Links: Personal Blog, GPUL
Until quite recently, I usually felt alone in this hobby of tinkering with Linux. Sure, I knew there were a lot of people out
there who do the same thing as me, and I’ve been in online communities for a while. But meeting these people face to face
is a whole other thing.
My friends have always been into technology, but they are more into the mainstream gaming side of things and not so
much into talking about how cool my new terminal color scheme is. However, since I came back to Spain and COVID is no
longer a major concern, I’ve been attending all the meetups of my local communities, and I found some of the most amazing
people in them.
Last month, I had the opportunity to help out with the organization of AtlanticaConf, a tech conference centered on the community
here in Galicia. There I met a lot of the members of the local enthusiast groups. People from GPUL, which is the local Linux user
group at my university, and is full of people just like me, who have the distro-hopper virus and an allergy to Windows. But most
importantly, people who are excited to share all this, to get together and do cool things. I was surprised about the diversity of the
people in all senses, but all united by this part of us that loves to talk about tech and share our latest little discoveries.
What motivated me to write this post is that last week I had the incredible opportunity to help out at the X.org Developer
Conference in my home city of Coruña. It’s such a privilege that we get to have such an important event here, thanks to Igalia.
XDC is, for the most part, a very technical conference; being in a room with some of the brightest minds in the open-source
world was, at first, quite striking. However, to my surprise, I could understand more than I initially thought I would.
It was quite nice to feel the sense of community at XDC. Despite the highly technical nature of the event, people were
so welcoming and open to explaining concepts to those of us who still have a lot to learn. I had the opportunity to chat with
some of the brightest minds in the field, and it was a great way of introducing myself to a field that I soon want to join not
only as a mere observer but as a developer too.
I can’t recommend enough that people join this kind of activity; we have such a privilege that there are so many opportunities in tech
to meet passionate people like us. Attending a small meetup, even if you don’t know what they are going to talk about, can really
change your life. To the people at groups like Python Coruña and GPUL, I can’t thank you enough for being so welcoming and making
me feel like I can call this place home.