From free software enthusiast to container connoisseur

We recently caught up with distinguished software engineer, Giuseppe Scrivano, to chat about his lifelong passion for open source software. Giuseppe is a technical leader in the container runtime space across the industry and holds several patents. He is also a member of the Technical Oversight Board at the Open Container Initiative (OCI). Outside of work, Giuseppe enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking or going to the beach, and socializing with friends and family. Giuseppe is based in Rome, Italy (although he is originally from Calabria, the southernmost part of mainland Italy) and has been with Red Hat since 2013.

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in software. Like a lot of my friends, I was into video games when I was younger. I wanted to take it to the next level and start writing games, but I was never very good at graphics, so I started getting more into the programming side.

As I continued learning, I started delving even deeper into modifying operating systems. I slowly got involved in different GNU projects, and contributed to some of them through the years, including maintaining the wget project, a popular tool to fetch files from the command line.

I pursued these interests throughout high school, and continued doing so at university where I studied computer engineering. After university, I started working as a Java programmer, then as an embedded Linux engineer - first as a consultant, then with Spotify, where I worked on the library used to integrate Spotify on hardware platforms - basically, I was still working with the operating system, but in small devices like speakers.

Given my interest in open source software, I had always been aware of Red Hat. Imagine being a professional footballer - you might always dream of playing for Barcelona. As a software engineer, my "Barcelona" was Red Hat.

In 2013 I was interviewed for a position in the virtualization team and got the job. That year also saw the release of the containerization platform Docker. I was very interested in Docker - it had the potential to revolutionize software development by providing a way to package applications and their dependencies into lightweight, portable containers. While I was still in the virtualization team, I started playing around with containers in upstream communities.

Not long after that, Red Hat launched Project Atomic, aimed at developing a new model for building, distributing, and managing the operating system as a single immutable image. I got involved with Project Atomic and moved teams to work on it full-time.

After Red Hat’s acquisition of CoreOS, I got more involved with the lower level container tools, in particular with Podman, where I’ve been working on making it possible to run it as an unprivileged user, what is known as “rootless Podman.”  I’ve also been involved in work with other teams, and upstream communities like Kubernetes, where I’ve contributed support for cgroup v2, a new interface offered by the Linux kernel to control resources allocated to a container, as well as user namespaces.

I think as a remote individual contributor, there is a danger that work can become all-consuming, so I try to keep a fairly strict routine. I work directly on projects in the mornings, then in the afternoon, when my colleagues in the US log on, I join various calls. Even after so many years, I still fall into the trap of "just one last thing," and end up spending the evening doing some work, and I do enjoy it a lot!

I like to keep busy collaborating on different projects, especially where I can use my expertise to directly help others. I like to be pragmatic and practical. I think it was my willingness and ability to work on different projects and pay attention to customer requirements that resulted in my recent promotion to distinguished software engineer.

I did not specifically set out to become a distinguished engineer - it was a by-product of doing work that I actively enjoyed and sought out. It is difficult in that respect to give advice to anyone wanting to follow a similar path. I would say that Red Hat’s success is built on a culture of collaborating the open source way, so even if you’re an individual contributor, you need to put yourself out there and work with others. In some respects, I’ve been fortunate, since containers have been such an integral part of Red Hat’s growth in recent years, and I am an expert in this area, mainly as a result of being very interested in the topic.

Going back to my footballer analogy, it is something I have always been interested in and so I’m content with doing it all day, and still, I feel there is so much more to learn and play with that time never feels enough.

Containers have moved on a lot since 2013. They’re no longer the "cool new thing" - people just expect them to work. But as we move forward adopting new technologies like AI, containers will become even more important. With AI models needing to run across different infrastructures, from local development environments to the cloud, containers offer the necessary flexibility to use the same model in the same manner across these environments.

Working upstream was my hobby before I joined Red Hat, so it’s a great feeling to essentially get paid to do my hobby. Of course, there are some commercial considerations these days, but I love being part of the open source community and I’m grateful that I’ve been supported to do so as part of my role.

Are you a passionate technologist looking to expand your career in the open source world? Check out our current openings at redhat.com/jobs.