How were you introduced to open source technology?

[Deanna]

With over 100,000 members - share how you were initially introduced to open source technology! We have varying stories, backgrounds, industries and skill levels that make up the fabric of this community, we would love to hear how your story began. 

This question is part of the 100K Member Contest - don't forget to kudo the original contest post to be entered. 

[Josh-K]

I thought I was introduced to open source when I joined Red Hat back in 2018, but when I think about it, I actually had my first foray into open source when I was a kid growing up in the 90's downloading 7-Zip off SourceForge when I was looking for an alternative to WinZip (which was bloating up, if memory serves). This may sound a little cheesy, but it was then I realized the power, potential, and humanity of the open source community.

[mise]

I started with Red Hat 5.2 many years ago and have continued since then updating my skills and knowledge along the way.

[wengkee]

While I have been using Linux ever since I started my career, I haven't been really thinking about Open Source until Cloud Native became the thing. CNCF KubeCon have really open my eyes and into the world of Open Source, seeing hundreds and thousands of people contributing to the software, in the name of passion and love, they spent their personal time to make the software better, day and night, it is really inspiring.

[Sandeep555]

Learning, learning, learning - is the only key that opens the doors. Luckily my projects and the clients are migrating from legacy to open-source technologies like Openshift and thus I got an opportunity.

[RathanA]

When I stepped into Red Hat office first day at work, it opened the Pandora box. RHEL system that was handed over to me at work was the first interaction with open source for me.

[ZoliCaplovic]

Back in 90's a colleague at work said that he is testing an "operating system named Linux" and asked whether I would like to try it before he removes it. I was interested, I tried it... and my life has changed

[BigBenAZ]

For me I was involved in Slackware 1.01 (.99) a long time ago, but, my real open-source involvement came from my work with OpenStack starting in 2013. I fell into the deep end and haven't left the pool since. 

[AJ01]

I was introduced to Open Source while I was studying Operating Systems like Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, Ubuntu etc

[Cássio]

As an entusiastic of IT technology, when I read about linux I wanted to know this technology. I installed it on my personal computer and I am always trying to be informed about this.

[RangerKnight]

In college I was interested in Unix and my cousin told me to check out Linux. This lead to many discussions with classmates