thanks..........

[Cordula's Web]

> let`s suppose i go to any college, study computer science, what   
> chances are to get a job in any freebsd related group?   

1. FreeBSD itself is not a company. We don't offer jobs.

   However, there are many software shops (companies) that
   develop or support Unix (Linux, BSD, ...) software.
   Even more companies (from all sectors of the economy)
   need experienced junior sysadmins or netadmins, who
   are proficient at playing with [and programming] misc.
   Unix versions, including, but not limited to, FreeBSD.

2. It is not absolutely necessary to study CS to be a good programmer,
   though some CS background won't hurt either. To understand some
   of the non-trivial algorithms, one or two years of CS exposure
   would be IMHO very desirable though.

> This is  a personal question just reply if you want to. i know that   
> the open source community works in a way of working on what you   
> decide you want to work on (for curiosity , pleasure, you want to   
> help).  Dont you guys get paid for taking the time to do what you do   
> and give it back tot the community?  I dont want you think im   
> getting into this for the money but we all need it.  Can anybody   
> clarify this for me please?    

Hacking[1] Unix is fun and the best game in town! You don't get paid
for playing, do you? Some of us are fortunate enough to have the
priviledge of having daytime jobs that require working in a Unix
environment too. Just don't tell our employers that we're having
fun in our jobs... ;-)

[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/hacker.html

> As for books. i like to read and going to start bying some books on   
> unix and programming.   

Check out the excellent O'Reilly Nutshell books:
  http://www.oreilly.com/

As for books, a few of us started their careers in programming
in a very unusual, but innovative way, by reading the Wizard Book
[SICPv2]:

  http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
  http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

This is a great introduction to programming concepts, based on
Scheme, a Lisp dialect (FreeBSD has many Scheme interpreters
in the ports tree as well). SICP is part of the introductory
CS curriculum at MIT:

  http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/course.html

and is being taught in many other Universities worldwide too.

-- 
Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/