Same, I'm closing in on twenty years since I did it on a Pentium 2 (which took a very long time to compile). But in a matter of weeks I had my own linux router

Same, I'm closing in on twenty years since I did it on a Pentium 2 (which took a very long time to compile). But in a matter of weeks I had my own linux router that I built from scratch. I was too much of a novice to completely understand everything I did but over time the puzzle pieces fit together and I realized it was just about the most solid foundation I could have engaged in. I'd suggest it to anyone that interacts with Linux and the time requirement to compile everything is far, far less than it was years back.