I'm Ahmed Adan, a Linux workstation and homelab enthusiast based in Ottawa. I maintain and contribute to projects around image-based Linux, bootable containers, desktop operating systems, and the machinery that makes personal infrastructure feel reliable instead of fragile.
This site is Signals & Systems: notes from the places where software, operating systems, infrastructure, and real-world ops overlap. Expect write-ups about migrations, weird failure modes, Linux desktops, homelab services, agents, and the small decisions that make systems pleasant to live with.
What I'm working on
A lot of my current work lives around the Universal Blue and Bluefin ecosystem:
- Bluefin: a reliable, sustainable Linux workstation built as a bootc/OCI image.
- Bluefin LTS: a longer-lived Bluefin base built on CentOS Stream with bootc.
- Dakota: Bluefin's BuildStream/GNOME OS based future: "the best distro is no distro."
I'm also building and experimenting with COSMIC-based systems:
- Razorfin: Bazzite with the COSMIC desktop.
- Razorfin ARM: an aarch64 Razorfin port with COSMIC and FEX-Emu for ARM hardware.
- cosmic-build-meta: BuildStream metadata for building the COSMIC desktop stack as bootc/OCI images and live ISOs.
- cosmonaut-installer: a native libcosmic installer for COSMIC bootc images, with a GUI, DBus daemon, and Rust install engine.
And a few adjacent tools and experiments:
- Homebrew Tap: Homebrew formulas and casks for Linux applications, vendor tools, browsers, terminals, and developer utilities.
- Hephaestus: Firecracker for macOS: a Firecracker-compatible HTTP API backed by Apple’s Virtualization.framework on Apple Silicon.
What I write about
I like systems that are understandable, reproducible, and boring in production, but getting there is rarely boring. Most of the interesting lessons are in the seams: DNS and TLS, identity and permissions, bootloaders and installers, image builds and update streams, agents and the commands they leave behind.
So this blog is mostly field notes:
- what broke
- what fixed it
- what I should have noticed earlier
- what I'd automate next time
You can find me on GitHub as @ahmedadan.