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- 9 characters can crash your program
9 characters can crash your program
One string that's just a little too long. This week we watch a working C program quietly overwrite its own variables with garbage, then see the two functions that stop it cold. We're also breaking down a repeatable framework for helping someone switch to Linux and actually make it stick, exploring how one CHAOSS project scaled open source education from 22 contributors to 200+ learners, and getting started with UFW to make firewalls straightforward instead of skipped.
On the podcast, the WeMakeDevs founder traces how a freshman who only knew Java stumbled into Kubernetes and became a mentor, and makes the case for why contributing to open source beats any line on your resume. This is edition #78 of the We ❤️ Open Source newsletter. Made and curated by Jason & Todd.🙂
This week we'll look at...
Fine-Tune Your First Open Source Model
Join us September 8 at Fidelity Investment’s RTP campus
Our next in-person meetup will take place Tuesday evening, September 8! Fidelity Investments will be the venue host for the final meetup before All Things Open 2026, so move quickly and RSVP as we'll have to cut off registrations due to capacity limits. We're proudly hosting this one in partnership with Randstad Digital powered by Torc.
Articles
 | A 10-character buffer. One string that's just a little too long. Watch a working C program quietly overwrite unrelated variables with garbage data, then see how two safer functions, strlcat and strlcpy, stop it cold. A hands-on look at buffer overflows and the fix that's been hiding in plain sight since OpenBSD 2.4. WHY WE ❤️ IT: You get to watch a real buffer overflow happen, then fix it in the same program. |
 | What does it take to build open source education from scratch? One CHAOSS project manager walks through the three stages of course development, the working group that scaled it to 22 contributors, and the lesson that stuck: treat education like infrastructure. Now over 200 learners are putting it to work. WHY WE ❤️ IT: Contributor drop-off. Review bottlenecks. The honest side of running open source education. Sound familiar? |
 | Helping someone switch to Linux for the first time? There's a repeatable path that turns "I have no idea what I'm doing" into real confidence. From picking the right distro to introducing everyday apps like Firefox and LibreOffice, here's the exact framework one longtime Linux user relies on with every newcomer. WHY WE ❤️ IT: A real framework, not just "install Linux Mint and good luck." This one actually sticks. |
What's in your technology toolbox?
Most people skip firewalls or configure them wrong. Learn Linux TV shows how UFW makes it straightforward. Discover default policies, SSH restrictions, rate limiting for brute force, and why deny (silent timeout) is more secure than reject (explicit rejection).
From the We ❤️ Open Source Podcast
 | A freshman who only knew Java stumbled into Kubernetes and ended up mentoring the project years later. The WeMakeDevs founder makes the case that open source beats any resume line, and explains why he sees AI as a partner, not a replacement. WHY WE ❤️ IT: He turned a lucky break into a mentorship habit, and thinks AI should work the same way. |
Featured podcast shorts
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Wrap Up
If you've made it this far (thank you!), check out everything we do, our YouTube channel with 1000's of open source talks, the many meetups we host around the southeast and NYC, the All Things AI spring event we co-host, and of course All Things Open, the largest open source tech conference on the US east coast.
We hope you learn something new this weekend!
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