From Arcade Games to High-End Linux Teaching: Jean Tomáz

Greetings! I’m Jean Tomáz from Catalão in the state of Goiás, Brazil. My journey into the technological world began during my teenage years, fueled by a passion for arcade games. One fateful day, I stumbled upon a magazine promising to let me «play any arcade game on your computer.» Thrilled, I saved up to buy a computer for running game emulators. As I encountered challenges with the emulator, my curiosity led me to troubleshoot and delve deeper into the world of computers. Maybe I didn’t know yet, but it was the beginning of a long relationship that became a career.

Still during my teenage years, I aspired to pursue computer science in college. While I was working as a painter of agricultural machinery in my city, fate led me to the company’s IT team. There, I received a book on computing, starting with HTML4. Later, I enrolled in a university in Uberlândia, 110 km away, studying Information Systems at night.

One day I had the chance to assist the IT intern, marking my first encounter with free software through a UNIX system. Delving into a new vocabulary of terms such as gid, uid, ls, and pwd, I faced the challenge of enabling the machine (running on UNIX) to communicate with an NFS server via a network. After multiple attempts, I succeeded, igniting my passion for UNIX and eventually leading me to discover GNU/Linux. This achievement paved the way for a career shift, and I embarked on a journey as a help desk support specialist.

As I delved into GNU/Linux, I became fascinated by its open source code, which allowed me to explore intricate details of operating system architecture. This led me to discover the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), igniting my interest in pursuing certifications to assess and enhance my knowledge. In 2018, I attained the LPIC-1 certification, fueling my motivation to prepare for and achieve the LPIC-2 in 2019. Building on my experience with LDAP and Active Directory in my work, I set my sights on the LPIC-3 Mixed Environments certification, which I successfully obtained in 2021.

In my view, the IT field is akin to an orchestra, where I aim to specialize in one instrument while remaining curious about others. It is this kind of passion and attitude that drove me to pursue the Web Development Essentials certificate in 2022. Additionally, I obtained the Linux Essentials certificate to assist colleagues and students venturing into the world of technology with their first certificate.