Katherine W. PrawlUSnewsletteromarchy-for-non-developerswritingvintage-computingearly-internetearly-aimakersself-hostingbuilder/builders/kat-prawl/avatar.jpg
first computerTRS-80 Model 3, then a TRS-80 Model 100 with a 300 baud modem
omarchy since2026
ai workflowLinguistics degree with an emphasis on AI, then the AI group at Boeing on the space station program
// life timeline
Touches her first computer, a DEC PDP-8
1981Buys a TRS-80 Model 3 and teaches herself BASIC
1983TRS-80 Model 100, CompuServe and alpha testing Aloha Net
Linguistics degree with an AI emphasis, University of Hawaii at Manoa
1988AI group at Boeing on the space station program
1995Launches cdinfo.com
2026Installs Omarchy on September 6
2026Launches Omarchy For The Rest Of Us
// 00
The rundown
Kat Prawl is a rock star. She touched a DEC PDP-8 back when you fed it paper tape, she was an alpha tester on one of the first commercial nodes of the internet, she worked in an AI group on the space station program, and now she is the voice of Omarchy for everyone who never planned to be a developer. Her newsletter has a name that says it all:
Omarchy For The Rest Of Us.
“I decided to start the Omarchy, uh, newsletter.”Katherine W. Prawl · L159
// 01
Paper tape and a PDP-8
The first computer Kat ever saw was a breadboard contraption that filled an airplane hangar at a tracking station in Florida. Nobody touched that one except the Air Force crew. Then a DEC PDP-8 landed at a local community college, and Kat finally got her hands on a real machine. Data went in through a teletype, a paper tape reader and writer sat on the side, and big nine track tape drives held nothing but the operating system. "It was quite, quite a contraption," she says.
Her first computer of her own was a TRS-80 Model 3 in 1981. It started on cassette and she upgraded it to floppy drives. "And I just never looked back. I was hooked." She taught herself BASIC and built her first printer out of a used Selectric typewriter and a kit of actuators that physically pressed the keys. It plugged straight into the back of the TRS-80.
// 02
300 baud to Aloha Net
While the world went Windows, Kat went Amiga. Before that came her first laptop, a TRS-80 Model 100. It shipped with a four line screen, so she swapped in a new firmware chip and got eight lines of 40 characters. It had a built in 300 baud modem, which was just about as fast as she could read on that tiny screen.
That little machine took her onto CompuServe and the Dow Jones service, and then somewhere bigger. A couple of university professors in Hawaii, tired of fighting for mainframe time, started their own ARPANET node called Aloha Net and turned it into a commercial service. Kat heard about it on a local BBS and signed on as an alpha tester. "I got onto the first commercial node of the internet," she says. It was also her first taste of Unix, before linux existed.
// 03
AI before it was cool
Kat finished her bachelor's degree in linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence. She was the first person on campus to take notes on a laptop. Every professor knew her name, even in the giant core curriculum classes. A few classmates complained about the keyboard clicking. Kat kept typing, earned a strong GPA on the strength of those notes, and even sold copies to other students.
In 1988 she joined the AI group at Boeing on the space station program, back before anyone called it the International Space Station. "So I was actually involved in AI back in the late '80s and early '90s."
When she left Boeing she started her own business and dove into the compact disc world. In 1995 she launched her first website, cdinfo.com. She had the first Philips CD-D521 recorder sold in the United States, ordered through the company's Canadian side because nobody was importing them yet. She ran a CD-ROM service bureau and was a shareholder in a chain that went from three shops to 13 shops in the US, Canada and Mexico in a single year. Then blank discs turned into a commodity and the whole industry changed overnight. Kat had already been there for the exciting part.
// 04
September 6
Kat found Omarchy the way a lot of people did, on X. When a new release set off a wave of noise, she installed it on September 6. "I was so impressed with it that I decided to start the Omarchy newsletter."
// 05
Omarchy For The Rest Of Us
The idea landed on a Monday evening. By Tuesday night she had a website, five draft issues, an X account, an email address and a Pombo Mailer account to send it all out. "24 hours, and we had everything in place," she says.
The newsletter is for people who are thinking about installing Omarchy, or already have, and are not necessarily developers. Issue 1 is "Before You Install Omarchy: Read This First." Issue 2 is "Your first hour in Omarchy (no Start button, no problem)," covering where the menu went, why your windows keep rearranging themselves, and how to find your settings. Kat says another issue just went out and "the subscriber base keeps growing."
She also pitched it live to the community on the first Sunday Builders Club and picked up subscribers on the spot. Ask her where to sign up and the answer is omarchy-ftrou.com.
Kat runs her own infrastructure too. She is moving her sites onto a home server, including rv-wiki.com, and she has a PHP free stand in for MediaWiki in testing there right now. She is part of a local makers group, alongside a friend whose collection includes three working PDP-11s.
// 06
In her words
"I was so impressed with it that I decided to start the Omarchy newsletter."
"24 hours, and we had everything in place."
"I got onto the first commercial node of the internet. I was an alpha tester."
"So I was actually involved in AI back in the late '80s and early '90s."
Follow Kat at @omarchyftrou and @katprawl, and subscribe at omarchy-ftrou.com.
// their setup
Setup
hardware
Home server hosting her wikis and sitesdaily · server
tools & models
pombo-mailermediawikibasic
agent workflow
Linguistics degree with an emphasis on AI→then the AI group at Boeing on the space station program
// full transcript (cleaned)
Show the cleaned transcript (150 lines) · open full page
L1[redacted: private, lines 1 to 32]
L33Kat: Okay. Well, the first computer I saw, actually, was a breadboard, uh, contraption that filled up an airplane hangar at a tracking station in Florida.
L51Kat: And it was before the tape— the cassette drive computers that actually saved your data to a paper tape. There was a paper— uh, teletype was how you entered data, and the paper tape reader was on the side, reader-writer on the side. The tape drives were big nine-track tape drives that only held the operating system.
L53Kat: Not— not data. It was quite, quite a contraption. Now, interestingly enough, I currently have a friend nearby who collects vintage computers, and he has three working PDP-11s.
L55Kat: But he doesn't have any PDP-8s. But I understand somebody is actually building, uh, emulators of— of PDP-8s that— that look like they're real things.
L63Kat: Which was a cassette drive to begin with, although I did get some— upgraded it to— to floppy drives. So, uh, so that was in 1981. I— I bought my— that first computer.
L64Kat: And I— I just never looked back. I was, uh, I was hooked.
L65Kat: I taught myself basic and, uh, I— I built my first, uh, printer, was an old Selectric typewriter that I bought used and got a kit to, uh, that had actuators that actually physically pressed the keys on the typewriter. And that was my first printer.
L79Kat: Um, and— but before I got the Amiga, I bought my first laptop, which was the TRS-80 Model 100. The— the little— it had a, uh, a four-line, uh, 40-carat— 20-character screen. I upgraded it.
L80Kat: I put in a new firmware chip that made it eight lines and 40 characters. And it had a built-in modem, 300 baud.
L90Kat: If it went any faster, I wouldn't have been able to read it. But with that little computer, I got on, uh, CompuServe. I got onto what was the Dow Jones thing.
L91Kat: I got onto the first commercial node of the internet. I was an alpha tester.
L93Kat: It was called— uh, it was called Aloha Net. It was started by a couple of professors. We were living in Hawaii.
L94Kat: And a couple of professors at the university had gotten unhappy with the local IT people who kept— wouldn't give them enough time on the main frames.
L96Kat: So they decided to start their own node of the ARPANET and, uh, turned it into a commercial, uh, thing after it was tested and so forth. And so they got a grant to— to do this, and so they had their own servers. And— and I— I heard about it on one of the local BBS things that I was, uh, connected to.
L97Kat: And so I got into that. That was my first taste of— of Unix, not— this was before linux.
L102Kat: And, uh, so I joined the local computer club, of course, and— and that was lots of fun. And, uh, then I went back to school. I went back and finished my— my bachelor's degree in linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
L103Kat: And, uh, I was the first person on campus who had a laptop computer to take notes. And so all my professors knew my name, even the ones in the 100-plus, you know, team PTs.
L105Kat: Core curriculum students. Uh, they all knew who I was. And I got complaints from other students who probably were jealous, but they said, "Oh, the— the— the clicking of the keyboard."
L121Nix: What does AI do? Like, talk to me about maybe three years ago what you were doing with computers, and then, like, go a year— a year apiece. And, like, you got ChatGPT where you could cut and paste stuff in and out of it and, like, do that whole— and then bring it all the way to three years ago to right now.
L128Kat: I was involved with the compact disk industry because when I left Boeing, I started my own business. And then I— I got involved with a company called the One-Off CD Shops. We made CD-ROMs.
L129Kat: I had the first Philips CD-D521 CD recorder that was sold in the United States. I actually got it through my— our company in Canada.
L131Kat: Because they weren't importing them to the US yet. And so I ran a— a CD-ROM, uh, or, yeah, CD-ROM, uh, service bureau for a couple of years and was part of— you know, I was a shareholder in the, um, corporate business. We had— we started out with three shops, two in Canada and one in the US, nine.
L132Kat: And, uh, in a year, we had 13 shops in three countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. And the next year, we were out of business.
L151Kat: I finally decided I'm— I'm through with MediaWiki and PHP. And so I set out to build something that acted like MediaWiki but doesn't use PHP. And it's done it.
L152Kat: I've already tested it this morning. And, uh, it's— it's still got a few rough edges, but it's gonna work.
L153Kat: I've got it on my home server right now. I'm— it's not— not on the open internet.
L154Kat: So, uh, we're still— still working on it, but it's going to replace MediaWiki for me.
L158Kat: Uh, on X, of course. Uh, people started— when Omarchy 4 came out, there was all kinds of noise on X about it. And so I, uh, I installed it, um, when— in— so on September 6th.
L159Kat: And, uh, I was so impressed with it that I, uh, I decided to start the Omarchy, uh, newsletter.
L163Kat: So— and— and then, of course, I signed up for your, uh, Sunday Builders Club thing. And I guess I was— I actually spoke on the first, uh, edition of that.
L167Kat: It— we're at, um, issue number two or number three just went out the day before yesterday. And the subscriber base keeps growing. And, uh, it— it gets better.
L170Kat: I— I— that was my test platform, developing the newsletter. So within Monday evening, uh, I had the idea of ha— of creating this newsletter. By Tuesday night, I had a website.
L171Kat: I had the, uh, five draft issues. I had, uh, a Gro— uh, an X username.
L172Kat: I had, uh, an email address. And I had, um, had an account at, uh, Pombo Mailer for distributing it.
L173Kat: And we were off to the races. It was incredible. 24 hours, and— and we had everything in place.
L174Nix: Speed is incredible. So what, um, X handles do you want to have on your— on your feature?
L175Kat: Okay. The Omarchy FT or, uh, uh, whatever it is for the rest. FTROU.
L187Kat: Uh, but that's— that's gonna be on my home server too.
L188[redacted: private]
L189Kat: And, uh, I— from that site, it links to another one, one of my wikis called Miscellaneous. Um, and I— I don't even remember the URL for that one.
L190[redacted: leave-out, lines 190 to 197]
L198Kat: Yeah. Uh, but there's a couple of other sites, but— but they're not— not really ready for— for primetime yet.
