Transitioning From Windows to Linux Development?

truthsearch asks: "I've been a professional Visual Basic developer for 6 years, working on two and three tier systems and also web applications. Two years ago I tried Linux and went from being a fan of Windows to an aspiring developer of Linux (or at least Unix) applications. My company has just announced their complete acceptance of moving everyone to .NET and so I want to leave ASAP. I'm even willing to take a pay cut to leave Microsoft software development. So if I were to not contribute to OSS or take time off to get my masters (in CS of course), what's the best way to transition from professional Microsoft platform development to Linux? Are many companies hiring Microsoft developers with little Linux experience to assist in corporate migration? With online postings requiring 3-5 years Linux/C++/Java experience how's a Windows developer supposed to transition? Is my only solution to stick it out here while I contribute to OSS for the experience?"

Comments

just get a patch accepted by linus!

[larry bagina]

A couple years ago, i submitted a few patches for linux bugs, a couple of which were accepted, and my name wnet into the changelogs.

I had to stop counting all the cold-call (or cold email) job offers i got from that to be a linux developer for some company or other. Of course, this was back in the go-go years, when companies spent millions of dollars on sock puppets, but i still get one or two job interview offers a month to be a "linux programmer."