Hosts

Charlie

host

Hi there! I’m Charlie.

My tech journey started in the early ’80s with the ZX81. It was an affordable alternative to the BBC Micro, and for me, it was love at first click! I taught myself the BASIC programming language and even tried writing my first game. It was a clone of that classic puzzle game where a penguin pushes ice blocks to escape a maze. Sadly, I never actually finished it, but was I completely hooked on computers

My very first experience of Linux was with a boxed set of Red Hat that I stumbled onto at PC World. I managed to install it, but without an internet connection, I quickly found myself looking at the screen, wondering, “Now what?”

Professionally, I’ve spent most of my life working in the international tourism industry, which has given me the wonderful opportunity to live all over the world. Whenever the tourist season ended, I’d head home and spend all my free tinkering and “messing around” with my computer. Looking back, I have no idea what I did!

In 2001, my adventures took me from France to South Africa. A friend and I teamed up to open our first Internet cafe. I made sure it had the fastest speeds and the highest level of privacy. Things went so well that by 2007, we had expanded to four locations! I was using Linux full-time by then, but unfortunately, the internet cafe management software just wasn’t robust enough to switch the cafes over from Windows.

A few years later, in 2014, I sold my business and left for Pune, India, where I lived at the OIMR and worked on their website. By 2016, I found my way back to the UK and returned to the international tourism industry.

If you’re a Linux fan, you might relate to my biggest vice: I can’t even tell you how much time I’ve wasted (but loved) distrohopping. It became a bit of an addiction, and honestly, it’s a habit I still wrestle with today. I eventually found a happy home with Fedora Workstation and, later, Fedora Silverblue. I’ve grown to absolutely love immutable distribution

Bill

host

I don’t actually work in IT for a living, which is to say that I am completely self-taught with regards to Linux. I’ve been a truck driver for over 25 years now, during which time I’ve traveled all 48 states as well as Mexico and Canada. For me, the Linux journey began in the early 2000s when I had a machine which would no longer support a modern Windows operating system. Linux was the obvious answer. I now admin the mintCast website, as well as the site for my other show – “3 Fat Truckers“. I also administer the mintCast Nextcloud server right from my basement.

I am what I comfortably call an open-source advocate. I always try to find the open-source alternative to anything I’m trying to accomplish – even if there’s a little learning needed to get it up and running. I listen to a lot of Linux podcasts. Driving all day makes for the perfect conditions for keeping up with podcasts. I’m very excited to get online and talk about Linux with some friends every weekend, and I look forward to being a part of the show for as long as I have the ability to speak!

Majid

host

Hi, my name is Majid, a self-confessed nerd and geek of all things tech. Got into computing when I was 7 with my trusty Amstrad CPC 464. This then developed into an unhealthy obsession with Amigas (the computer, not the girlfriends!). This continued until I hit 15 and discovered Heavy Metal and Girls. This was also around the time that Commodore went bust and the end of the Amiga story. It was also the year the PSOne came out (1995ish), something I completely missed out on.

Even though I was a nerd, my career isn’t in IT. I am a medical doctor and anaesthesiologist treating a large variety of patients but specialising in orthopaedic and paediatric patients. Understandably, this took a lot of my time in undergraduate qualifications, postgraduate qualifications, 56-72 hour shift work, etc. Also had a lot more family responsibilities, and so it was 2010 when I finally got some time/space/cognitive bandwidth to get back into tech. This started with Android smartphones and then moved to Linux the following year. This then led into writing for some tech websites and then into podcasting! Initially on mobile phones, then branched out into my own podcast. The Atypical Anaesthetist (now renamed as The Atypical Doctor Podcast) and now a regular on Mintcast and LinuxOTC. I still enjoy heavy metal and (after a few health scares) become a real gym enthusiast.