Thank you freebsd!!... (to all newbs out there, learn while you can)

[Michael Alipio]

Hi,

It's been 4 years since I earned my BS degree in Information technology. I came from a place where many people can hardly sustain the expenses of their children even though their already sending them to low-tuition fee public state universities. Back in my college days, I was one of those many people taking up computer courses who unfortunately couldn't afford to buy our own computer. In public schools such as where I went, on the average, a group of 5 students gets to share one computer during laboratory sessions. The result of which, many students like me, could not get any more confused on what our professors are teaching us. During those days, after every grueling quiz on programming, I always go home telling myself, it could have been a lot different if I had my own computer at home to practice with. Better a laptop I could carry at school. Heck, I could not even afford to pay for our visual basic programming book in just one installment. I
 shouldn't have had to copy my seatmate's work just to pass every 10-item computer programming quiz I took at the end of every class. It wasn't until the mid of the first semester of my last year in college that I saw some hope when my mother took a loan to buy me a desktop. (I remember it was an athlon 1.2ghz). I opted for that brand because it was way cheaper than the Intel counterpart. After finishing college, I had a really hard time finding a job. My skills were simply not enough. Indicating that I programmed a payroll system as my thesis in my resume did not get much attention. I have a classmate who was very smart because he's got his own computer. He was ahead of everyone else when it comes to computer lessons. The result of course, he landed a job immediately after graduating. Mentioning that he was a webmaster on some linux forum/usergroup was more than enough for people to hire him as a sysadmin (not bad for a fresh graduate). At that point, I
 told myself, if I want to land a job, I have to do self studies. I have to learn what that guy already knows and even exceed him. I started playing with my computer a  bit more. I installed Linux, formatted my pc many times. I had to be smarter than him so I've chosen a more difficult to learn distro (slackware) than what he was using (debian). I could not be contented so I searched the Internet for an alternative. Then I found freebsd. At some point I found my self engaging in operating system war, linux vs freebsd, gpl vs bsd, etc.
I was happy and proud. I even got happier when I landed on my first job as a system administrator. I can still remember during the interview, they asked me how do I install freebsd. I told them, there are many ways, but the way I did it by minimal install because I only have a dial-up connection at home. If it wasn't for freebsd I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. It's been quite some time now since I typed into a freebsd csh shell. For my second job, it was for a Linux sysadmin position. Then I got a job abroad as a penetration tester. To be honest I never used freebsd again after leaving my first job. Now i'm working as a security consultant/pentester/auditior, earning about 10 times more than what I was earning in my first job. At home I got a shiny macbook pro which I never thought I would be able to afford not even after working for several years in our country. 

This morning I finally finished reading The C Programming Language (K&R) and I would say I was able to absorb 90% of the language's essentials. Or just about enough so I would know where to refer back in case I'm having trouble solving a particular problem.

 A few months back I told myself. I don't want to be just a penetration tester for the rest of my career. Someday, I want to become a chief technology officer. I know some folks who are CTOs that have given talks to various conferences, and they all have one thing in common. They have been hardcore technical at some point in their careers. I know my simple perl scripting skills would not get me where I want to be, that's why I opted to dig deeper and take my skillz to a higher level. 

Forgive me for I'm no longer using freebsd. I know a lot of folks who used to be freebsd sysadmins, as they progress in their career, just like me, they no longer have to use this wonderful operating system. I hope one day I would be able to give back to the community. The one reason why I'm using Linux right now is because some tools I need to use for my work has not been ported to freebsd yet. Maybe one day, once I get the hang of this programming language I just learned, I would be able to contribute back to freebsd by porting applications. That's the only way I can repay the community. I remember the question I posted to freebsd-questions when I was still a newb, I asked "Who am I mailing to", asking them if they are paid to do so because they were very helpful. Every question I ask there was always someone willing to answer.  

I know there are so many people who already posted something with the same subject line. This time it's my turn to say...

 Thank You FreeBSD!!


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