Seldom without a computer of some sort since graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1978, I have been a full-time Linux user since 2005, a full-time Solaris and SunOS user from 1986 through 2005, and UNIX System V user before that.
On the technical side of things, I have spent a great deal of my career as a consultant, doing data analysis and visualization; especially spatial data analysis. I have a substantial amount of related programming experience, using C, awk, Java, Python, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and lately Groovy. I'm looking at Julia with great interest. I have also built a few desktop and web-based applications, primarily in Java and lately in Grails with lots of JavaScript on the front end and PostgreSQL as my database of choice.
Aside from that, I spend a considerable amount of time writing proposals, technical reports and - of course - stuff on https://www.opensource.com.
Authored Comments
A well-argued point, Kael. I would not disagree with your point that "open" is a means. However, it can be valuable to consider that the means can be more important than the end; as someone by the name of Greg Anderson apparently said, "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it".
Great article, Ben!
Writing tips can appear in the weirdest places. I once saw a birthday card (!) at our local supermarket (!!) that had two people on the front cover talking:
1st person: So where is your birthday party at?
2nd person: Never end a sentence with a preposition!
Inside:
1st person: So where is your birthday party at, jerk?