Open-Source

— Video Went AWOL —

Val Henson describes her career in open source

1.  Linux system programmers are in short supply
2.  If you are vaguely competent and get some experience you become employed for life
3.  Not all Linux programmers are idealists.  Now days it is a for profit motivation.
4.  her pay profile progressed very well. Started at 150,000 per year in 1999 and doubled after 10ish years.
5.  Telecommuting seems to be the end of the evolutionary progression
6.  She travels all over the world to visit other programmers. 
7. She thinks San Diego has the best weather in the world.  ( she obviously has not considered South America in that calculation )
8. What would Val do?  If you will not get fired then why not do it ? 
9. She knows developers who never leave the house
10. Hours are flexible
11. its not a 9-5 job.  She does not know anyone who does not care.  Hard to make it on 40 hours per week.
12. Side effect is you only end up dealing with positive motivated people
13. Open source is an enabling technology – good way to think about how and why a company would hire a person to help with open source from their point of view
14. You have to be able to admit you do not know something.  ( duh!)   Linuxchix
15. There are some famously rude people in the Linux community
16. Careful with email!
17. Some people get into open source by working on patches but much better to get a framework such as a job that gets you in contact with other people doing open source.
18. Should be able to fairly quickly get into a position where you can telecommute 

Val Henson on LinkedIn

Vals blog