My name is Leo Ranta, from Gothenburg, Sweden. I've always been interested in computers and video games, since I was a kid. It all started with borrowing an Atari 2600 VCS from a friend over the summer when I was 10 years old (in 1982). Got one for Christmas in 1982 and three years later I was a happy kid with a Atari 600XL 8-bit computer!
That was an incredible machine, back then! I learned programming, Basic, which was a whole new world. In 1988 I also got a Commodore C64, mostly for playing games since the games for the C64 were great back then! The computer evolution was fast and the 16-bit machines were coming, so the new Atari 520ST was my dreammachine in 1990. It was a choice between Amiga 500 or Atari 520ST. Since I was already an Atari fan, I got the 520ST. I still can't believe how good that computer was, GEM GDOS environment and highres graphics(monochrome 640x400), so long before PCs still struggling with DOS. I had a lot of good times with that computer. Still it was expensive and peripherals were not cheap. I remember buying an 40 MB SCSI HD Supradrive for over $400(!) back in 1992. Did a lot of things with that computer, including electronic PCB design, MIDI music editing and DTP.
Well, the times were changing and the demand for more colors and better graphics finally turned me over to the PC world. In 1992 I also got a used 286 PC, which I upgrade with an amazing new Cirrus Logic SVGA graphics card! The lack of speed to be enable to play DOOM made me build a new 486 SX25(which I overclocked to 50MHz!). Finally also Windows 3.1 and 3.11 made it's entry. This was before internet, so I was still hanging on different BBS with my Supramodem (2400 baud), which then was ditched for an internal 14400 baud PC modem. In 1994 I decided to go online, internet was available via a company in Sweden called Swipnet(Tele2). Modem call up, no ethernet back then in 1994.
After using Windows 95 for a while, I got an ADSL internet connection in 1996, amazing 128 kbit speed! Those days you did not watch streamed video online... :-D
New times were approaching and a Pentium 200MHz full tower was built with all my savings in 1998-1999, I don't even dare to remember how much that did cost. It was the last PC I built, after that I leased two computers from my work (really cheap back in 2001-2006 here in Sweden), a 2001 Fujitsu 350 midi tower and a 2004 HP laptop that finally died after 10 years of service. I tried few different versions of Linux on those computers, got Red Hat on one, but never used it enough. Ten years ago I installed Ubuntu for the first time and it worked perfectly.
I had also started to cycle a lot in 1998, so mountain biking and road riding did take time of from computers, which was good for my body and mind. So, I have been pretty off from messing around with different OS and Linux, but last year I bought a new MSI G72M laptop which had plenty of space on the SSD for Linux. So now I'm a fresh Linux Mint user and fan! Also got a used Dell Latitude E4310, which I use as my home cinema computer together with an Epson EH-TW650 LCD projector. Both laptops run on Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon.
I mostly use my machines for everything, but almost no gaming. Photo and video editing I still use Win10 and Adobe SW, but will soon try all Linux alternatives for editing.
If you're interested in mountain biking, take a check also on my webpage Hillside Cycling and I'm on instagram as leo_happy.
I also work as a failure analysis engineer on Emerson Automation Solutions in Mölnlycke, Sweden. Been working there for 26 years now. So electronics is also my second(or third) interest after cycling. Well, that's it I think. Happy to find this forum!