I started college in the early 90s, my major required four semesters of a language, and Russian was being promoted by my academic advisor as being potentially valuable given the recent dissolution of the Soviet Union. I figured it sounded like a fun challenge and, also being in the US Navy Reserve, it could prove valuable if I made more of a career in the intelligence or military fields.
Several years back people upset with a Slashdot redesign started using comp.misc. It has maintained a decent level of activity. Could be something to try out.
Mainly at home. I have several old Apple G4s i run NetBSD/macppc on. A few years back I wrote short guide on installing NetBSD on these machines. http://www.rabbitfarm.com/cgi-bin/blosxom/netbsd