Some heroes are born - others are compiled

Almost a year ago today, my team set out on an adventure to listen, learn, and build. We had a sense that people’s relationship with the operating system (OS) was changing, and we wanted to learn more.

We met a lot of heroes as we traveled the globe. No, I’m not talking about men or women in capes swooping in at the last moment to save kittens or to avert mankind’s total annihilation. I’m talking about real people who work real jobs where they solve real problems. I’m talking about developers, system administrators, and architects—people who live on the command line and dream in 1s and 0s.

While the people are real, and their jobs are real, and the problems they were solving are real, I’ve found that IT professionals are, in fact, not unlike the heroes we see on the big screen or read about in our favorite comic books.

Just like our fictional hero friends, the people I’ve met have origin stories. Fascinating origin stories. And, upon some serious reflection, I’ve realized they’ve all embarked on their own unique version of the hero’s journey. Some are just starting out. They’ve heard the proverbial “call to adventure,” but may be hesitant to jump in head first. Some are in the thick of it. They’re waist deep in digital transformation, technological overhauls, or solving cultural challenges. And, to be sure, a few have “returned.” In one way or another, they’ve triumphed and are now able to share what they’ve accomplished and how they’ve transformed.

In season one of Command Line Heroes, we told many of these stories, stories about people who transform technology from the command line up. If you haven’t yet listened to the first season, there’s no time better than the present -- because we just released the first episode of season two (i.e. “just” last week).

I could spend the rest of the this post spoiling the episode. (Hint: it’s about the origins of both open source and video games.) It’s probably better, though, if you just give it a listen. What I will do is declare that my own (hero’s) journey is not yet complete. Listening to you at various events last year, it’s crystal clear that the OS matters in different ways to different people. It’s also clear that something as foundational as an OS is really just the beginning as the demands of today’s workloads often require additional layers be added to the equation. We want to know even more.

So we’re heading back out on the road.

We’re setting up shop at a number of events (see the full list below) to continue our mission of discovery. When each episode of this season of Command Line Heroes drops, we’ll bring you an update on what we’re learning. We hope to connect some dots between how the stories in each episode are very much a reflection of the stories we’re hearing on the road. And, with any luck, we’ll also highlight how the OS of today is evolving—has evolved—to help heroes (like you) triumph and return transformed as you venture forth on your own journey.

Want to stay plugged in? There are a few easy ways to do so:

1. Subscribe to Command Line Heroes to get the latest episodes as they’re released.
2. Follow @RedHat on Twitter to keep up with Command Line Heroes and more.
3. Subscribe to the Red Hat Blog’s community RSS feed to read more in this series as we continue to listen and learn from people like you.
4. Visit us at some of the events we plan to attend. We’d love to chat with you.

We also have plans to run more Command Line Showdowns and can always be reached via (good ‘ol) email at: commandlineheroes@redhat.com.

Command Line Heroes - Events Schedule (2018 / 2019)

• DevConf.US 2018
• Open Source Summit NA 2018
• Microsoft Ignite 2018
• Open Source Summit EU 2018
• AWS re:Invent 2018
• KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2018
• DevConf.CZ 2019
• Red Hat Summit 2019