GNU Project Hiring

z4ce wrote in to say that the GNU project is hiring if you were thinking to yourself "Self, I have too much spare time". They're looking for a sysadmin in the Boston area.

cool

[Nept]

I would recommend this to anyone currently in school in that area...great experience.

Slashdot Job Advertising?

[Foogle]

Since when does /. advertise jobs for the OpenSource community? I don't really care either way, but it seems weird to see this story up here. We never see stuff like this for RedHat's openings.

On the other hand, I am in the Boston area...

I'm applying!!

[Mudhiker]

I fulfill none of the qualifications but I am willing to learn and I'm open to prefixing things I write if it pays! ;-)

Below is my GNU/sig.

Benefits

[thetechweenie]

Do they have beer in the office on Fridays?

Was a Volunteer Sysadmin for FSF

[smooge]

I was a volunteer sysadmin for about a year. I wasnt the best, and made some mistakes, but I did get to hear a LOT of email conversations.

The one thing any sysadmin will run into is a very
strong NIH reaction. The system has been running
by about 10 or so programmers for 20? years and they do not like anything changed from how it is.

The problem is that the way it is set up is a very distributed "mess." You have NFS from multiple servers, DNS on others, little security by mandate, and a very very cranky set of users who will be quite abusive if something doesnt work the way they expect it.

However, you will get to work with some very very intelligent people who do cool things. I just dont want people to think it is some kind of Camelot.

Re:Benefits

[rde]

Do they have beer in the office on Fridays?
Yeah, but it's not free.

Re:Benefits

[JordanH]

Do they have beer in the office on Fridays?

Yeah, but it's not free.

Not true, they have free beer all the time, but they always ask for it back and due to the ethics you are required to follow if you work there, you have to give it to them.

Re: Where does GNU get their funding?

[Jonas Öberg]

A lot of money comes from selling deluxe distributions of GNU software, t-shirts, manuals, reference cards and source code CD-ROM's but we also get some money from donations, both by individuals and by corporations.

Ignorant quest. -Where does GNU get their funding?

[smoondog]

I don't know where gnu gets their funding, to support development. Is this all an academic thing?
-- Moondog

Shareware

[gas]

(some) People (and companies) who uses (and likes) their software pays for it.

Re:Actual Job Posting.

[marsvin]

The thought occurs that RMS probably doesn't want to recruit people on slashdot...

Actual Job Posting.

[Signal 11]

As you're no doubt aware, that job posting is fake. I did some digging in some local newspapers and found this:

WANTED: System Administrator
Must be able to recite the differences between the free software and open source movement on command. Must be fluent in C, C++, Java, sed/awk, Russian, Pascal, bash shell scripting, German, perl and Effiel. Knowledge of GNU/Herd a plus. Prefixing all linux programs with GNU (ie: GNU/Linux) a must. Thick skin to deal with irate slashdotters. A BS in CSci, or equivalent experience required. Please send salary (or bandwidth) requirements and resume to Richard Stallman, c/o The FSF.

--

Re:Was a Volunteer Sysadmin for FSF

[Jonas Öberg]

I second that. It's a great position and you'll learn a lot about free software and the GNU project by being a sysadmin. But at the same time, it's not a sysadmin job as any other. You wouldn't get full run of the systems. You'd have other volunteer sysadmins, and sometimes even users, changing configurations when things doesn't work to their liking, you'd be dealing with what appears to many people to be a strange view on security. The positive sides are that it's an interesting job, you get to experience an aura that you will never find in any other company and you'll get to read lots of amusing things lying around the disks since the mid-80'th.

It's not always a mess though. Our web server and new cvs server are relatively sane and once you've gotten a feel of how things are connected, it's almost (but just almost) logical.

If I were in Boston, I really couldn't think of a better job, but it does take a certain type of people. Working for the FSF isn't for everyone.

Re:Slashdot Job Advertising?

[mattc]

All the time. Look, there is a "Jobs" link on the lefthand side of the page.

Re:cool

[Nessak]

It is too bad that most of us in school in this area are too busy with classes and other requirements to even apply. I can walk to there offices in about 10 min, but I would be walking away from my classes. College is already a job an a half, without the fun of administrating the servers of one of the most important open source groups on earth.

test

[CmdrTaco]

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