Linux expert with 20+ years experience in network administration and software development production environments provides tailored lessons

Find out more about Raz

• Can you tell us about your first experience using a computer?

  When I was about 13 years old a computer was brought to my house. Brand new, cost a fortune and featured the newly released Windows '95 - the first really engaging Windows version. I started going into everything, learning and tweaking Windows features till I broke it... only two months in. I was terrified, I couldn't tell anyone, I stayed up one night and re-installed the OS silently. That was my first victory in tech, you can imagine my pride :D

• What is the technological evolution that has marked you most and what will be, in your eyes, a turning point in this field?

  I don't know if you know that 1983 is considered the birth year of the Internet. It's the year the TCP/IP protocol was created, that allowed everything to expand on such a large scale. Well, 1983 it's also My birth year and I never thought that that's merely a coincidence. I went online when I was 15 and I was immediately hooked. Soon after, I took my first job with an ISP because I wanted to know everything about how "the Internet" works and what makes up all those services. To this day I believe that all the ways of communication that are such a big part of our daily lives, provided by the Internet, is the biggest technological breakthrough of all times, and we keep building on it.

• Explain your expertise, your interest in it and, more broadly, its importance in the computer world.

  As said before I was passionate about networks since I was a teenager and I still am today. That is "my thing" in the computer world. From that, I learned Linux and with it I entered the Open Source software world. Nowadays, most people's interaction with technology is through paid, restricted and controlled channels but the open source world still exists and that stands for the free sharing of ideas and collaboration - the true vision of technology and software. Open Source software is more than just a license, it is also a philosophy that roots for freedom and being a Creator. It is about tech that you control and not the other way around.

• Do so-called 'visionaries', such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg inspire you or do you have other role models?

  Not really. Out of the 3 I do admire Steve Jobs. I read his biography and I do admire his approach and his work a lot, but I don't consider him a role model.
  For me the role models are the ones that created tech that empower communities. Like the creator of the TCP/IP protocol, Linux or Bitcoin. These people ignited innovations that are used by and benefit millions, if not billions of people nowadays and gave them to the world for free. Those are my role models

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  I started my 1st job as a network administrator straight into highschool and that took a big chunk of my time and my passion. My friends got used to me needing to disappear in the middle of a get-together to go "work on that black screen". Because I was connecting to my machines on a very popular terminal emulator called "putty" and because they never seem to understand what my work is about, no matter how much I explained it, they just started calling me putty. Some of them still ask me today: "What are you up to man, do you still putty?

• What would you say to an uncomfortable person in front of a screen who says that "IT is too complicated"?

  IT is quite logical, it's our thinking process that is too complicated. Learning a little bit of "how the machine thinks" can actually help clarify and organize our minds, improve our decision making and create a higher quality of life overall.

• What are your other passions, related or non-related to computers?

  I am a very very passionate traveler. I have traveled extensively throughout my life and I would jump on a trip on any given day when opportunity arises.
  Besides that I love sports, cycling, mountains, the Sea and endless natural diversity.

• What makes you a Superprof in IT?

  I have started from passion and the passion is still there. I've been so long at it, in all the possible levels and roles that I can understand most of the things in the tech world, at least on a high-level and know what they are made of and why they matter. I can cut through the noise and go straight to the point in any tech related conversation or matter. Everything keeps evolving in IT, just like in life, the trick is to focus on what matters and keep finding things to like. That's what I do.