The People Who Support Linux: Driving 4,000 Miles to LinuxCon

This is an ongoing Linux.com series that profiles The Linux Foundation’s individual supporters and begins to collectively illustrate a very important part of the Linux community. Individuals help support the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and other important activities that advance Linux, while getting a variety of other fun and valuable benefits. It is this collective support that enables The Linux Foundation to provide important services for industry and community.

The series began with senior application developer Matthew Fernandez. Today, we talk to Kevyn-Alexandre Paré.

Some Linux Foundation supporters don’t do anything just a little. That’s certainly the case with Paré, a software engineer based in Montreal who traveled nearly 4,000 miles by car last summer to attend the first ever LinuxCon (part of a 9,000-mile summer road trip). Apparently, his trek did nothing to slow him down, because upon arriving at LinuxCon, the BUG community gave him an award for enthusiasm.

Last summer is also when Paré became a Linux Foundation supporter, taking advantage of both discounted event registration and training courses, including Linux Foundation training courses “Developing Linux Device Drivers” and “Linux Kernel Internals and Debugging.”

“Those two courses taught me a lot, were practical, and the teacher used real life experiences. I’m even thinking of retaking ‘Developing Linux Device Drivers’ since it is now offered as a 5-day course,” said Paré.

Paré was originally introduced to Linux in college and quickly became passionate about embedded devices. Today, he uses Linux both at work and at home and participates in the beagleboard, gumstix, Android and Ben NanoNote projects.

“My favorite Linux innovation is the Ben NanoNote because they’re applying copyleft to hardware and software. Do it yourself? Do it together!” says Paré.

His recommendation to new Linux users and developers is to keep working with others and sharing as much as you can to help. Paré says he supports the Linux Foundation as a way to contribute to and be a part of The Linux Foundation, home to Linux creator Linus Torvalds, while gaining advantages such as discounts and networking opportunities.

“I expect it will help me stay up to date with training and making new contacts during conferences. I expect to gain a lot of positive visibility.”