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. 

[Filipe_Scalioni]

My introduction to Open Source was on 2005, when I started using Linux. It was with a Fedora based distribution that tried to mimic Windows XP. Quite a mess, to be honest... And I quickly found that true Linux was way better and started a now 17 years career, that is shifting towards OpenShift recently.

[emverdes]

3.- I was introduced by a fellow classmate, back in 1997. He invited me to talks given by his boss, a computer engineer and matematician, who teached about Unix philosophy and C programming. There I found other guys, most of them from the Fidonet community, and with them started the Uruguayan Linux User Group (UYLUG) and begun to user Linux and Open Source.

[therepairman35]

Well just recently graduated from CompTIA Tech Academy were I was introduced not only to Red Hat but also many many other distro and what each ones advantages are.

[Trevor]

I was introduced to open source technology via Linux.  Having been in the UNIX arena since the early 80s, it was inevitable that I would eventually get exposed to the Linux environment.  The availability of a UNIX-like OS, without any financial cost associated with it, made for an easy decision to climb aboard.  

[robbz_chazz]

Well, it's was a career switch for me, switching from Analytical Chemistry background, and barely landing a good job! back in 2015 when CentOS 7 came out, and was doing my CCNA at local training center, during my free time as I was browsing, something in the lines of "tech to learn" and "skills required to get a good job in tech" - I found about Linux and CentOS. That was the beginning and I've never looked back, over the years got to learn tons of fun stuff and still learning! and proud to say that I'm a Red Hat Certified Engineer.

FYI - I still use CentOS as my OS of choice on my work laptops and later Fedora just for fun!

[Beauvalon]

While at work I was introduced to open source technology as part of a natural progression. I started learning that software is quickly becoming more important and open source technology to meet our needs and requirements. With the younger generation, open source is the the way forward with rapid change and open source seems to be the way.

[Juansebasrodrig]

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. 

In early 2000s, I was working in a pharmaceutical company as IT analyst, the CEO of the company requested a way to block certain web pages from the internet, because people was expending too much time on reading external email and other types of NSFW contents. I was working back then with Red Hat 6.2 (zoot), then I started using my altavista search engine for solutions. I found an article about Squid as a proxy solution with SquidGuard + URL Blacklists.

The CEO was surprised by the fact that I didn't have to pay anything, he didn't believe me at first, then I deployed the squid on port 3128 and it worked fine for a long time. Then I faced some issues with updates and my lack of knowledge in Linux systems, the system went down and I had to show to everyone how to disable the proxy (it was manually configured on the browser). Afterwards, this became useless as every user was aware of the setting.

Again, I had to look for another solution. Then I found that Linux was able to serve as a router and make all web requests to be forwarded to port 3128 so I didn't need to make that setting manually on the browsers anymore. 

Another issue, I needed in my Linux box to be the default gateway to make this whole system to work. After a battle against Iptables, I was able to switch the default gateway to use my Linux box (fortunately was a server, the only one in the company).

After that I found that the static public IP assigned was able to be reached from the Linux box, so I had my first hosting ever for testing all my web solutions afterwards and start the journey with a myriad of solutions I have deployed so far.

Long story short, I still use Opensource everyday and add to the community when time permits.

[23zion]

Hi everyone,

Good day! Hope all is well with you.

I got introduced to open source summer before the start of my first year college. I was a working student then. I was working at the IT department of the same school where I will spend 4 years of my college life taking up Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. I was one of the luckiest working student because I got to work directly with the school's Chief Technology Officer. He bought me my own laptop. My first task was to dual boot it with Windows and Ubuntu. So dealing with Ubuntu was my first time dealing with OpenSource. That first time was very memorable to me, I learned it all by myself, just utilizing google search engine and reading through forums I was able to successfully ran Ubuntu on my laptop.

It did not end there, the school's CTO is a fan of OpenSource: whenever we need any new software or application, top priority is always OpenSource. I was in charge of looking for OpenSource softwares that we need. I got the hang of it, later on after few months, I was already first year college that time, I was entrusted with whole web server of the school, a dedicated server we subscribed to with Hostgator, it was running on CentOS, the counterpart of Red Hat, so there another OpenSource encounter. Since that time, I already prefer a server running on Linux than that of Windows. I got familiar with the command line in Linux, and had some mastery of the subject matter.

Now, I'm still aiming to be a legitimate Linux System Administrator by way of passing the RHCE EX294. I don't have any certification on Linux yet, but I'm confident I will pass any certification exam if given the chance.

[Dinobaby]

from work

[Skreech2]

From a screenshot of Enlightenment which had a title bar that flowed down the side of the window like a waterfall. I was smitten with something that allowed that much control on the computer and made it a mission to get that philosphy of user doing what fit them on my computer. Many books, docs, README and info dumps later I'm still finding more ways that the open philosophy not only gives a user options but the broader society dependent on tech options as well.