"Programmer" reporter / Yan Hui
Linux, in many people, is a noun that is familiar with strange, as if it is around us, but can't catch its true side. In our impression, Linux is closely related to the bubble of the network economy. With the riverside day of the network economy, Linux's voice is also low, but occasionally waving a few arms, and there is no trace of no discrimination. However, when we are C # or Java who is more promising, I hope that I want to neglect in the line of sight and a group of programmers who have developed and developed on Linux. Although the number of developers of the Windows platform, they are less pitiful, but they are also a new force, and they are also worthy of development for the development of China's software industry. Let us approach these Linux programmers, understand their work and inner world!
How many Linux programmers in China? Do they have high income?
Talking about the number of Linux programmers, we are hard to get exact data. In fact, from a macro, there are many programmers developed by Freedomware, there are many programmers developed by Perl, PHP, which can run on the Linux system platform. But everyone thinks that doing these work is still not a Linux programmer, because these development is often carried out on the Windows platform. Remove this type of programmer, the real Linux programmer is very few. Some people calculate this: Linux software companies with one hundred people in China have several, such as red flag, Soft, turbolinux, surfing, etc. In addition, there are a small company with a Linux name. These company's programmers generally do not exceed two or thirtys, and there are some no Linux names, but in fact, part of Linux related development Companies, such companies will not exceed dozens.
Of course, in addition to the company, there are also a large part of the centralized colleges and universities of Linux development research, such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, and Hangzhou University of Technology. Because Linux is still a small-scale carrier on a large level, on the other hand, these schools have a good relationship due to historical reasons or the foreign Linux institutions, and there is also a corresponding course. These colleges are also the most developed rapid development of Linux technology, the most active place, whether it is Linux's lecture or salon, will attract many students and programmers.
From the Internet, the largest Linux Forum LinuxForum has millions of members, in addition to a big part of the enthusiasts, some people think that the number of Linux programmers do not exceed 10,000. Since the number of programs developed by Linux is very small, the things are rare, natural their income is also higher. But most of the Linux has not yet profitable, and with the dot COM economy, these companies are not possible to pay the salary of the high price, so in our interview, it is very limited, and it is very limited. Market workers estimate the same level of developers, probably Linux is about 30% higher than the WINDOWS platform.
What is Linux programmers do?
In this issue, we interviewed several largest Linux software vendors in China. Wei Yongming, senior manager of the Red Flag Linux embedded, said: "There are several current development directions: system security products, server software, embedded software development, and there are also desktop Linux systems, and those who embedded software development department are Most. "Turbolinux's market leaders said they are now mainly in Linux Chinese products and corresponding solutions, such as Mail and Web systems, etc., and also engage in the optimization, adjustment of the operating system core, but specific The core mechanism of the operating system is generally mainly due to its company's research institutions.
In addition to these programmers who have been developed in the company, many people are also developing some projects. Since Linux belongs to the category of free software, these projects are also closely related to the international OpenSource organization. For example, Wei Yongming is now doing a MINIGUI project. In addition, Zhang Qi, Zhang Wen, National University of Technology, is also an internationally affected project LVS (Linux cluster system), around these projects, often united a lot of Linux programmers, They learned a lot of knowledge from the middle school and be happy.
In fact, the direction of domestic Linux development now still has some problems, the most important thing is to be unique in technology and business direction. In this regard, the United States and Germany have more mature, but also better than us, each company is "self-attacked", such as the United States Hardhat, specializing in the basic system of Linux embedded operating system, and relying on this Skuring your own technical advantage. A company Troll Tech in Finland focuses on the operation interface QT of embedded systems, and many people know that Opera has also concentrated their attention to browser technology embedded in the operating system. It is still lacking the professional company for Linux development now, and the real thing is that many company big bags are big, but they have not made anything.
How does Linux programmers improve their own technology?
Linux has time, while Linux truly enters the application layer, especially the time to enter China is about the end of 1998. There is no time and accumulation, anything is impossible to develop perfect, so some people say that China Linux is in the primary stage of primary. In this realistic situation, it is difficult to find more high-quality books, and there is no more good teacher. What are the LINUX programmers? In our interview, deep understanding of the meaning of self-reliance, and also appreciate the benefits of the network to developers.
"The number of domestic Linux programmers is very small. The natural circle is also very small. This requires us to better excavate potential from internal." In Linux software company, there will be some practices, except for some technical exchanges on the internal network. They also often talk about it, someone has a certain specialty or experience in a certain aspect, and will go to the stage to tell you. "In addition, we often ask everyone to talk about the problems you have recently encountered, so that everyone can participate in the solution. Not only can you improve your technical level, but also condense the development team."
"In the process of company, doing projects or product development, we will also focus on promoting technology improvement in technology. For example, there is a software engineering method extreme programming (translation: programming storm or extreme programming), where there is Several good methods. For example, Pair Programming is a pair programming. From strict sense, this approach requires that two people have completed the same development in front of the same keyboard, and we take this method. Simplified into a learning method, and has established a provision that the programmer with a high level of programs will lead the additional programmers every week, using one or two working hours to do the same thing, this method is very effective "
From external communication, Linux programmers mainly participate in some private exchange groups, such as very famous AKA organizations. This organization was initiated by Tsinghua University and a association based on information technology research. They did two long Linux technology training last year, and they got sponsorship of blue dots and IBM, which was very good. Now turn to a group of programs and enthusiasts for Linux professional. Their lectures are also more professional, generally in the form of topics, once a week, mainly telling technical, document management, etc. in Linux kernels. Each lecture, can accommodate hundreds of classrooms, and the location is mainly concentrated in Peking University, Tsinghua, or Chinese Academy of Sciences. There is also a Salon's form, with a member of Aka, a positive participation in Peking University, and he often helps find a venue. There is also a forum or IBM Linux technology exchange site like LinuxForum, and many Linux programmers have often written some summary technical articles and communicate with each other. "But in our interview, it is found that there is very little exchange in domestic parts of Linux and foreign exchanges. This is a relatively weak thing. To know that Linux originated from foreign countries, the most mature development of Linux technology is also abroad How to better with foreign technology, it should be a very headache that every Linux programmer is very headache, and this problem is to have a close relationship with the exchange of communication skills in English in China. Self-reliance is not a bad thing, But learning "brought things" should be more beneficial!
What is the Chinese Linux development atmosphere?
Generally speaking, the atmosphere of foreign free software is very good, such as a person to do a free software project, soon will gather some attention to some people, and will help him make the version of the error and test. On the other hand, Wei Yongming said that he was still a core work when he started to do MiniGUI projects. Although some people also ask some questions, but from the general point of view, the degree of concern is foreign There is no way compared. No one spends time and energy to help him do test or write some documents, and the top is to write a experience, and such people are also very poor.
However, this situation is gradually improved, and more and more people in China began to pay attention to free software. "The improvement of the entire Linux development atmosphere will take a long time. But now you can see a little dawn. Now we will download a new version, there will be some people to download, and help test bugs and find mistakes. I wrote Mail, some users still wrote a lot of articles that use how to solve the problem. In this way, when the next version is released, it will resolve these problems and modify our core. So I think that free software The atmosphere is changing to a good side. "
When it comes to the cooperation development of the software, Wei Yongming believes that domestic collaborative development is still the original. Foreign approach generally uses CVS, built the CVS server on the network, and then you can develop, you can keep synchronization at any time. However, there are many domestic CVSs, released in the company, and after the issuance of the public, just use the test after packing the program, and does not use CVS to control. "So let's establish an external CVS server after we are ready to wait for the version stability."
There is still a strange phenomenon between domestic programmers: that is, everyone loves forum. But in foreign countries, the most use is two ways: one is a list of mail, one is a newsgroup. Domestic developers don't like these two ways. "Of course, find a free mailing list service in China. I have found a lot, it is not easy to use, and later I have built a mailing list on a website in the United States, but few people participated in. But when When I opened a forum, many people will speak on it and participate. "What is the deep reason behind this phenomenon?" Is Linux development technology difficult?
The Turbolinux R & D department is responsible for the project manager developed by Turboha (Turboha and Zhang Wei's LVS Software, but LVS is a load balancing cluster. Turboha is a high availability cluster, which is applicable to different types of services.) Yu Yichen believes: "Linux technology The difficulty is not necessarily more than Windows. In fact, Linux development is divided into two levels: the first level, such as the core, middleware, or database system, these requirements are very clear about the system, the C language is very Solid, the development tool chain of the system is very clear to do these work. The second level is to do application development on Linux, in Linux, developed in the development of the character interface and development in X, now there is already a Linux environment. A better integrated development environment, including Borland's Kylix, if you want to develop it, as long as you have a threshold for Linux commands, there is no difference below Windows, even for commands, you will feel it. Linux is powerful. For example, the string of text, under Windows, you must use the tool to open text, search for replacement, but only two commands below Linux can achieve bulk replacement. I think the programmer under Windows is also very easy. Transfer to the development of Linux. Any programmer does not have to scare the technical fortress. "
What kind of people do Linux programmers?
Among our interviewed Linux programmers, there are two mentality: one is itself, it is optimistic about Linux development, identifies Linux development model, especially the spirit of free software. They feel that Linux has a good advantage, thinking that through their own efforts on this platform, can make some achievements. In addition, it is a martial art state that many people have, that is, the mentality of workers. They feel that everything is the same, doing Linux, just do this.
Linux This kind of spirit, this way of open source, for which of the willingness, the programmer who likes to study exploration, is very attractive. They think that the programmer developed on Windows, because the level is already high, in the open process, actually not understand how the program works. But in Linux-based development, it will be deeply in-depth. Very high Hacker, even the binary data generated by its software code is running in the computer.
Another point of view, the development range on Linux is wide, whether it is a web server, or mysql, the development of PHP programs, is inseparable from Linux. In fact, Linux has become a very good soil for technical exchanges and development.
So if you like free (free), if you are a programmer who is willing to explore new technologies, new things, you can try to learn Linux, from it will find it will bring you a lot. There are no things on other platforms.
LINUX development prospects
Domestic Linux has not been better developed, and it is not enough relationship with anti-piracy. Since the anti-piracy is not enough, existing enterprises have not seen potential funding on the Windows platform, in this regard, we want to South Korea and Germany have learned, they have greater strength to Linux support from policies. Of course, our country is also actively supporting Linux development. In addition, large companies such as IBM put a lot of funds to engage in Linux research and promotion. They look at Linux, on the one hand, from their own development strategy, because Microsoft has a huge challenge to its status, so I have to set up an opponent to challenge Microsoft. At the same time, promoting Linux can also promote sales of its servers, which provide a rich opportunity for Linux development.
There are more opportunities to do Linux, such as doing Windows programmers, many numbers, competition is getting more and more intense. Relatively, there are few programmers who have developed on Linux. As long as you do a while, you can do it very well. From the improvement of technical strength, because Linux is closer to the bottom, the effect will be better.
"From my personal experience, everyone is starting with enthusiasts, but now, the company specializes in Linux is more pragmatic. When we did it last year, we also gave customers a feeling of no strength, but now from the market Feedback, the domestic Linux technology has been raised very fast, the prospect is very good, Linux will have a big development in the next few years. "Wei Yongming was very confident.
Postscript: I remember that many people have regretted why China did not have the birth of Bill Gates and Linus. Many hostages asked why China's software technology can only surround two words of "Chinese". But look at your surroundings, many people include don't have to worry about income during school, but the courses are not heavy, but there are very few people involved in technology. When they are idle, more is to chat on QQ, go to the forum Irrigation, very few people calm down, spend some time to study technology. Linux now provides us such a chance, are you interested?
