How to start a career in the FLOSS community?

[mikeym]

Hi all,

I live Glasgow in the UK. I'm unemployed and about to be kicked out of my flat. I'm also passionate about FLOSS and want to do something for the community, I've been tinkering with tiny contributions for years, learning languages on my own, teaching myself as much about Linux as I can, but progress can be slow on your own and I was distracted by my degree for a while. Since graduating I've been getting seriously stuck into C++ and feel I can probably contribute more.

Since I'm no longer tied to any particular place I was wondering if you could tell me what would be the best way to get seriously involved, and where would be the best place to do it? And is there anyway to put a roof over my head and some food while I'm at it?

Suggestions welcome.

[Erik1984]

Sorry, no constructive answer here but I just want to follow this thread :p I'm in the same boat but I have given up the hope that one can live from FOSS software from the start (without having another job to pay the bills). I'm under the impression many people in the open source community get their paychecks by programming (mainly) proprietary software and contribute to open source in their spare time.

[mikeym]

Hi Euroman, thanks for the reply. I imagined actually surviving off work on FLOSS might be a bit of a stretch, but I'd still like to know where you think the best places and communities in the world are to learn and contribute as much as possible.

For example I've heard there are community programming spaces in Berlin, would anyone recommend these.

Like I said I've done what learning I can on my own but progress has been frustratingly slow, I would like to go somewhere where I can actually meet people interested in FLOSS and help on projects where I can. If that involves flipping burgers to do it then so be it.

(edit) PS Euroman I hope you're not in the same boat by being chucked out of your flat as well! :)

[forrestcupp]

You did notice that almost all FOSS software is also free of charge, right? I'd say you're going to have a lot more chance of success if you try to find a different means of income. If you're a programmer, you'd do a lot better trying to get a job with some company doing in house software development, which is not going to end up having a GPL license or anything.

There are only two ways I can see that you could make money with FOSS. The first way would be to develop some specialized software, shop it around, and then charge for support. This way would take a lot of time to build up a client base, and you're only making money for support, whether you have a flat monthly rate or a per case charge.

The second way would be to get hired by one of the huge projects out there that have sponsors that pay to make sure there is ongoing development for that project. Some examples of that would be Canonical, Mozilla, Red Hat, maybe the Gnome team. Since the demand for paid FOSS devs is nothing compared to the general workforce, I'd say that without any work experience, your chances of getting hired on a team like these is probably slim to none.

I really hate to discourage you, but if you're about to get kicked out of your flat, and you need some income that badly, FOSS development is the last place you need to be looking right now.

[JDShu]

Intel, AMD, Google, Oracle, Xamarin, Novell, VMware, and various hardware companies all need good developers for various open source projects. They probably also want project managers, technical writers, designers, and UI experts.


Get your immediate needs sorted first. Then learn a skill and apply to a company you want to work for.

[mastablasta]

foss won't immediatelly bring any money. unless you get a good idea and then get some investors.

the way they do it as i see is that they usually offer a communuity version and enhanced corporate version. community version - needs manual setup and doens't have some applicaitons or additional GUI. while the "business" verison has all that. then ofocurse you also need to find the clients. which is the hardest part.

so in short no immediate money unless you have a great idea, the means and knowledge to do it and then get some backers for it.

[mikeym]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the advice. In terms of finances I'm considering doing LPIC1 to see if that improves my employability at least it will demonstrate that I have basic Linux admin skills (I don't think doing it for a decade and a half for myself counts) - I'm thinking of doing it with the Open University. What I was meaning to convey with my flat and employment situation is that I am not tied to Glasgow so would like to locate somewhere with an active FLOSS community.

So, where are there physically particularly active FLOSS communities? I know that much of FLOSS is done online but I'm sure there must be groups out there.