A Brief History of Awesome Open Source

The Awesome Open Source YouTube channel was started in 2019 after I looked for instructional content on running various open source solutions.  I found content, but almost everything I found was either extremely outdated, or just a short 10 minute video with no instructional content at all.  Mostly fluff, and no real meat.

If I was looking for this type of content, it only seemed sensible that there may be a few others looking for it as well, so I decided I'd give it a try. 

What it really means to be a "Creator"

I went into this thinking, I'll put in a couple of hours a week, and churn out some incredible videos that will really help people.  Well, I make okay videos 5 years into it, and I hope it helps at least a few people.  It is, however, a much larger time investment than I ever imagined.

What could take so long?

I started off kind of winging it.  It was fine overall as I had several open source applications I was already familiar with, but my approach was not thoughtful enough to start, so I struggled in the editing department.  I had to cut out a ton of filler words, and retrain my brain to state things more clearly. I'm still in the retraining process even today, by the way.

I realized quickly that I needed a better mic, so I got one, but the mic isn't the only piece to the puzzle. No, after a couple of years, and dozens of people telling me my sound sucked, I finally asked for help with it, and actually got a great response from a person who gave me some really simple steps to work on my audio post-production.  It helped a ton, and I'm still refining, and improving, and yes - still getting "your audio sucks" comments today... but I keep trying to make it better.

Next, I realized early on that I needed to give more time to prep if I wanted a smoother recording session, which in turn leads to less effort in editing.  That prep is generally anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of me installing and configuring an application, only to destroy it all, and do it again following my own written instructions.  Once I can do  it in a repeatable way, I'm ready to record.

Sometimes I record, and it all goes great, but usually I record and something goes wrong somewhere, and I end up troubleshooting for 45 minutes before I can continue.  95% of the time, I just forgot to set something properly before starting, and it's only something in my setup, so I often choose to reset and go again from scratch. I've done this on some videos up to 6 times. 

When I find an issue that I haven't run across in my prep, and I troubleshoot and find it's something anyone might hit, I make sure to leave it in, and point it out to try and save others the same stress of troubleshooting when they start setting things up. 

Oh yeah, my show notes.  While I take diligent notes for myself, they are in no way ready to be 'show notes'.  So, I take those, and re-write them, and try to make it as easy to follow as possible.  I try to explain why we are doing something in written form as well.  My videos are long because I'm a talker, but also because I'm verbose in what I'm doing.  I want the viewer to understand why I typed in a command, and not just blindly follow me.  If you can understand why I'm telling you to do something you can use it again in the future.  You know, I'm trying to teach you to digitally fish, instead of just handing you a digital fish.

Comments are Brutal

Honestly, 99% of my viewers leave me very positive comments.  Those few who leave comments that seem negative initially stung me a bit.  I thought about it before writing a long reply with my own sting, and really took a minute to absorb what was being said. I tried to re-read them with a different tone in mind.  That's the problem with the written word: it can be read in any voice and with any attitude you want. I chose to read them with a happy, helpful voice of constructive criticism.

I try to reply to every person I can (when I understand the comment) with a positive response.  I don't want to be pulled into a trolling situation, and I don't want to misinterpret someone's intention.  So, I respond in the 'kill them with kindness' way, and it's really helped me be able to keep the channel on a positive track.

Life Happens

At the time that I started this channel, I was married, and my elderly parents lived with my wife and I.  Just after I started the channel the Pandemic of 2019/2020 hit, and my mother-in-law also moved in with us.  In the start of the 2020/2021 school year, two of my wife's nieces moved in and my mother taught them from home in order to help them keep caught up with their education.  Somehow I managed to push out a video per week.  My father, while not understanding much about computers or software, was always curious about what I was covering, and what it gave me.  He supported me in everything I've ever done in life.  Sadly, he passed away in June 2022. We miss him dearly.

The Nieces returned home for a year, and we ended up adopting a child.  My mother-in-law passed this year (2024) and she is missed so very much.  Life doesn't go according to our plans.  I'm a blessed man, with a loving wife, and incredible daughter, and a mother who is intelligent, caring, and wonderful.  I try hard to spend more time with my family these days, and my time to work on videos has diminished a bit, so I'm only putting out about 1 every two weeks.

Why Open Source?

I truly believe that Open Source software will save the world one day.  It's incredible that there are so many highly intelligent people out there who have chosen to let everyone share in what they've made.  It's a powerful thing to realize you or anyone else can look at the code, and make it better, and change it, or share it without consequence.  That your improvements make it better for everyone else. 

That's how the world should be. Made better because of the incredible people who want to make it better. 

I sign on as 'your Open Source Advocate', but in reality, I'm just like you.  Someone who loves to find that amazing solution, and share it with as many people as he can.