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Open Source is Not a Career Path
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."
>Its no longer okay to just submit a paper and call that research. Buddy this is exactly what research and if you ask any pretty seasoned researcher you would see that you are wrong. On there other hand when you receive a grant you are supposed to have accomplished something by the end of it and while a paper is fine for some fields of research a software is preferable for CS. However, if you deal with complex enough stuff a paper would be just fine. Also another thing that you might want to think about. I am not sure what you mean buy doing OSS research for the academic community but I take it you work in an university of some sort. Now that said your job most deffinitelly does not qualify as a career in Open Source (not according to Linus Torvald and not according to anybody else). I find hard to believe that your salary is paid by grants rather than the educational institution and if you are still a student then you still don't have any career. Also knowing how *well* the US educational system works I doubt that you are even close be being a professional but that is only my personal oppinion and not a fact (don't take in the wrong way, there are a lot of ways to eccel in a US college but they all depend on self motivation and self training and students rarely do that). So give it about 10 more years and then you might have something to talk about :)