Some toughts on my first Linux Foundation's microcourses

I've been using GNU/Linux Debian in one hundred per cent of my computers for 10 years, and had my first contact with the operation more than twenty years ago.

Explain this journey in a blog post is at the same time hard and easy: easy because I know realize it was one of the best choices I've made in life; hard, because it was so organic that I can not remember every step of the learning progress. Wish I had wrote more about.

The first thing I remember is that free software was there, when I most needed. Even I was younger and a Windows/Mac user on cracked software, I can remember using early versions of Audacity, _GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus and even ffmpeg and vim/nvim to solve problems proprietary software could not.

As an journalist inclined to tech and audiovisual (video and photography) I honestly though it would never be possible to be powered by free software both in operational system and software. I still could not understand the power of colaboration.

Both opearational systems and softwares were there. But always as a plan b. As something I was feel connected by ideology and aesthetics, but distant as part of my daily life.

And to be honest, the thing one entered it by accident. I used to have a MacBook Pro 2011 to edit photos and videos as my main work machine. The updates started to get the machine slow and I've decided to partion the disk: well only the Debian part was running and I was close to some deadlines wich I had no problems to deliver using darktable and Kdenlive.

Users are also part of the community

Being able to edit videos and photos using a free operational system was a blast. It's fun to remember how the fear and anxiety on changing an operational system quickly became joy.

But I guess the big turning point was when I met kretcheu, an reference from free software in Brazil, during a workshop and he said: we need people like, users that care; users that enter forums; that push limits and ask for new plugins or complain about bugs.

Well, I finally realized I was part of a comunity and that was part of my life since I was very young. If you, as me, are into this tech world since the early 2000's you know what I mean: foruns, threads, bugs, books, mailing and chat groups. It was impossible to do something alone.

But this was not about the microcourses?

Well, I tought it was important to tell all this history, because somehow I felt like the begginer's microcourses from Linux Foundation kind of certificated myself from somethings it was a little hard to explain or prove I was experienced at - specially outside the FOSS world.

I've already finished LFS101, LFD102, LFC111, LFC112 and felt that they were really cool. For me that been learning the hardway somehow organized lot of stuff I already know, but I truly believe this is most important than learn new things.

So I truly recommend them, they are really quick and free. If you are already experienced with the basics of the Linux system, how an Open Source comunity works, with the basics on documentation, it feels good be certified and you can something learn something new.

If you are not, they are very entry level and and in a few hours you can be introduced to things that lots of people took years to learn (and that others, even programmers or engineers still don't- believe me, they exist).

The next courses in my road map are the documentation Markdown ones. A language I love and been using on the last decade, but well, why not study it a little more and be certified.

It feels good to learn and the thing I most love in the FOSS comunities is that we are always learning.