Hey community, I’ve got a friend about to graduate high school. He has had a bit of an uneven path in life, and I would like to help inspire him to focus on something in tech/programming/etc.

He is a smart kid, but doesn’t have a lot of good examples in his life. I think he believes his options are to just get a job at a restaurant or store.

I helped him build his first pc a few months ago. I tried to convince him to install Linux, but he was concerned it might be too complex for a computer he wanted to game on or do music editing. I didn’t push too hard. I know he has been doing a lot of modded games and stuff lately. And he seemed open to testing out Linux on old laptop.

He is smart and I would like to encourage him to either look into pc building or programming. But neither is my field, so I want to know what are good on ramps into programming and open source. What are Blogs, youtubes, or even should I recommend an associate degree at the local community colleges? (I would recommend full college degrees but I think he has some family situation which might make that hard).

All my knowledge feels like osmosis in the last year of being on Lemmy and now I have a Linux server with 20+ self hosted docker apps… but I realize I’m just hacking things together, not developing anything. I just want to show him there is another path he could pursue other than retail.

  • Hatch
    11•8 months ago

    Several things with this.

    1. introducing programing and linux are two seperate things, though they do bridge when running linux, it would be asking em to learn one or the other. ( offer something already easy linux distro, to learn linux passively while focusing on programing.

    Resources:

    Learn linux TV - playlist available for linux and programing

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxQKHvKbmSzGMvUrVtJYnUA

    Unfa - learn linux and music production

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKj_peyESIMDp5LtHlH2A

    Good audio recording program thats free Ardour ( if he becomes good and makes a living on it, pls donate to the devs)

    Learn programing for free Freecodecamp.org

    If you are in the US. Ask the college/university for taking walk ins for classes. They allow you to attend classes for free to check out if you want to be a student. Depending on the school there will be no limit. ( honestly tech fields are mostly certifications and experience; a degree with student loans not necessary)

    Local library, ive found books for programing languages to check out, use the cities resources.

    Conclusion

    All these options mean nothing unless the person does it and applys. You need to accept that no matter how much you suggest/guide/offer , that at the end of the day the choice is theirs. Especially at an age that wants to figure things out on their own.

    Best of luck.