About

Welcome to My Documentation Hub

Welcome to my Documentation Hub! While this site is powered by Jekyll, the real focus here is everything I’ve learned during my Linux journey—which began about six months ago. I built this site to serve as a place to document my learning process and share what I discover along the way.

The Journey Begins

My interest in Linux started many years ago. I dabbled in Slackware - one of the first Linux distributions - but due to lack of time and fear of breaking our one family computer, I never really dove deep into Linux. It wasn’t until last summer that I decided to revisit Linux and take it seriously.

I resurrected an old 14-year-old laptop that had been collecting dust. While I’d attempted to install Linux on it before, I never committed to learning it. But this time, I made it a project. For many people, this is how their Linux journey begins—taking an old, underused computer and breathing new life into it with Linux.

How This Site Came to Be

As I tackled more complex tasks with Linux, I realized that documenting my process was essential. I needed a way to record the steps I took—whether it was setting up a server, configuring tools, or experimenting with static site generators like Jekyll. These were things I knew I’d want to revisit, but I wasn’t going to be setting them up repeatedly.

I also quickly realized that the amount of detail needed to document everything was more than I had anticipated. Linux can feel like a series of processes that involve multiple steps, and compared to the comfort of Windows (which I’ve used for decades), Linux feels more complicated. But the more I documented, the more I learned.

In the beginning, I relied on notecards (a system I’d used at work) and text files. But I quickly outgrew these methods. To keep track of everything, I moved to Google Docs, Google Keep, and Google Sheets for organization. Eventually, I integrated a program called Taiga to help with the management of tasks, projects and ideas I was either working on or wanted to learn about and then work on and implement. While I plan to transition away from the Google tools in the future, they currently allowed me to easily dictate and document my notes—thanks to Whisper AI, a voice-to-text app that has been invaluable in speeding up my writing process.

With Whisper AI, combined with ChatGPT, I can quickly record my thoughts, generate more complex content, and easily refer back to previous conversations. This system has helped me streamline my workflow and make the process of documenting my learning more efficient.

At this point in time, I’m starting to settle down a little bit from the absolute shotgun approach that I took for the first six months and deluge of information and knowledge I consumed. And now I’m kind of going back and revisiting everything I’ve done, but understanding it at a much more detailed level than I did initially.

Why This Site Exists

This site is the result of my desire to document, organize, and share my Linux experiences—whether it’s setting up a new server, troubleshooting an issue, or experimenting with new open-source tools. The goal is to create a knowledge base that I can refer back to whenever needed.

Over time, I developed a simple yet effective workflow for note-taking: I summarize my learning sessions, convert those notes into Markdown format, and upload them to this site. It’s a continuous process of refining and adding to the documentation, and it’s something I hope will be helpful not just to me but to anyone starting their own Linux journey. I have quite a few project summaries that I need to convert and it’s going to take a while to do but with Linux you need to kind of keep up or else the new wave of things will overwhelm the old rather quickly and what you did before will no longer be applicable.

What You’ll Find Here

While this site is built with Jekyll, the real focus is Linux. Here’s what you can expect to find:

• Step-by-step guides for Linux beginners
• Tips and troubleshooting for common Linux issues
• Markdown workflows for note-taking and documentation
• Explorations of open-source software that make Linux even better

This site is more than just a blog—it’s a growing documentation hub, shaped by real-world experience. I may not have a formal degree in computer science or coding, but I have a genuine desire to learn, experiment, and share knowledge. Whether it’s building a media server or setting up an audiobook collection, I’m documenting the steps as I go, and I hope this will provide value to anyone who wants to learn alongside me.

This is a work in progress, and I’m excited to see where it goes!