CeBIT 2010: Career Benefits of Open Source
Dr. Dirk Riehle is the first official open source college professor in Germany. At the Open Source Forum at CeBIT, the former businessman described the new career model.
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/cebit2010_riehle-vortrag_reference/394577-1-eng-US/cebit2010_riehle-vortrag_reference_medium.jpg)
"It's hard for me not to look at the economic context of open source," said the newly installed open source professor almost apologetically at the beginning of his Open Source: a New Developer Career talk at CeBIT. The difference between the classic developer and his new counterpart writing software for an organization is the quintessential "to earn versus to be recognized."
Riehle suggested that developers in the open source world for the most part have to prove "peer certification" apart from the obligatory technical and social skills. This is reflected, for example, in the project community's acceptance and implicit acknowledgment of upstream contributions. Open source developers can further build their reputations partly through contributions to source code and also by documenting their efforts on mailing lists. This transparency also has an advantage: the developer has a much higher likelihood of finding effective collaborators.
Riehle was named Professor of Open Source at the Computer Science Institute of the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremburg, Germany in 2009. In the 10 years prior to his academic calling he was in banking IT and worked among other things in the SAP realm.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.