Reflections on Open Source in Today's World

After reading the article by Jason Evangelho, I have come to the realization that many people share the same experiences and frustrations when it comes to the Windows operating system. The author of this article details his complicated relationship with windows, and explains his eventual switch to the open source world of Linux. One specific anecdote that resonated with was how Evangelho would lose important work progress and file transfers due to the inopportune timing of Windows updates. I have personally been affected by these badly timed updates many times, and eventually switched to Linux just as the author did. He went on to explain how he was astounded by the responsiveness of Linux on older machines and how it almost ran better than his new Windows machine. Evangelho's interest in Linux was originally sparked by the release of Steam machines from Valve, and the access they provided in terms of gaming. Gaming on PC's was almost exclusive to Window's closed environment until the release of these machines and Valve's drive for open source gaming access. I have been a strong supporter of Linux, specifically Ubuntu, for over 10 years now. I agree with the author in that the freedom and stability these distributions give you are unparalleled, and are what make Linux far superior to Windows. The updates are not forceful, and they do not seem to break some feature every iteration as Windows updates do. The second article I read had to do with the Linux terminal, and the many tricks and shortcuts one can employ to maximize their efficiency. For example, Ctrl + L will clear the screen without having to type out "clear", and sudo !! will run the previous command but with administrative sudo privileges. Another useful shortcut I learned was grep -Ev '^#|^$' <file> which will display the file's content without comments or empty lines. The bash shell that Linux operating systems use can prove quite useful when coding or doing data-science work. Part of the reason I recently installed Ubuntu back on to my computer was because the native inclusion of git in the terminal. The bash shell and its commands are far more standard, and are more widely used in the industry than that of a windows command line. Although the two articles are not similar in content, they are both examples as to why I support Linux, and its many open source endeavors. From the responsive quickness to the desktop and its guis, to the freedom of customization, and the useful nature of the terminal, one can never go wrong with replacing Windows with Linux as their main operating system. Gone are the days where Windows was the only OS that supported various commercial applications; I will always be the one to recommend Linux and its many diverse distributions. There is a "flavor" for everyone, one that will suit their needs and personal aesthetic tastes.

Reflections on FOSS

I have always been a strong proponent of Linux and the use of open source software. Since middle school, I was always the "odd one" not using windows and its proprietary software. I would always have to find some work around in completing my work, but it was always worth the feeling of satisfaction and the freedom in using free and open source software. Open source software is a great collaborative effort by a community of people who are driven by a passion for their work and interest in helping the workflow of humanity. It is not motivated by financial profit, or esteem, it is an effort to make quality code for anyone to use and to contribute to. There is something so beautiful and amazing about such an unorthodox way of producing software. There is no structured hierarchy of top programmers who dictate the direction and release of such software. It is open to anybody to contribute and maintain. The freedom that comes with open source software is refreshing. One just has to download the source code and alter whatever they want about a particular distribution of linux, or some piece of software. They could make such changes without altering the original and could release as some other distribution. This collaborative community effort for designing and maintaining software is an astounding testament to the things we can achieve as a collective. This 'bazaar style' of coding is in stark contrast to the commercial production of code, one with strict deadlines and an established hierarchy of bosses demanding these deadlines be met. There is a great feeling of relief when contributing to these FOSS projects. It is a great site when there is a healthy community of people contributing to something with passion and excitement. The open source community almost feels as though it is a gathering of like minded people pursuing their passions of technology and the engineering of software. Although the process seems to be lacking in structure and organization, there are many example to the contrary. Take for instance the various popular linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Fedora; there are regular releases put out by a team of developers. These are all organized efforts to release these distributions but can also be contributed to by the community. A beautiful cathedral can be constructed through the hard work and dedication of a passionate community. This project has shown be the other side in this process. I am not just passively using this software anymore. I have been equipped with the tools needed to meaningfully contribute to, in my case, sklearn. There are many reported bugs and problems that I have been perusing on the github page. There is no shortage of work to be done for this machine learning library, the issues tracker page for scikit learn has appropriate labels for the types of problems and their respective difficulties.

Introduction

My name is Levi Briggs and I am from Charleston, South Carolina. I am a Data Science major with a cognate in Psychology. Upon graduation, I hope to find a job as a Data analyst or some other related data science role. I want to analyze sports or psychology data and hope to use data science techniques that I have learned in this program to improve those fields.