Hi guys, I'm Muneer S, a 19-year-old CS undergrad from Kerala, India. I love photography, movies, and rock music—both creating and consuming them. I also play chess occasionally. I don't feel like you guys need to know my entire history, but if you feel like it, I'm more than happy to do an info dump.
I got into the whole FOSS universe when I joined college. I met this really smart guy who taught me a lot about FOSS, Linux, and other things. Fedora was his suggestion. At the time, I didn’t have my own laptop, so I tested it on a friend’s laptop. For the last 4-5 months, I’ve been using Fedora with KDE. This is my first laptop, and my first Linux distribution. I found the Fedora-KDE combo to be really great, so I decided to stick with it. The main reason I started using Fedora was because of its resource efficiency. When I had Windows on my laptop, it used about 4.5 GB of my 8 GB RAM just after boot up, stuff like Microsoft edge, Anti-virus and another bunch stuff like just running and i can'nt do anything about it So i said "Why don't you keep the rest too, im done". It's my first laptop, and it’s really dear to me, so I wanted to keep it running smoothly. That's one of the many reasons I chose Fedora.
As I mentioned, my friend and I began having discussions about FOSS, Linux, and the dark side of proprietary software. I started digging deeper, and before we knew it, FOSS became a big part of our lives. The reason I stand with FOSS is that it fights against capitalism, and I have been personally affected by its consequences many times. I see FOSS as a way to give back and make a positive impact on society in whatever ways I can.
At the beginning of the year, we started our own independent FOSS club with one simple goal: to promote FOSS culture at our college. We faced a lot of struggles, but we managed to get things off the ground. Now, almost a year later, the club is up and running, and I’ve learned a lot throughout the journey. I served as both the leader and the designer of the club. I created stickers, posters, and other design materials using GIMP and Inkscape. We conducted workshops, Linux installation fests, community meetups, and talks. We also attended talks and conferences and connected with other communities.
I even contributed to an inspiring FOSS healthcare project called the Open Healthcare Network. It was my first contribution. At the time, I didn’t have a laptop, so I tried contributing using a terminal emulator on my phone and on a friend's laptop, but it didn’t work out. After I got my laptop, within a week, I made a pull request. It was a proud moment for me, because instead of making a clone project, I spent time working on a real-life project that made a difference in someone’s life, and I learned a ton in the process. Later, I discovered the concept of Digital Public Goods and learned that Fedora is one of them. I’ve heard a lot about Fedora's welcoming community, and that's why I’m here now.
As for my skills, I’m proficient in Python, Bash, data analytics, front-end web development, Docker, and designing in general. And I'm willing to learn more stuff like PyQt, back-end dev, packaging or even AI, to contribute to the community.
I guess i have to be honest about my intentions. As an engineering student, I know about Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and I would love to participate. It’s an opportunity that will help me greatly, and I’m willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen.
I’m on almost every messaging platform, but Telegram is my preferred one. Matrix works too. I haven’t used mailing lists before, but my guess is you just send an email to fedora-join@lists.fedoraproject.org. And I can dedicate about 5 or 6 hours per week minimum.
fedora-join@lists.fedoraproject.org