# Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS "Gold Standard" Documentation Consolidation # Required Background Prior job experience has demonstrated "jedi level" excellence in a prior project. You treat infrastructure as craft and documentation as art. # Skills & Background desired ## Technical - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (daily driver level comfort) - Bash scripting (idempotent, fail-fast patterns) - Package management: apt, Snap, Homebrew on Linux - Python virtual environments (uv preferred, venv acceptable) - VSCodium or VS Code extension management - Rudimentary Rust/Cargo installation and environment configuration (or willingness to learn quickly) - Runme.dev or similar literate devops tooling (or willingness to learn quickly) ## Documentation - Clear technical writing in English - Markdown proficiency (tables, code blocks, structure) - Ability to write atomic, step-by-step instructions - Comfort with screenshot creation and annotation # Initial project to be worked on Consolidate existing, tested sysadmin notes into a single, unified **runme-based documentation package** that establishes a reproducible "Gold Standard" Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.3 LTS developer workstation. **Critical Context:** These notes are **already deployed** across several production machines. The goal is consolidation and polish—**not redesign**. Backward compatibility with existing rigs is paramount; the deliverable will be used for the next several machines and must produce essentially functionally identical environments. --- ## Background A boutique IT startup maintains approximately 10 Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.3 LTS virtual machines as standardized developer workstations. The current setup works well and was developed iteratively over several months. **The problem:** Documentation is fragmented across multiple files, dates, and formats. We need one authoritative, beautiful source. --- ## Source Materials Upon hire, you will receive a folder containing runme-based sysadmin notes covering: - **Rust toolchain** (custom paths) - **VSCodium** (via Snap) with telemetry hardening - **Homebrew for Linux** (dev CLI tools) - **Runme CLI + VSCodium extension** - **yt-dlp + ffmpeg** (media tools) - **MarkItDown** (via uv/Python) - **Python extension + Git** for VSCodium - **Custom Rust utility** (already written, just needs integration) for AI chat export The notes are functional but inconsistent in format—some are polished runme Markdown, others are rough text files. Your job is to unify them into something **insanely great**. --- ## Hard Constraints (Non-Negotiable) ### 1. Backward Compatibility is Paramount Existing machines will **not** be updated. Any changes to paths, environment variables, or tooling choices would create drift. Unacceptable. **Locked decisions include:** | Item | Current Implementation | Do NOT Change | |------|----------------------|---------------| | Rust paths | `~/rust/rustup` and `~/rust/cargo` | No defaults | | Editor | VSCodium via Snap | Not VS Code | | Dev CLI tools | Homebrew | Not apt/snap for these | | Python tooling | uv with `~/.venvs/` | Not pip/conda | | App packaging | apt + Snap + Homebrew only | No Flatpak | ### 2. Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS Only Target **exactly** Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.3 LTS—not earlier, not later, not server. ### 3. No Containerization No Docker, Podman, LXC, Kubernetes, devcontainers, or "run it in a container" approaches. ### 4. No Enterprise Complexity No AD/LDAP/SSO, no Puppet/Chef/Ansible Tower, no CI/CD systems, no Terraform/Packer. ### 5. Runme.dev is the Engine All documentation must be **runme-compatible Markdown** executable from VSCodium. --- ## Deliverable A unified runme document (or small sequenced set) that: 1. Establishes the complete "Gold Standard" workstation 2. Can be executed step-by-step by someone with no prior context 3. Produces an environment essentially identical to existing machines 4. Is **beautiful, clear, and professionally polished** --- ## Phase One Goals - [ ] Our employees can follow docs on fresh Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS VM and succeed - [ ] All tooling areas documented and executable - [ ] Resulting environment matches existing machines - [ ] All runme blocks properly named and executable ## References - Runme: https://runme.dev/ - Ubuntu 24.04.3: https://releases.ubuntu.com/24.04/ - VSCodium: https://vscodium.com/ - Homebrew on Linux: https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-on-Linux ## Phase Two: Usability Engineering & Radical Simplicity Any normal person would say "Phase 1" is all that is needed. However, I am not normal...LOL. Phase 2 begins only after Phase 1 is complete. Phase 2 is "merely" Phase 1 done again. EXCEPT, I now want documentation so clear an average, literate, educated, English speaking 11-year-old could follow it. Watch this 3-minute video for calibration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNKgBBn_Fsg Notice how he explains what a "left click" does before asking the user to do it. Atomic steps. Assume nothing. That's the bar. Making the complex simple is the hardest engineering challenge. Phase 2 is where we do that. On vision: In a few months, I'm open-sourcing this as part of a much larger project. The install guide will be the front door — the first thing developers see. Over time, it becomes our magnum opus: the foundation of an open source "stone soup" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup ) we're inviting the world to contribute to. It needs to do two things at once: be instantly comprehensible to an 11-year-old (This doesn't mean simplistic — it means every step is explicit and self-contained), **and** inspire wandering "jedi" DevOps engineers to pick up their lightsaber and join the cause and contribute to a new open source project. As Yeats put it: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." (The mouse video is for calibration only — we'll never use video in our docs. Only words and screenshots. Everything needs to be markdown formatted so as to live cleanly in a future opensource Github repo.) Cost is not a concern for Phase 2. Take whatever time you need to make this "insanely great." (to borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs) In coming months, I will be evangelizing the setup process, including teaching the minimum needed info on Runme.dev We shall be building something "perfect" for Phase 2. Note, Phase 2 needn't be long (it might be if required) but it must be beautiful. The inspiration for Phase 2 shall be: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ## Post Phase 2 The above is just the first project. Our IT start up has various SysAdmin needs. A long-term, indefinite engagement is envisioned. Future work involves architecting reproducible environments for Google Gemini ADK/AI Agents. Interest in LLM infrastructure is a major plus.