrustyB
I had to Google search ZX81/Timex Sinclair 1000 
I’m mid 40’s, but I had never heard of those. Would have been still drinking from a sippy cup when they launched. hahaha!
It’s great to have you here! I know a couple of members who probably remember ZX81/Timex Sinclair 1000
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Hello. They gave me the handle Tex when I worked a job which involved communication via radio in extremely loud environments. The name stuck with me. Sometimes I pretend it is actually Techs. Alright. Incredibly boring. I’m 40 years old, married for 11 years with a 6 year old daughter. I loved computers in my youth, and up until my early 20s. However, I kind of gave up and haven’t owned a computer in over a decade. I recently bought a gaming laptop and got sucked right back into the hobby. I currently have a 6 node Raspberry Pi CM4 (6xCM4108000) cluster, am working on getting a 5x SOQuartz64 8GB 5x 4GB cluster (I cannot get these dang things to boot! What am I missing?!? a few misc boards and my favoroite my Dell PowerEdge 720 running ESXi.
So Yeah. I don’t know why I am joining here as I am incredibly anti-social (lets face it, i’m actually just shy) and I worry I wont make friends. I hope I’m wrong.
I also enjoy working with microcontrollers (ESP32, 8266, arduino, AdaFruit etc) and Python.
Lately I’ve been tinkering with these cloud thingies. Docker, Azure, AWS? Crazy stuff!! So fun so interesting!!! I’m loving everything I learn!
So there ya go. Thats me! Glad to be here. Thank for having me.
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Hi @tehtex Welcome to our tech community.
Gaming laptop eh? For this holiday I’m going to build a gaming PC. @43 yrs old, I’m told my competitive reflexes don’t have much time left 
.
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Hi.
My name is Ken.
My setup is two Dell 5755 laptops running Ubuntu 22.04.
I am usually testing various Linux platforms under Virtualbox.
I am a retired System Administrator dealing with Unix since 1974.
Back in the day I also did some Cobol work.
Today I enjoy Shell scripting, bwbasic, psBASIC(JonFoster) and some Fortran.
Some of what I used/worked on is here:
My current project is to get Coherent running with all the bells and whistles.
Coherent is an old school OS.
I also tinker with Windows XP, 7 & 10.
I also read a great deal on the web.
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Wow, Ken, that’s so cool. I started using Unix at university in 1989. When I was introduced to Unix and networking, I immediately knew where my career would go, and 33 years later I’m still here.