You’ve just stumbled into something brand new.
ReadTheManual isn’t just another tech blog — it’s a launchpad.
A hub for builders, tinkerers, learners, and future leaders who believe hands-on beats hypothetical every time.
Whether you’re spinning up your first Raspberry Pi, testing Proxmox on an old laptop, or scripting your way to a DevOps job — this space is for you.
🚀 What Are We Doing Here?
We’re building the ultimate resource for:
- Homelab projects that teach real-world skills
- Career-focused learning that’s more than just certs
- Cloud labs, automation, and self-hosted tech
- And a community of people actually doing it — not just talking about it.
If you’re learning tech on your own terms — nights, weekends, dusty server racks in garages — you’re in the right place.
💡 Why Now?
Because tech shouldn’t be locked behind degrees, job titles, or £15k bootcamps.
Because you don’t need permission to start building.
And because we’ve seen too many talented people stalled by gatekeeping and decision paralysis.
So we’re here to change that — with clear guides, real projects, and shared knowledge.
🔧 What’s Coming Next?
This is Day One — you’re early.
Over the next few weeks you’ll start seeing:
- Build walkthroughs (from budget to boss-tier)
- Free resource guides (cloud credits, toolkits, starter scripts)
- Project ideas for learning cybersecurity, cloud, devops, and more
- A growing membership area for deeper collaboration
And yes — we’ll be building a community, not just a content feed.
🙌 How to Get Involved
✅ Bookmark ReadTheManual.co.uk
✅ Follow us on YouTube, Instagram & Facebook (follow Eric on linkedin)
✅ Sign up for the free RTM Tech Hub to get early access to walkthroughs, downloads, and projects (Coming Soon)
🧠 You don’t need to know everything.
You just need to start building.
Welcome to the lab.
— The RTM Team
ReadTheManual is run, written and curated by Eric Lonsdale.
Eric has over 20 years of professional experience in IT infrastructure, cloud architecture, and cybersecurity, but started with PCs long before that.
He built his first machine from parts bought off tables at the local college campus, hoping they worked. He learned on BBC Micros and Atari units in the early 90s, and has built almost every PC he’s used between 1995 and now.
From helpdesk to infrastructure architect, Eric has worked across enterprise datacentres, Azure environments, and security operations. He’s managed teams, trained engineers, and spent two decades solving the problems this site teaches you to solve.
ReadTheManual exists because Eric believes the best way to learn IT is to build things, break things, and actually read the manual. Every guide on this site runs on infrastructure he owns and maintains.
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