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Open Source is Not a Career Path

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-have-to-want-it dept.

codermarc writes ""If you're getting into open source because you see it as a career path, you're doing something wrong." It's not that Linux creator Linus Torvalds thinks open-source programmers should work for peanuts (he doesn't), but rather that they should be properly motivated. Call it software with a soul, if you like. Only the truly passionate need apply."

13 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. untrue by stryck9 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is so untrue... Novell now certifies "Linux Experts"

    1. Re:untrue by TheViciousOverWind · · Score: 4, Funny

      I know you meant this to be fun, but really - I'm selfemployed and when I'm out at meetings, I meet SO unbelievable many persons who's either the boss in the companies IT department or is Senior Developer of Buzzword Management - all of which got a bazillion certificates on their businesscards, but when you talk with them they know diddly-squat about anything IT-related.

      An example was a meeting I had some days ago (about a website), and we talked about iframes, and each and every time he called it "frameworks" and when we talked about URLs, he insisted on saying UNIQUE RESOURCE LOCATOR (yes, he almost shouted it everytime, hence the caps) - that may not seem too weird if you're english-speaking, but considering we're danish, it was pretty obvious he was hoping for the "wow"-effect.

      --
      My <1000 UID is with a hot chick
    2. Re:untrue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      Open source is no longer just for the 3l33t people or whatever those loosers like to call themselves.

      Hey, watch it, buddy. It's 1337!

  2. Passionate software? by Bloodlent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, do you mean the lusty robots?

  3. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So I've wasted my life?

    You ask this on Slashdot? I think you already know the answer.

  4. Re:Getting into IT as a career path is stupid by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Funny
    I'm a native speaker of english, *I* define what is valid and correct usage of the language. It is the duty of linguists to document and and record the change in common usage of the language over time, not to specify what is and isn't "correct" usage. So if you were attempting to imply that I had somehow incorrectly used my native language you are incorrect, in that it is impossible for a native speaker to incorrectly use their own language. If this were not so we'd all still be speaking like Shakespeare.

    Now piss off grammar nazi.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  5. Re:Reminds me of an OLD story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Then he died of lung cancer, proving that Life, she is cruel.

    ~~ FIN ~~

  6. Re:open source under-cuts? by smileyy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Eclipse didn't just emerge fully formed from some random Open Source developers. IBM paid a lot of people a lot of money to develop Eclipse.

    --
    pooptruck
  7. Re:Not just Open Source by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Many people think they are trying to be computer geeks; they either are, or are not (most are not).

    Everyone has their own talents. It is an affront to computer geeks when hair stylists or marketeers try to be and don't grok it.

    Sadly, there are so many of them...perhaps we should put them all on a ship across the galaxy; make up some doomsday story, then send them off first on a trajectory that will cause their ship to crashland on a deserted planet far away, without the possibility of return...

    --

    Lodragan Draoidh
    The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
  8. Re:Not just Open Source by Duck1123 · · Score: 2, Funny

    If they didn't... what would we blog about?

  9. Not just Open Source-"Challenge Everything" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "See another reply I did. What I meant was getting into it for the money and a hot career backfired on those without the real love for it. I know people working help desk that love the work they do. Those are the geeks."

    And as an EA executive. I applaud each and every one of them. We wouldn't have done as well as we did without them.
    Those who are doing it merely for the money, don't last long in our industry. Hopefully with the recent influx of all those who have a passion for the profession. We here at EA games, with the recent opening of our new development center will continue to deliver value to our customers.

    Sincerely CEO Larry Probst

  10. Re:URIs and URLs by hdparm · · Score: 2, Funny
    The most frequent question I get asked on the topic is:

    What's the www for that site?

  11. Re:Mac OS X if you want to do unix for $$ by Narchie+Troll · · Score: 2, Funny

    Indeed, art fags with goatees make up a growing market.