About me

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Hi there!

Hi there! I’m Camelia (sometimes abbreviated Cam or C4m), a proudly queer open-source developer and sysadmin based in Switzerland. I use she/they pronouns (both are equally fine).

In the past, I was known online under the pseudonym Twann, but I decided to get rid of it, because I’ve never really liked it (and also nobody knew how to pronounce it).

My background

I started to learn programming and computer science back in 2019, just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, it started with a worry about my privacy, together with a wish to protect my data online. Through my own experiences, I then discovered the world of free and open source software. I rapidly embraced its philosophy, and soon after, decided to install my very first Linux distribution as my primary operating system.

I tried multiple distributions before completing my first Arch Linux installation in 2022. Back then, archinstall wasn’t as stable and as known as it is today, so I didn’t use it, which was a really big achievement for me at the time. Months later, I started learning about Artix Linux, a systemd-free version of Arch Linux. I decided to install it, and I’ve been using it ever since.

Since 2024, I now self-host a few services (as well as this website) on a VPS powered by Alpine Linux, a really nice and lightweight distribution that is free of systemd, and that is one of the few Linux distributions that can’t be refered to as GNU/Linux (since it uses BusyBox instead of GNU coreutils).

My skills

• Python: Writing in Python feels natural to me, and I have a lot of experience using it, but I’m trying to progressively avoid it because it is a nightmare for distributing software (everything breaks every time Python gets upgraded).

• Shell: I also have experience writing shell scripts, even though I tend to use Python or Perl when things get complicated. I use zsh on most of my systems.

• SQL: I have a pretty solid knowledge of SQL, especially with SQLite and PostgreSQL.

• Lua: I love Lua! I’m currently learning it, and I use it for my neovim configuration, as well as for writing a few mods for the Luanti game engine.

• Rust: I am currently learning Rust, using The Rust Programming Language Book.

• Perl: I am slowly learning Perl, and I like it very much.

• HTML & CSS: I’m pretty good at making static websites, and I really like writing my own stylesheets from scratch.

• JavaScript: I have some basic knowledge of JavaScript, but I don’t really like to use it, because I hate camel-case naming conventions, and also because I believe that it shouldn’t be a requirement to browse the web.

• System administration: other than programming, I also have experience in the administration of Linux systems.

This capsule

This gemini capsule contains my personal blog (also called a gemlog), on which I will post mainly about computers, technology, sysadmin stuff and open source software, but also about anything else that I am passionate about.