Journal of an Open Sourcee

It is 04:18 EST and instead of being in bed, I’m in front of the computer. Due to a major sore throat, I’ve been struggling to sleep since 22:00 of last night… and so far the sore throat has shown no sign of retreat. Tired of laying awake in bed, I figured I’d do something else…

Since it is my birthday today, and I’m still sleep deprived, I came up with the “great idea” of writing my own F.A.Q.! hehehe For those questions I have been asked one too many times.

Q: Is Og your real name? What kind of name is it?
A: Yes… some people think my name is short for something else (and I always joke around, telling them that it stands for O’ Greatness or Original Gangster), but it isn’t. My parents named me after the writer Og Mandino, whose books had really impressed my mom.

Q: Why are you always talking about Brazil?
A: Well, that one is simple to answer. I was born there.

Q: Every time I see a picture of you, you’re on crutches. What happened?
A: I was born with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, a rare congenital disorder that causes multiple joint contractures. When I was born, my limbs were all folded into themselves, pretty much like the symbol “&”. Through my first 6-7 years I went through several corrective surgeries, but my doctors didn’t give any hope to my parents. My mom never believed them and travelled the entire country looking for a better treatment. At age of 7 I was given my very first pair of crutches, which my dad had made for me out of some pieces of wood we had around the house and broom sticks! You should have seen the look at my doctor’s face when my mom brought me back into their office, doing my best to “parade” with my newly found “walking skills”.

Q: What do you do in the Open Source community? Are you one of those super hackers?
A: Far from it! Most of my collaboration has been as a translator for the Brazilian Portuguese language. This work eventually led me to become the leader for the Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators team for 18 months, position now held by my good friend André Noel.

Q: What GNU/Linux distribution do you currently use?
A: I’ve been running Foresight Linux for the last 5 months now. There are a great deal of great distributions out there, and even though I had been an Ubuntu user for quite some time, I chose the one that would not only allow me to have a solid desktop experience, but allow me to do my work as well.

Q: So what GNU/Linux distribution do you recommend to me?
A: That will depend on your needs. Since I’m a firm believer that GNU/Linux == Freedom, it would be extremelly hypocrite of me to tell anyone what to use! My initial answer will always be “Use what best fits your needs!” As I had mentioned before, there are several great ditributions out there, each with its strengths and weaknesses. If you afford to try a few, I’d suggest you give it a try.

Q: What have you been working on?
A: Lately, my personal life has taken a solid hold of me, and when I’m not doing my paid work, I’m out and about, enjoying the North Carolina weather with my family. I’m also working with the upstream translation teams for GNOME and KDE and writing a graphical interface for Foresight’s package management system. This Summer I want to find some time to go fishing and read a few books.

Well, I guess I must have bored you all by now so I’ll stop. If you’ve made through here and feel inclined to ask me anything else, feel free.

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