A Linux proud history – 15 years ago and the Brazilian ATM

I don't think your adblocker is very good if it blocks the scrolling code (which isn't an ad).

Or many times worse: Won't allow you to zoom in with ctrl+mouse wheel. As someone with poor eyesight I can tell you: breaking zooming (or accessibility) in such a way is the same as saying "fuck you".

Yay, Linux!

I am very involved with the Python community and was heavily involved in the Zope/Plone space and had a completely different experience WRT free and open-source software. While it's true most people don't contribute back, this seems to be a universal phenomenon. Luckily, the ecosystem is so efficient even a little bit of help upstream maintains it healthy.

Hardware cost and availability is definitely a factor: even a Raspberry Pi is ridiculously expensive. Without disposable hardware to try things "just for fun" (and without fearing that, if you break it, it will take lots of time/money to get another one), the hacking mindset is much harder to develop.

One of the best (and sometimes only) way to obtain reasonably-priced hardware is to import things from DealExtreme and hope that customs won't block it. If all goes well, you just have a 30-day (at best) lead time between wanting to try something and actually being able to do it.

Brazilian IT companies have, in general, a bad reputation. More than a decade ago, when this happened, the bad reputation was very well deserved (I know nothing about the company mentioned, BTW). Even today, few companies pay overtime and most of them prefer to hire people as if they were small companies because that allows them to avoid paying what they'd have to in accordance to local labor laws (and allows them a higher "salary").

Of course, judges see through this, but until someone gets a favorable judgement, often many years have passed.

When I interviewed there, the interviewer said that the bosses would get abusive nearing deadlines - and good matches for the job should be able to handle that pressure.