Something I've been wondering about for a while: I have no real programming skills, but I've tinkered with hardware and operating systems for decades.

Are coders in general also into building and upgrading their own systems, setting up home servers, etc? I have the sense that these are often disparate interests. Thoughts?

@analogfusion I am not but many many are. I am a programmer who deeply digs shell and vim and Linux but the heck with doing it on my own time.

@analogfusion Some!
Over the years, I've seen a lot of coders, especially younger ones, whose main intro into programming was money. They get the latest MacBook laptop and don't even think about building their own computer. Then there are old enthusiasts like me, programming since the early age and building their own computers almost forever. And then there are enthusiasts that don't code, but like tinkering with computers in general.

@elkarrde I'm certainly in the latter camp! :) I know a tiny bit of outdated BASIC and that's about it.

Even if I weren't working in IT, in my free time I get a thrill out of tinkering around with stuff that I couldn't program if my life depended on it.

@analogfusion There are a lot of gamers (more or less into actual gaming!) that aren't coders, but are willing to eke out the last frame per second of their hardware by carefully optimizing the components.
And sure enough, I know people who simply don't have time to tinker, they just want a computer that works. Those prefer laptops, usually.

@elkarrde That makes sense. Laptops provide limited options for tinkering. Maybe upgrade the RAM or swap out a hard drive at most (assuming those things are even possible).

It also explains why I almost always have at least two desktop machines in use - one of which is for experimenting.

@elkarrde I know gaming pushes hardware advancement, but I think of people optimizing their hardware for higher frame rates as being in a slightly different category. They need the fastest GPUs and cutting edge CPUs for a specific ends.

They're largely focused on results not experimentation for the heck of it. I'm happy playing with outdated hardware to see what interesting things I can do with it. The passive cooling video card I've been running in my Linux box would impress nobody.

@analogfusion not speaking for myself but husband is a software engineer and decidedly spends most of his time writing software, although he has tinkered with hardware a little. He likes to read technical books about software and coding and teach himself new things for fun, in addition to job related learning. He’s very cerebral and loves solving problems and writing code.

@MegaMew I think it's great that he enjoys learning for pleasure. Many of the things I learn in my hobby tinkering carry over to benefit my work in IT. :)

@m750 There are people in tech who live and breathe it; for others it's just a way to make a living.

@analogfusion My geeky friends find ways to geek out about everything,
Coffee, whiskey, BBQ, cars, home automation, they are _always_ doing something creative/makery no matter what they are involved in. it is just how they roll.
Others not so much, but the ones into it, are into it. both feet.

@m750 I'm geeky about a number of specific and sometimes obscure interests. Not everything, but a lot.