Paul Maconi
I am just a big kid. I love computers, and I love telling stories. You just found the long profile. :)
I have been tinkering and playing since I was a very small child. Now I am a very big child with a wife and children of my own (and a very cute dog), but my fascination with computers and technology hasn't changed a bit.
We grew up with computers in the home. My earliest memories involve a Commodore Vic-20, a Sub Attack cartridge, and a game paddle. We moved on to a C-64/128 where I learned how to play games, manage a library of floppy disks, calibrate disk drives, and fix something I broke before my dad got home.
In the 90s my dad got our first Amiga 500. The late 80s and early to mid 90s were an amazing time for Amiga gaming until the platform's ultimate demise. I had an Amiga 1200 that I absolutely loved. The entire experience was far ahead of its time.
Of course, running off to school led me down the predictable Windows rabbit hole, especially since I am a video game junkie. I purchased my first set of Debian CDs via mail order in sometime in 98/99. It was a very painful process, and I barely got a desktop running with WindowMaker as my window manager. It almost turned me off to Linux entirely except that despite the complexity and challenge level, I was completely fascinated by the whole experience.
I went on to switch gears again and worked as a PC support tech for a while, then spent the next 7 years working for Acceleration.net out of Gainesville Florida. The owners gave me my first big shot when I showed up at their office with my shiny new CCNA begging for work. I learned an absolute ton about switching and routing, but life lead me down a different rabbit hole.
After my wife insisted that I finish a degree of some kind (I settled on Project Management and Acquisitions - some business knowledge to round out my ultra nerd side), I wound up working for the United States Air Force as a government civilian, again for another 7 years. I spent 3 years or so writing contracts and modifications, spending a staggering amount of taxpayer dollars. They found out I was a computer nerd, and they moved me to another office where I spent the next 4 years as a Procurement Analyst, which basically meant I administered one of the contract writing systems and did a whole bunch of spreadsheets, pivot tables, and presentation slides.
After that I left the government civilian world and went to work for a defense contractor on base. I eventually landed where I am now providing support to a software test laboratory as an infrastructure system administrator. The inventory was primarily Windows when I got there, but now it's more RHEL than anything else. I spend a lot of my time writing Ansible playbooks to automate security and compliance activities. If you know what STIGs are, you know my pain as a STIGlord. Still, I manage to have a lot of fun with it, and the people I work with are amazing.
I have been tinkering with Fedora as a user for years, probably since sometime in the 20's of the release cycles.I became a consistent Fedora user maybe around 2017 or so, and even more so once I got my Framework laptop. I joined the project sometime in April 2024, and I converted my desktop over towards the end of the month.
So why Fedora? Mostly because I work with RHEL, so having a similar, but more up to date system at home means not only can I see the new technologies and features that might be coming down the pipe for RHEL, but I also get to reinforce my work skills while I play. I am a firm believer of the idea that we learn the most when we play.
Outside of the computing world, I also play the guitar, feed my dog lots of treats, and I am a (somewhat terrible) aquariist. So there you have it. Turbo nerd. :)
Contact
- Email: mailto:aggraxis@fedoraproject.org
- Matrix: @aggraxis:fedora.im
- GPG key: 0661D0DFE17DFB7C
- Fedora Account: Aggraxis
Activities within Fedora
- You can find me hanging out with the Fedora-Join SIG! Chances are you may have seen me in their Matrix channel. I love helping people make their first steps while they explore The Fedora Project. Everyone was so welcoming and patient with me, and I try to reflect that to the new people we meet. I even volunteered at the sign in desk at my first Flock! It was an amazing experience.
- I spend a bit of time keeping up with the Fedora Server Working Group, participating in meetings when I can and trying to share my perspective from a professional and hobbyist standpoint. I have joined their ranks! I wrote a how-to for deploying the Fedora Server image on Proxmox. I will probably write a similar article for doing it with the cloud image since I seem to be using that image more and more these days.
- I lurk in a lot of Matrix channels, but particularly these:
- Join Fedora: I greet folks who come looking to join the project and help some of them with new contributor tickets, establishing FAS accounts, etc. The folks here were especially good to me in the beginning, so I've been trying to pay it forward ever since.
- Infrastructure: Very near and dear to my heart, as it aligns with my day job. I am still trying to find more time and energy for them, but you really need to have some of both to deep dive the awesomeness. Nirik is patient and amazing. I also met my friend NB here (and at Flock)!
- KDE: What can I say? A lifetime of AmigaOS and Windows definitely has me leaning towards the classic desktop paradigm, and KDE scratches that itch for me. The people here are fantastic, and I occasionally test some of the updates when I can.
- Server: I totally dig the sleek and streamlined server edition. You can spin something up very fast, especially if you use one of the images prepped by the Cloud SIG. I get a real kick out of cloning an image in Proxmox and watching cloud-init do the final touches for customization and setup. The folks in this channel were very open and welcoming, another prime example of what makes Fedora so great.
- Community Ops: I like to peek in here and look for opportunities to help. Plus, a lot of the warm and friendly personalities I have met since joining the project are active here as well.
