Fedora Appreciation Week 2023: Day 4

Today is Day 4 of Fedora Appreciation Week. 🎉 In celebration of the Fedora Project, our twenty-year anniversary, and the community of people that make Fedora what it is, the DEI team has gathered contributor stories, social media posts, and photos from the community to feature here daily throughout Appreciation Week. 💙

Is there someone you wish to express gratitude to? Would you like to share your appreciation with Fedora? Discover how you can be part of the celebration of 20 years of Fedora and participate in Fedora Appreciation Week.

Contributor Stories

Today’s Contributor Stories come from Juan Carlos Araujo.

Necessity brought me here, Community made me feel at home

Contributor Story #9 from Juan Carlos Araujo

Who is your story about?: Fedora Community: Eduard Lucena (x3mboy), Ben Cotton (bcotton), Matthew Miller (mattdm), Neal Gompa (ngompa), Marie Nordin (riecatnor)

Click to read Juan’s Contributor Story about Fedora community.

I haven’t been around for quite that long, but so far has been a ride. As a sociologist and tech journalist my background is far from technical, but I’ve always liked to tinker with computers and other electronics. My journey didn’t start with curiosity or enthusiasm, but necessity.

One of my daily driver computers is (still) a 2007 Core2Duo iMac (7,1), way abandoned by Apple’s support, that was becoming useless thanks to security certificates and other services not being renewed or updated. Back in October, 2021, in a desperate but calculated risk, I installed Pop!_OS, the first step into the rabbit hole that got me here.

A couple of months later, I read about the Fedora Mentor Summit 2022 and I registered. I fell in love with the vibe of the community and wanted to know more. Got into the Fedora Podcast and learned that the one in charge of Marketing back then,@X3MBoy, is a fellow Venezuelan. Weeks later I logged into the Fedora Social Hour and ended up talking about my experiences with Matthew, Neal, Marie and Ben… the inner circle of the community. I wrote my experience in the forum and Ben contacted me to ask if I would allow to use my words for Fedora 36’s release notes… It was quite an honor.

This place is full of amazing people. Open, enthusiastic, creative and kind. I don’t refer myself as a contributor, and all I’ve been doing is, precisely, talking and writing about my own experience with Linux, FOSS and Fedora… If that helps, I’m happy with that.

– JUAN CARLOS ARAUJO – CONTRIBUTOR-STORIES#9