My father got me a computer for graduation with 512MB RAM and a Pentium processor. It came with Windows XP, and I used it to do 2D animation with Adobe Flash. Back in those days, I was looking for my dream job as a 3D artist, and I’d often see job listings that said: “Linux knowledge required.” I had heard of Linux, but had never used it, so I decided to learn more. I didn’t have the time or energy to take a class, so I started exploring on my own.
The technical jargon was overwhelming at first (GNU, distros, flavors, UNIX, windows managers, GNOME, KDE, Bash, C shell…), but I kept reading articles, e-books, and forums. Finally, one day I bit the bullet and decided to install Linux.
Ok, what to install? And, how do I install it? For a beginner, too much choice was a problem. I downloaded each and every flavor of Linux I could get my hands on and created bootable disks out of them. For the next month, my daily routine was something like this:
- Come home from work
- Format my machine
- Install a new flavor
- Read about it online
- Pull my hair trying to understand it
- Burn my fingers trying to do something
- Pat my back when something worked
I kept exploring this way and got a basic understanding that only the GUI, availability of software, and the packaging changes, but all the internal workings remain almost the same in each flavor of Linux. I kept “basic understanding of Linux” as a skill on my resume and got hired at this amazing place called Rhythm and Hues Studios. There I worked on awesome movies like Life of Pi and Seventh Son. At work we use Linux completely, and I slowly started admiring the philosophy and culture of open source development and became to understand the power of it.