Hi, I am Gewnthar. My journey into tech started the moment my stepdad brought home a family computer. I remember the first time that Windows logo loaded on the screen. It felt like stepping into a world where the machine listened and responded with nothing more than a few clicks. I was not particularly athletic. On the field, I was usually one of the smaller kids. But in front of a screen, I could hold my own. I remember playing The Oregon Trail at home and classroom games like Word Munchers at school. It was the first time I realized learning could actually be fun.
Although I have always enjoyed being outside—at one point I even ran a small hobby farm—technology has always felt like home. I was drawn to it, not just for entertainment but because it gave me tools to build and explore.
My first personal computer was an eMachines system with 128 megabytes of RAM and a combo drive that could burn both DVDs and CDs. That machine felt like it could do anything. I filled it with music, ran games like Red Baron 3D and Final Fantasy VII, and stayed up late doing whatever my parents would allow. When it was time to power down, I would tear through chores just to get back to it. Even then, it never really occurred to me that programming was a skill people learned for a living. I thought computers were just something you used.
Later in high school, I bought a Dell XPS with the money I earned working maintenance at a fast food place. I was writing a fan project I called Final Fantasy Fifteen (hurray chocobos!) and even submitted it to Square Enix. They invited me to apply for a creative writing position. But by then I was already deep into a different degree and had the student debt to show for it. I stayed on the path I had already chosen. I should have used the XPS to mine cryptocurrency, but I spent most of my time playing Dark Age of Camelot and messing with MySpace/GeoCities.
After college, I kept using the XPS (and also bought a Sony VIO Laptop) until a friend finally had enough of watching me struggle with it and gave me a new desktop machine. That CyberPowerPC was a big step up. That was also the period where I stepped back from tech for a bit. I had a house to maintain and life applicable skills to catch up on. Others seemed to have practical knowhow that I must have missed out on due to time spent on videogames. I tried everything from martial arts to skeet shooting, but I kept finding myself drawn back to the world of computers.
Eventually, I replaced my aging VIO laptop with a CyberPowerPC Fangbook. My desktop remained a strong gaming machine for a while, and I repurposed it as a home server later on. I was married by then and still running the farm, which made free time scarce. Shout out to Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms. His work shaped a lot of what I tried to build on that land. But eventually, the farm had to go too. There just was not enough time to keep it running.
Over time, Windows started to wear me down. The operating system became heavier with every update. My hardware, still strong on paper, began to feel sluggish. Even a clean install did not bring back the performance it once had. Machines that used to run games smoothly were now struggling to boot up quickly. It was frustrating to watch a system slow down when nothing had changed except the software.
Then came Windows Eleven. When Microsoft announced it would require a TPM2 chip, it became clear that both my laptop and desktop were out of luck. A lot of people claimed their machines had the chip hidden or deactivated. I tried every workaround I could find. Nothing worked. My machines simply did not have the hardware.
That was the final push. The bloat, the forced updates, the creeping ads, and now this hardware requirement. I decided I was done with it.
At the time, I had a friend who had been quietly nudging me toward Linux for years. Any time I wanted to spin up a project or try something new online, he was the one who helped me do it. He could set up a stack, troubleshoot an error, and deploy a service like it was second nature. Eventually I realized I did not want to keep borrowing his skills. I wanted to learn it for myself.
So I jumped into Linux.
I started with Mint. Then Ubuntu. Eventually I landed on Pop OS and stuck with it for a while. Steam had just started supporting Proton, which made it possible to play many of my favorite games without dual booting or giving up compatibility. Pop OS felt sleek. It was designed with gaming in mind. And because it used fewer resources, more of the machine was available for things I actually cared about. Games may have run with slightly more effort behind the scenes, but they still ran. And everything else felt faster.
I tried different desktop environments, looking for lighter options. I even left GNOME for a while. In the end, I returned to it. GNOME turned out to be more efficient than I had given it credit for, especially compared to the resource draw of Windows.
The command line, which once felt intimidating, quickly became my favorite tool. I revived that VIO from 2010ish that had long since been abandoned. It was not just usable again… it was fast. I could watch videos, browse the web, even code and create. Linux gave that machine a second life.
As time moved on, Pop OS started to fall behind as System76 focused more on desktop software (COSMIC) as opposed to OS software. I moved over to Ubuntu and things picked up again. I learned to create and run virtual machines. Then I rented my first VPS from Linode. I broke things. A lot of things. But with a little guidance and a lot of reading, I began to fix them myself.
Today, I host my services on AlmaLinux and manage my own virtual server. I am not a security expert, and I do not claim my infrastructure is perfect. But I do not need someone else to stand it up for me. I can maintain and fix what I build.
Soon enough I needed a new primary workstation. I had Micro Center build it for me. I had dealt with enough hardware headaches in the past and did not want to risk damaging any new components. That machine has never run Windows. My current laptop used to be windows but now both run Ubuntu. Both work exactly how I want them to.
This blog, gewnthar.dev, is my next step. I will be writing about AlmaLinux, VPS management, self-hosted services, and the tools I use. I might also include some of the mistakes I made along the way in case it helps someone else avoid them.
If you are thinking about switching to Linux, or just want to understand what it means to take control of your own systems, I hope this space is useful to you.
