The Value of Linux | RHEL Presents Ep. 64

This one grew out of an after-stream conversation that just kept going, so we hit record for real this time. Brian Smith and I welcome back Randy Russell, Red Hat’s director of certification, for a wide-ranging talk about the value of Linux, how it fits into the open source ecosystem, and how Red Hat is part of that community. I also share a bit of my own path from the support desk to Linux sysadmin to product marketer for the operating system I built my career around.

A few things worth carrying away from the conversation:

• Linux is the foundation careers get built on. I told the story of a college student named Mike I met at an event, and how walking him through my own journey reinforced that a grounding in Linux opens doors across development, operations, and beyond.
• Open source is a community worth showing up for. Even with recent changes and plenty of FUD floating around, I’ve never seen a group more dedicated to a cause than the folks talking about Linux and open source, and that dedication is a big part of the value.
• The best topics come from the unscripted moments. This whole episode exists because a post-show chat between people in marketing, product, and certification turned into something we all wanted to record and share.

If you ever wonder why any of this matters, this conversation is a good reminder.