Developers Group

[Roguehorse]

I'm hoping some people can point me in the right direction here.

As I continue through my degree program at a pro-Microsoft university, it's hard to find a developers' group for new developers like me that are more interested in Linux than Microsoft. I'm learning Java and really enjoying it and I've done a little work in C++ but it's a lot more fun to collaborate on small beginner projects with others than it is to go it alone. I found one group (through the university) that seems cool but they want me to migrate away from GitHub to CodePlex which I'm not really comfortable with. I'd like to hook up with a student group who is kind of at the same spot I am with coding and just as in love with learning Linux and using GitHub. Where to go to find these people?

[woodsmoke]

Hi Rogue, an interesting question and since we have not crossed Phosphors before, HELLO!!

Soooo

Do you want a physical presence that you can go to a coffee house with, say in another town.

Or do you want a virtual one, like in a chatroom or IRC?

woodsmoke

[Roguehorse]

Hello woodsmoke! Nice to meet you for the first time.

Ah, a local user group would be cool, but my time is limited working fulltime + school full time + full time parent + looking for new work in my field of study at a Linux supporting company.

A virtual group is kind of what I'm leaning towards where I can further my learning of programming ( Java right now ) while being around people who work on Linux platforms as well. I don't have any collaborative experience with GitHub yet but, I have an account and have learned to use it simply pushing and pulling. Kind of boring doing it alone if you get my drift.

[lcorken]

Several of the higher volume Linux forums have programming sections with good activity. Except for the occasional good natured jab most are not too anal about which distro you are using. They usually discourage doing students homework problems for them.

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=39
http://forums.debian.net/viewforum.php?f=8
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=27
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewforum.php?id=33

Oregon State University:
http://lug.oregonstate.edu/devops/
http://osuosl.org/

Ken.

[GreyGeek]

http://www.qtforum.org/forum/45/qtfo....html?2d5262cb


http://opensource.meetup.com/

And, stay with Git. It isn't driven by profit motives and won't be experiencing bogus changes to churn the upgrade treadmill fee$.

[Roguehorse]

Several of the higher volume Linux forums have programming sections with good activity. Except for the occasional good natured jab most are not too anal about which distro you are using. They usually discourage doing students homework problems for them.

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=39
http://forums.debian.net/viewforum.php?f=8
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=27
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewforum.php?id=33

Oregon State University:
http://lug.oregonstate.edu/devops/
http://osuosl.org/

Ken.

Wow! Thanks Ken! I will look into some of these. I don't ask for help on my homework as I go about it on my own and have been doing a pretty good job so far of meeting all the program requirements. If there is something I can't figure out on my own and I end up turning in a partially completed assignment, then I do like to go back and ask someone afterwards about what I should have done. Unfortunately, most of the students at my school lack in caring about this part as many are there simply for the piece of paper at the end and not "actually" learning anything. I want to learn so I can become a better Linux contributor and find work doing what I love to do anyway.

[Roguehorse]

http://www.qtforum.org/forum/45/qtfo....html?2d5262cb


http://opensource.meetup.com/

And, stay with Git. It isn't driven by profit motives and won't be experiencing bogus changes to churn the upgrade treadmill fee$.

Thank you GreyGeek! I will look into these too, particularly http://opensource.meetup.com/. The forum that I was invited into is https://www.kwestdg.com/, but as I said they seem to lean towards "all Microsoft" which is astray from my own goals and motivations. I like what they are doing and I think it's a good idea but for me the concept would be much better applied towards Linux distributions. With my university being so "pro-Microsoft" it wouldn't surprise me if it was a plant from Microsoft themselves to draw more devs to their company. I read an article today that Microsoft is trying to pull more open source, Android and iOS developers to come work for them these days as I guess they are not getting enough attention from new tech grads.

What do you think about Linux.org? I was looking at them but, it seems like the traffic is low however I believe they might be moving in the same direction I'm looking and as I recall they have been around for a while.

[GreyGeek]

.... What do you think about Linux.org? ....

I'm not impressed. The most prolific poster seems to be a 19 year old with limited experience. A lot of the articles are recent, but there has been some hacking on the account. A guy named "Fred" joined Oct 31, 2012 and "his" last activity was on the same date, but he was a prolific poster on that day, posting over 1,400 msgs and accumulating 2 trophy points.

[Roguehorse]

I'm not impressed. The most prolific poster seems to be a 19 year old with limited experience. A lot of the articles are recent, but there has been some hacking on the account. A guy named "Fred" joined Oct 31, 2012 and "his" last activity was on the same date, but he was a prolific poster on that day, posting over 1,400 msgs and accumulating 2 trophy points.

I thought something seemed amiss that's why I wanted to get a second opinion before getting involved. I found this group http://www.meetup.com/GitLab-Meetup-Group/ and joined. Mountain View is about 30 or 40 min drive south from me so we'll see how this goes. Another avenue I'm considering looking at is the ACM has recently started a chapter of something like that through my university...

Scott,

We are proud to announce the founding of the College of IS&T’s first Recognized Student Organization, the University of Phoenix ACM Chapter.

Sometimes it's hard to get these people to talk about Linux development though as often they are hard headed about it no matter how much industry we get involved in. Their website has a lot of material, but it seems like just a lot of tech reading and not really a lot of doing things like coding or collaborative development. I prefer to be learning, teaching, working on a project with a team who is all focused on the same thing and having some great discussions about it in between. Tech talk is all fine and good as "food for thought" but it's not the same as being on a project and seeing it through to completion.