Thirty years building systems that hold

I now work in tandem with agents that write the code while I decide the architecture. This is not a laboratory curiosity: I shape my own infrastructure while walking, dictating, and the result runs in production.

Separately, both halves are ordinary. An expert alone is slow and expensive. An agent alone produces code nobody arbitrated — plausible, often wrong, with no judgement about what deserved building. Together they do the work of a team, provided a human keeps hold of the decisions.

That combination is what you buy, and the rarer half is not the machine.

1984, I am ten. It is the ZX81: I code my first game. No internet then. Only books. No adult around who practised computing or programming.

Then the Thomson MO5 and TO7. Then Atari and Amiga: that is where the coding parties happen. I code a first 3D engine. I write in 68000 assembler, at 8 MHz. That is how you learn programming down to the cycle. PCs lagged behind the Amiga for a long time. I was passionate.

I ran Linux and the old distributions. The first Ubuntu ships in 2004: we are saved. It takes me three tries to leave Windows for good — it was not easy. In 2006 I get there. Goodbye cracks and serial numbers. Never an antivirus again. The good life.

In the Windows years I installed, configured, tuned and trained a great deal. When there were enough people to look after Windows, I said: I am on Linux now. If you want me to look after your computer, I will install Linux. You only gain: it is free, no antivirus, no licence for most software, it does not freeze, it does not update without your permission, and your personal data does not leave for Microsoft.

The Windows 11 OEM licence terms (Microsoft PDF, April 2024) say it in Section 3: by accepting the agreement and using the software you agree that Microsoft may collect, use, and disclose the information as described in the privacy statement (aka.ms/privacy). The preamble adds consent to the transmission of certain information during activation and during use. Section 6: by accepting, you agree to receive these automatic updates without any additional notice. That was not invented for the jump from 10 to 11 — it is written.

Today I master Windows, Mac and Linux workstations, server administration, networks, VPNs in every direction, the whole GNU/Linux Lego: from the low-level kernel to compiling, building Debian packages, virtualisation. I had built my own isolation system, before Docker, with a Linux-VServer kernel patch. I produced a bash framework that rationalised all my production. I adapted it; it runs at several clients. Stable, predictable, reliable, secured.

Now, with AIs, we are inseparable. I understand them, they understand me. I tell them my obsession with the simple, the fast, conventions, a dynamic and open way of working — in everything I do. It is absolutely incredible, and a joy.

A dental practice: the software had stopped sending SMS to remind patients of appointments. Mobile operators had blocked bulk sending. I install an IDE with an AI agent, intercept the AT dialogue that drives the 4G dongle, and send the SMS to an API. It had been broken for six months. In one hour it was solved. Before vibe coding, a Windows machine on the fly was barely worth trying. I have plenty of stories like that.

Now I replace TeamViewer or AnyDesk with a remote desktop session (RDP), through a WireGuard VPN client. I fix the machine over SSH, a Windows package manager, and a coding agent such as Cursor and Composer 2.5. It is effective, blunt, €0 in licences, and highly secure.