👋 Hi there!

I'm Bojan (🔊), but if that’s hard to pronounce, you can call me Ben — it’s close enough. 😉

🧠 About Me

• Location: Belgrade, Serbia, South-Eastern Europe.
• Background: IT & FOSS enthusiast, self-taught programmer, and long-time Linux user

💻 Programming & Tech

Languages I worked with

• C • C++ • POSIX shell • Python • Perl • Pascal • BASIC • Ruby • PHP • SQL • a bit of Assembly (x86, 6502, 8080)

Languages I'm exploring

• Rust, Go, Zig, Nim, Lua, Scheme, Lisp, Assembly (ARM7, ARM64).

Operating Systems

• Main OS: Slackware Linux (since 1999), Current.
• Other OSes: macOS Tahoe (26), Windows 11.
• Retro/Historical: DOS variants, UNIX and adjacent systems, old Linux and ELKS, CP/M, OS/2, Windows 1.0-9x/NT, AmigaOS, Atari TOS, classic MacOS, Mac OS X.
• Alternative: HaikuOS, AROS, ReactOS.

Hardware platforms

• Retro computers: Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Atari ST, Amiga 500, ZX Spectrum 48k.
• Embedded/SBCs: Planning work with: RPi/Arduino (or alternatives) for IOT/gardening/permaculture projects. Interested in building a custom distro with Buildroot/Yocto.
• Other interests: embedded Linux, system engineering, system administration, and hardware and software preservation

⭐ Personal interests and hobbies

• Music: guitar & bass (blues, soul, rock, funk, early R’n’B), piano & drums (want to learn)
• Drawing: mostly cartoons and caricatures
• Writing: drafting a fantasy web novel
• Nature: relaxing near water, walking in nature
• People: spending time with friends and family
• Pets: currently don't have one, but thinking of getting a cat.

Foreign Languages

• English – Near-native
• Italian – Read comfortably, speak at a basic level
• French – Can read well, speak a little

Languages I Want to Learn

• Chinese • Japanese • Spanish • Portuguese • Greek • Polish • Russian

🐧 Community Involvement

• Moderator & contributor at MyCity.rs forums
• Admin at Slackware Serbia community
• Occasional contributor to SlackBuilds.org
• Occasional small contributions to various FOSS projects (nothing major so far)

📜 Certifications

• CompTIA A+
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA Linux+
• LPIC-1

🧩 IT experiences

• Worked with a wide range of operating systems, including multiple Linux and BSD variants
• Packaged software for Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware, and AppImage
• Created minimal chroot-based Linux environments for experimentation
• Used various virtualization solutions on Linux (QEMU/KVM, VirtualBox, etc.)
• Familiar with multiple Linux/BSD init systems and package management tools
• Experience with chroot and LXC containers
• Some hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines
• Performed LAN setup, maintenance, and troubleshooting
• Provided IT equipment procurement and consulting
• Diagnosed and resolved hardware and software issues in a small company
• Maintained and administered a community website on shared hosting
• Served as a forum moderator and mentor, helping users with technical and community issues
• Wrote and translated Linux-related tutorial articles
• Some public speaking experience, though still not confident in that role

⚙️ Always curious about how things work, how to break them and then fix them again.