We recently interviewed Akinsola Akinwale on how he uses Fedora. This article continues our series on the Fedora Magazine that profiles Fedora users and how they use Fedora to get things done. Contact us on the feedback form to express your interest in becoming a interviewee.
Who is Akinsola Akinwale?
Akinsola Akinwale is a software developer with experience writing programs for mobile subscription platforms. The subscription platforms integrate with the Ericsson billing platform. He is also a Red Hat and CentOS systems administrator. Akinwale works for VAS Consulting as a Blackberry Developer Consultant to IBM Africa. In this capacity he works with odoo and SugarCRM.
Despite reading books about Linux, Akinwale didn’t know how to obtain the operating system. To learn more, he attended a Linux boot camp in 2010. There a friend gave him a copy of Fedora, which he quickly installed in VirtualBox. He says he left Windows for good when he “realized that 99% of the things I do were Linux related.”
Akinwale experiences a bit of friendly debate between Windows and Linux in his office. The Windows supporters last claimed Linux users have to grow huge beards before using a computer. Akinwale easily refuted that argument, and pointed out he only has a mustache. Despite not sporting a neck beard, Akinsola has converted many people to Linux users.
Growing up, Akinsola looked up to engineers, inventors and preachers. Akinwale held Superman in high regard because he wanted to fly. His other heroes were computer hackers in movies. His favorite food is Ewa and Dodo, also known respectively as black-eyed peas and plantains.
The Fedora community
Akinsola isn’t currently involved in the Fedora Community. However, he made the decision to take the first step during this interview. He said, “I would want to start with the Ambassadors group, because I have been encouraging people in my community to use Fedora. As a matter of fact, I registered immediately to keep myself from postponing any further.”
What hardware and software?
Akinwale uses an HP Pavilion G6 laptop equipped with a Core i5, 8 GB of Ram and a 450 GB hard drive. He often uses an additional monitor. He currently runs Fedora 24. Akinsola uses GNOME, KDE and the Mate desktop, but his favorite is KDE 4. He uses Eclipse and Juno IDE for Java devopment. For Python he uses VIM with vim-ruby, nerdtree and Jedi-vim. He uses Gedit or LibreOffice Writer for simple text editing. He grabs screen captures with KSnapshot. Akinwale uses GIMP for editing photos.
Akinsola
Finally I am now an approved member of the Fedora QA group and yet to find a Mentor in Ambassador Group. I am already enjoying the QA testing with tools like fedora-easy-karma and bodhi cli.
Akinsola
Thanks, In addition I am a Nigerian currently in Lagos and LPI certified. I am now a full member of Fedora qa and yet to be sponsored Fedora Ambassador.
David Peters
Congratulations!
Akinsola
thanks
Onyeibo Oku
Ah. They missed those. Finally, i am not the only active Fedora activist in the country. Welcome aboard.
Ayo Isaiah
We should organise a Fedora Lagos meetup sometime. I’ve not met another Fedora user save for the one guy I converted from Ubuntu.
Cheers
Akinsola
Ayo, I would be interested in such meetup if we can plan it.
Akinsola
Yes Boss,I have been reading your fedora wiki(two hot). I am motivated by your outstanding work for almost a decade in fedora project.
Amit Das
Great Mr. Akinsola
Sylvia Sánchez
Awesome interview!! So good seeing people from Africa participating in the project as well. Keep it up!
Akinsola
Sylvia, yeah a couple of us embracing the active participation while a couple of others have been involved years back.
Don Jajo
Ye! A Linux SysAdmin in Nigeria. Great!
I’m also a SysAdmin but I base on Debian 🙂
Akinsola
Don!! great, in Lagos I guess.
Don Jajo
Nah. not yet, I guess.
But I do visit Lagos, for now I’m based in Aba, Abia State
Akinsola
kindly check my first contact on http://www.akinsola.me and leave an email. Thanks in advance.
Don Jajo
Okay, done.
pedro andrade
Linux for the win. Also, it’s great in terms of sustainability particularly in developing regions. No more license fees to have an OS.
Keep it up. I might follow your steps here in Portugal regards!
Raul
It’s great to know that the open source world keeps expanding across the world. The future now depends on developer brains and not on big money anymore. Congratulations, so-called “Third World”!
Akinsola
Raul you are right, the world is expanding at the speed of thought and Linux is crucial in this, and mind you third world I am sure ended with the cold war.
Raul
Yes, it ended long ago but some people stick to the old ways! Cheers!
Martin Sunday
Congratulations! I’m a Nigerian and i use fedora too.
Akinsola
Martin,
lets exchange email, welcome to fedoraproject.
NICK VLAHOS
“RIGHT ON” Been “distro-hopping” for MANY a year and ALWAYS come back to FEDORA and/or one of its’ derivatives! LOVE the SIMPLICITY, STABILITY and SUPPORT (community) as well. CHEERS Nick.V.
Emeka Bethel
Wow! Really nice to see my fellow Nigerian using Fedora not just as a Desktop but production PC. Would love to hook up with you Akin Sometime. Been a Fedora and Red Hat user since 2013.
We are building an open source community for Africans starting with Nigeria online with focus on Fedora. Happy its gaining momentum.
Lawrence Aberba
I’m from Ghana though, but your favorite food is a very good choice. I like is soooo much! 🙂 (Fried riped plantain with beans is what we call it)
Akinsola
Charly, I ate it the last time iI was in Accra. cheers bro.
Emeka Bethel
nice to see Nigerians using Fedora now. Been a Red Hat user since the early days before the birth of Fedora Core series. Sola lets hook up sometime. Thumps up Fedora