Scholarship Winner Sandeep Aryal Aims to Bring Open Source to Nepal

As a system administrator for the Government of Nepal in Kathmandu, Sandeep Aryal says it will be a formidable challenge to convince his employer to adopt Linux and open source software. But he believes the training he receives through his Linux Foundation scholarship will help him better make his case, he says.

“In my office, a government office, Linux is a term that is unheard of. So, after taking this training, I will be helping in automation of things around the office,” Aryal said via email. “Linux is free, and always legal to share with infinite potential – this shall be my motivational speech all around. I will help it grow for the better of all of us.”

Aryal was one of five winners announced last month at LinuxCon and CloudOpen Europe as part of the annual Linux Foundation training scholarship program. More than 1,000 applicants entered this year to receive a free Linux Foundation training course.

Here, Aryal tells us more about what he hopes to learn from his Linux training, his career goals, and his dream of being a Linux kernel developer.

What Linux Foundation course are you planning to take with your new scholarship?

I’ve been selected as a winner for the System Administration (LFS220) course.

What do you hope to learn in the course?

The course, I believe, is prepared for Linux users who have been using Linux for years but don’t have much knowledge about its administration part. Being a user with much enthusiasm for Linux as a platform for any task, I hope to add up to my current knowledge and be good overall in Linux.

How do you expect to use the knowledge you gain from the course?

There are lots of uses. The System Administration course covers system management and networking too. In my office and at home I share my internet with other users. In this sharing users have not been differentiated for their privileges and are equally given authority.

In this process, however, users with hardly any knowledge on computers use online games, pirated and cracked games, proxies against filtered websites. These make life harder for genuine users and computer networks have become vulnerable to cracking. Just an instance but, this administration course should help me pacify things.

What Linux skill would you most like to master next and why?

Being a Masters in Computer Science with much enthusiasm for Linux, I’d want to master in Linux Kernel enhancements and tweaks. It’s a dream for me. I want to be a pundit in Linux.

What are your career goals? How do you see a Linux Foundation course benefiting you in the long term?

My career goal is to do a Ph.D in Computer Science and with it I’d want to work for the people of developing world in bridging the digital divide prevalent in countries like Nepal. The Linux Foundation course, although a stepping stone for now, should provide me with skills that are required to understand how things can be modified, tweaked and enhanced to reduce the cost of use of technology both at the hardware and software level.

What other interesting hobbies/ side projects are you working on?

I’m very much fond of writing. It’s passion for me. Besides my regular job, I teach. I love that too.