Linux Systems Engineering

As a hobbyist and professional, I'm a huge fan of Linux, and have been using it since the late 90's. The 1st distro that I used was Slackware Linux, which helped me learn a lot about how things work 'under the hood' within the Linux eco-system. Back before there were automated package management systems such as yum and apt, I was forced to compile everything from the source. This was a painstaking and time consuming effort, but did teach me a lot about glibc dependencies, as well as using 'make' and the gcc compiler.

Fast-forward to 2019, there are many Linux distributions to choose from. The main distros that I focus on working with, include RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu and Kali Linux.

Embedded Linux

They're all very similar and have their own pros and cons when it comes to the distributions themselves, but for the most part, they all serve their own unique purposes accordingly.

The world is now powered by Embedded Linux systems. Beit SmartTVs, Smart Phones (Android), Network Appliances (Modems/Routers and NAS/SAN storage systems), Rasberry Pi devices and Cable/Satellite Receivers and DVRs, the majority of people are now using some form of Linux, whether or not they realize it.

During my 9 years working at DirecTV, I was involved in everything from automated testing of the core Satellite Receiver and DVR products they produced, to integrating code within the middleware that powered the user interfaces using HTML5 and WebKit.

Linux Systems Administration

Most web sites today are powered by some flavor of Linux. Whether it be a on-premises or cloud-based provider, Linux has revolutionized web site development and hosting over the last 20+ years.

I've been helping companies maintain their web hosting infrastructure using Linux-based systems since 2001. There are many tools that I've worked with over the last 18 years, that have helped make my job as a Linux Administrator, so much easier, especially with all of the automation tools that are currently available in the open source world.

Network and OS-level Security, Configuration Management Automation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) are some of the examples of things that I'm focused on, in terms of continuously learning new skills.