On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:55:39 -0800, Tim Smith wrote:
> Joel Spolsky has a Linux opening:
>
>> Our next interesting position is for a Chief Linux Guru. This is a hybrid
>> position for somebody who really loves Linux, wants to do a lot of coding,
>> but also wants a more diverse problem-solving kind of job.
>>
>> Here's the theory behind this position. Our main product, FogBugz, is a
>> server product, available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. On Windows servers,
>> everybody has pretty much the same minimal stuff. So our setup program
>> usually works off the shelf.
>>
>> On Linux, though, there's a lot more diversity. People have different
>> distros, they have different versions of different important components like
>> MySQL, PHP, and Mono, and they're not all instantly compatible. A lot of
>> Linux administrators went through their server when they first set it up
>> removing things that they didn't think they'd need for "security" reasons
>> ("if you're not going to use /bin/ls, delete it--it's just a security hole
>> waiting to be found", they said), and now, here it is, three years later, and
>> they're installing FogBugz, and they don't get why ls isn't working. Bottom
>> line: it takes a little bit of hammering to get FogBugz to work on many Linux
>> systems.
>>
>> So this position is for a Linux coder who will also be responsible to get
>> FogBugz working on our customers' systems. My pet theory is that if the
>> person who takes the call when a customer is missing, say, the Pear Mail
>> module, if this person is the same person who maintains the setup code, then
>> they will eventually get sick of sshing into customers' servers and typing
>> "pear install Mail" for them and they'll just fix it in the setup code once
>> and for all. And I think a lot of people would find a job that combines
>> problem solving with new software development is going to be pretty
>> interesting, especially if, as I said, you love Linux.
>>
>> On the development side, you've also got to handle all the Linux-specific
>> code. Right now, that's a mix of PHP, Mono, and various scripting languages.
>> Most of FogBugz is written in our own portable language, Wasabi. You'll be
>> responsible to maintain the Linux-specific parts of the code, and you'll be
>> working on keeping Wasabi for Linux at the same level as Wasabi for Windows.
>
> <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/03/07.html>
>
> And for the large number of COLA people who are only Linux advocates by
> night, and Windows programmers by day, Joel has a pretty interesting
> Windows opening, too, so you aren't left out:
>
>> Finally, we could use an extreme Windows Internals guru. I don't mean an
>> "Access/VB" kind of guru. I mean a Win 32, COM, .Net, GDI programming, low
>> level Windows systems stuff in C++ and C# kind of guru. And when I say ".Net"
>> I don't mean "Ooh look I made an ASP.NET website with a GridView that shows a
>> list of customers." Uh-uh. Leave that bush league stuff to the boss (me). For
>> this job, you'll be working directly on a native .NET programming language,
>> generating CLR bytecode and integrating with the Visual Studio debugger.
>> You'll be resolving obscure threading model problems in Other People's Code.
>> You'll be hacking GDI to improve the performance of our remote desktop
>> service, Copilot. You'll be figuring out why trivial things that used to work
>> don't work any more in 64 bit Vista. This is the perfect job for the kind of
>> developer who has been doing API level Windows programming for years, who has
>> been reading MSDN Magazine since it was called MSJ, who actually understands
>> what Don Box is talking about, who can explain how to instantiate a COM
>> object from a DLL without touching the registry, and who can figure out, from
>> crappy Microsoft documentation, how to play the first four bars of Gaudeamus
>> Igitur on a computer without a sound card.
Maybe Roy Schestowitz will finally get a real job?
--
Moshe Goldfarb
Collector of soaps from around the globe.
Please visit The Hall of Linux Idiots:
http://linuxidiots.blogspot.com/
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