ROSE Blog Interviews: Dru Lavigne

ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange
Dru Lavigne was the first person to volunteer her interview when I started this series. I thought I better pull her interview out of the comments section to make sure it's not overlooked. Dru is active in BSD and FreeBSD certification, training, and marketing, in addition to editing the Open Source Business Resource.
Q: Who are you?
A: Dru Lavigne (http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/unix/bsd)
Q:What do you currently do in open source? What do you love about it?
A: Chair the BSD Certification Group which maintains certifications for assessing BSD sysadmin skills. Assist the marketing team of the FreeBSD Project and the FreeBSD Foundation. Write and speak about open source, BSD, training, documentation, and gender in technology issues. Manage the Open Source Business Resource (http://www.osbr.ca). And I've just started my third book on BSD. I love learning new things, sharing them with others, and watching people grow.
Q: You're speaking to a group of women from other fields who are considering switching careers. Why should they consider moving into an open source-related career? What should they know about the open source environment to prepare them for the transition from a different field?
A: Open source provides a low entry barrier where you can ramp up your technical and communication skills, access mentors, build your reputation – all valuable things you can add to your resume. Know that every community is different, some are easier to get along with then others, and its okay to shop around until you find the community that works best for you.
Q: You're speaking to a group of high school students (male and female). Why should they consider exploring career options in open source?
A: Where else can you get the above for free? Becoming an active member of an open source community will give you an edge over your classmates and help open future career doors. Breaking into any career is all about who you know and who knows you.
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.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.