THE PERSON // THE LAB // THE IDEA
Open Boot Lab is a personal space for old computers, Linux, hardware experiments and the occasional questionable idea that ends up on my workbench.
01 // ABOUT ME
I’m Žiga, a computer and technology enthusiast from Slovenia. I’ve been interested in computers since I was a kid, starting with an old Windows 95 machine that was handed down to my family.
That interest eventually led me to a technical secondary school focused on computer science and IT, and later to working with computers professionally. In 2014, I worked as a service technician at a local computer shop, repairing computers, building custom PCs, working with networks and helping run the webshop.
My career eventually took me into another part of the technology world, and today I work in the EV charging industry. But I never really lost my interest in taking computers apart, experimenting with hardware and seeing what old machines can still do.
Open Boot Lab is my way of getting back to that side of technology — building things, experimenting, learning and documenting what happens along the way.
02 // WHY I STARTED OPEN BOOT LAB
For a long time, computers were something I was interested in both personally and professionally. But as my career moved into a different part of the technology world, I gradually spent less time building computers, experimenting with operating systems and simply messing around with hardware for fun.
Eventually, I started missing that.
I began collecting older hardware again and started putting together a small home lab. Instead of chasing the newest and fastest components, I found myself much more interested in old, inexpensive and second-hand hardware — machines and components that still had plenty of potential left in them.
I’ve also always had a soft spot for cheap technology. A lot of tech coverage naturally focuses on mid-range and high-end products, but that’s not what everyone wants or can afford. I’m interested in the other end of the market too: the €6 keyboard, the old PC someone is throwing away, the inexpensive phone, or the second-hand component that might still have years of useful life left. I think there’s something interesting about finding out just how much you can do without spending a lot of money. Sometimes cheap hardware turns out to be surprisingly good, sometimes it’s terrible, and sometimes old hardware just needs a little work to become useful again.
Mainframe was one of the projects that really brought that interest back. Rebuilding an old AMD FX system, installing Arch Linux on it, troubleshooting the hardware and figuring things out along the way reminded me how much I enjoyed this side of computing.
Open Boot Lab grew out of that. I wanted somewhere to document the computers I rebuild, the affordable hardware I test, the experiments I try, the problems I run into and the things I learn along the way.
There isn’t really a final goal for the lab. I just want to keep building, experimenting and seeing what I can do with the hardware that ends up on my bench.
03 // WHAT YOU'LL FIND HERE
Open Boot Lab is a mix of ongoing projects, lab notes, guides, reviews and experiments.
Some posts follow bigger builds like Mainframe, the Home Lab or the Android Cyberdeck. Others are smaller things, troubleshooting a Linux problem, reviving an old laptop, testing an operating system, unboxing cheap hardware or simply figuring out whether an old piece of technology can still be useful.
Everything here is based on things I actually build, use or test. That means you’ll see the successes, the failures and the occasional strange workaround when something doesn’t behave the way it should.
A lot of the hardware featured here is old, inexpensive, second-hand or simply something I already had lying around. The goal isn’t to chase the latest specifications, it’s to experiment, learn and see what can still be done with it.
04 // FOLLOW THE LAB
Want to follow what happens outside the written posts? You can also find Open Boot Lab on YouTube, with more places to follow the lab coming later.
BUILD IT. BREAK IT. LEARN SOMETHING. TRY AGAIN.