I ' m an artist who loves Linux (RPM)

My father got me a computer for graduation with 512MB RAM and a Pentium processor. It came with Windows XP, and I used it to do 2D animation with Adobe Flash. Those days, I am looking for my dream job as a 3D artist, and I ' d often see job listings that said: "Linux Knowle Dge required. " I had heard of Linux, but had never used it, so I decided to learn more. I didn ' t has the time or energy of a class, so I started exploring on my own.

The technical jargon is overwhelming at first (GNU, distros, flavors, UNIX, Windows managers, GNOME, KDE, Bash, C shell). .), but I kept reading articles, e-books, and forums. Finally, one day I bit the bullet and decided to install Linux.

Ok, what to install? And, how does I install it? For a beginner, too much choice is a problem. I downloaded each and every flavor of Linux I could get my hands on and created bootable disks out of them. For the next month, my daily routine is something like this:

• Come Home from work
• Format My machine
• Install a new flavor
• Read about it online
• Pull my hair trying to understand it
• Burn my fingers trying to do something
• Pat my back when something worked

I kept exploring this and got a basic understanding that is only the GUI, availability of software, and the packaging Changes, but all the internal workings remain almost the same on each flavor of Linux. I kept "basic understanding of Linux" as a skill on my resume and got hired at this amazing place called rhythm and H UEs Studios. There I worked on awesome movies Like life of Pi and seventh Son. At work we use Linux completely, and I slowly started admiring the philosophy and culture of open source development and C Ame to understand the power of it.

One day I got a new fancy machine and booted centos on it. Then, instead of going for commercial software, I started using open source applications to make art. I started using blender for all my 3D animation work, and gimp and krita for my painting NE Eds. Recently I ' ve started Using mypaint and love it. In short, once I found out on all of the open source alternatives to the commercial applications, I never looked back.

When I am starting out, it wasn ' t all roses. There were days and nights I spent banging my head trying to figure out how to connect my new Wi-Fi dongle to the Internet, Only to find, there were no Linux drivers available for that particular model. Sometimes I couldn ' t install software because a library was missing, and I ' d has to go on a wild goose chase trying to fi nd it. And don ' t get me started on the Nvidia and Wacom drivers. (Support for Nvidia is-better now, and CentOS 7 have out-of-the-box support for Wacom devices.)

But actually, what I ' m doing are a lot of problem solving. In my view, problem solving skills is one of the best things I learned from experimenting with Linux. Yes, learning Linux was a bit daunting. But I kept with it, and the more I learned, the more clear Linux became. I learned a lot about computers, what's a operating system works, how devices work, how to search and ask for help on forums and IRC, and how to file bug reports. I got into the habit of reading manuals and figuring things off, which is a basic yet essential skill. I started reading Bash scripts, wrote my own, and got the taste of the tasks. Eventually, everything fell to place.

The whole animation and visual effects industry is completely reliant on Linux because we be dealing with a lot of dat A and require huge computational power to create amazing visuals. Linux is the perfect candidate, giving serious bang for your buck. But I didn ' t leave Linux There-i continued learning more about Linux and became a red Hat certified System Administra Tor. Receiving my Certificationwas One of the happiest moments in my life. Currently, I work at a nice little animation studio called the Cirqus Arts, where I work as an artist/programmer and Help maintain the systems, which run CentOS. One of the tasks I really like are training new hires on Linux and introducing them to the world of open source.

My advice for anyone starting off is yes, learning Linux would be a bit overwhelming, but stick with it. You ' ll thank yourself later. and learn a bit of scripting along the Way-there ' s no limit to how can do. And, thank the developers who contribute their valuable time and energy to Linux and other open source Applicat Ions.

I ' m an artist who loves Linux (RPM)