Yesterday I was chatting with some of my old time mates & other online tech-buddies. It all started as a normal chat though but don’t know how we ran down to a narrowed conversation of, “Women & Linux”. The fire was ignited by a pointless question “Well Why do you girls even bother Linux?” as if it’s a men’s stuff! H3ck! I normally don’t show my anger over the internet but I was made spoken J the conversation went on for almost an hour and made my crew admit that Linux does NOT belong to men. Only fools say that!
Isn’t the world’s first programmer a woman? (Ada Lovelace).
Don’t you really know that all of the ENIAC programmers were women.
Isn’t the Linux kernel hacker, Valeire Aurora a woman?
Haven’t you heard about the Debian Women project?
There are a plenty that I can quote! It is just that women’s contribution is being unacknowledged but that is not our damn fault!
This is a real transcript that happened y’day in Yahoo Chat (and that too in a Programming room.)
Him: Hey! LTNC. How u been?
Her: Never better. Ty Wbu?
Him: Cool. So, sup?
Her: Upgrading my Laptop’s kernel. U up2 much?
Him: What???
Her: ??
Him: R u really a girl?
Her: WTH!
Him: hehe how can girls upgrade kernel?
Her: Why not?
Him: nooo. It’s just weird. I have not seen chix doing it. Don’t mind… u really a girl? Hehe
Her: No! I am a yahoo bot.
Him: hehe really?
Her: Get a grip! U moron.
Him: U guy?
What a stupid conversation. Waste of 10 mins… Is upgrading kernel a “big” task? High school kids can do it, then why can’t women?
Well, all these stuff got me stay up till 3 Am and kept me wondering, why is it hard for men to believe women can code and why don’t they easily agree that women can be g33kz (wanna-be’s at the least)? What can be done to encourage women in Linux? It’s really OK if we don’t contribute anything to the Open Source Community (Neither do all men) but at least we can at least make an attempt to learn what the fuzz is all about. I started searching Google if there are any communities already working for involving Women in the technology field… Linux in specific!
Come on Girls… Read this article on How to be encouraged in Linux. Stay motivated and show the community what we got J Please do join Linux Chix when you find some free time. Remember… Interact with other female techies... I bet you gonna love it!
Life is just not about getting married and having babies OR making roti’s & cleaning OR just developing ineffective s/w & getting paid. Bring the “U” with in You! Let’s get into the world of computing & have the “real” fun :)
PS: To all the nice men out there, do motivate your wife/GF(s)/sisters/aunts/moms/grandmamma or who so ever. You never know what you grandmamma can develop J Spread the love for technology among WOMEN! :)
1 comments:
i see your point; i`ve seen few(but very fine) women who are really good coders and linux enthusiasts, but maybe, would`ve noticed many more had they had been men. Good point being brought out here. It somehow seems to be a bad social trend which seems to be catching up fast.
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