• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Linux development as a gateway to programming job?

IContainMultitudes

IContainMultitudes

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I'm currently reading the book Business for Aspies by Ashley Stanford, and one thing the author mentions that I found interesting was her description of how working as a Linux developer can be a good "gateway" to a programming job for an aspie. Since a lot of Linux developing work is done on a volunteer basis, it doesn't have the same barriers as becoming an Apple or Windows developer (The author says that her oldest son wanted to become an iPhone app developer, but he found out that you pretty much have to be an Apple employee to do that). If nothing else, it sounds like a good way to build up a little portfolio of work to show to a prospective employer; it seems more likely to increase the odds of getting the kind of job that I want than the occasional bits of volunteer work I've done here and there that I have on my resume. I'm not any kind of programming wizard (the last programming I did was in a class I took years ago where I made a crappy little Minesweeper clone in Visual Basic), but Stanford says that that's not necessary and that some of the work involved in Linux development isn't even programming (some of it is writing, which is closer to my area of expertise). Has anyone here done anything like this?
 
Last edited:
I have various experience with this. I'm actively involved in the Linux community and do have a computer science degree with some programming experience.

Well, you won't be able to get an actual programming job by writing documents for Linux. That simply won't happen, because you need to be able to program. People in the developer world would not even consider you for a job if all you can code in is visual basic. You would have to be a coder who can prove their skill. You can use Linux development as experience for getting a programming job certainly, but without any credentials such as a computer science degree to back it up, it will be difficult.

Also, if you do want to get into programming, it's going to take a few years to fully learn the languages and get used to various types of coding, especially within the Linux development world. Most importantly you will have to become proficient with C and C++, and ASM would help greatly. Also it's wise to learn a few scripting languages such as perl or python, along with basic shell scripting languages like bash.

Linux development is not something you get into without much programming experience. People in the opensource community simply wouldn't except code that is not up to standard for the different developmental models. It will require a lot of time. You would be contributing to various projects such as the actual Linux kernel at kernel.org (but you won't get anything accepted unless you really know what you are doing :p). While many opensource projects allow anyone to view and modify the code, it doesn't mean they will let you submit code to their main development branch.
 
Last edited:
Local advocate Eric Chen recommended programming jobs - but as a person with conscience, we can't just follow the crowd.

Case in point: if you know your classmates, with zero interest in business and engineering, all strive for careers in business and accounting and engineering - then you know you face keen competition which makes business very, very ordinary.

Should you instead do another thing?
 
This is what Ashley Stanford says in the book about Linux development as a possible career "gateway" for aspies (I had been meaning to post this for a while, but I never quite got around to it until now):

The field that allows you the easiest entrance to build highly valuable skills is the field of Linux development. You can "work" as a writer, programmer, designer, bug fixer, or even just someone who uses the software and finds the bugs. When you work on a piece of software, you volunteer your time and do whatever you can, whenever you can. You work alongside many other volunteers. You can put it on your resume as past experience. If your volunteer team completes a full project, you can list that as an accomplishment. Employers like myself often look to the Linux field to find people who are already obviously passionate about building their talents.

...

The Linux operating system is maintained mostly by volunteers but some companies such as Red Hat and Canonical (Ubuntu) have sprouted up, starting successful businesses building off free and open Linux software. Red Hat does not allow volunteers to contribute to their work, but Canonical does. Canonical goes to extreme measures to make sure that anyone, anywhere can contribute. They welcome new contributors with open arms. Many software projects are looking for volunteers to help them grow. You simply go online and look for projects you may enjoy contributing to. Search for:

• Contribute to Linux
• Volunteer, Linux
• Google Code
• SourceForge
• Launchpad

In general, the other people on the boards are accustomed to answering questions so do not be afraid to ask. First, do everything you can to figure it out yourself, then just ask. There is a chance that while you were reading this section you became discouraged by a personal lack of technical knowledge. Great news. You do not need to be technically savvy in order to work in the tech industry. There are many things you can do besides program. You can:

• find bugs
• edit documentation
• suggest new features for the software
• create graphics for the project
• help with a website for the project
• maintain a FAQ of How To documentation
• tell people about the project or write articles for publication
• send a letter or email of appreciation to the programmers
• test the program
• work on many more tasks that are appropriate to the particular project on which you are working.

This is only a small list of potential tasks. There is surely a task that fits your particular skill set. Please do not think that the tech world and other high-level professions are only for the ultra-brilliant. Trust me, they are not. These fields are full of people like you and I, people with large chunks of disability, fault, and ineptitude.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom