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How I learned to code for free
No computer science degree. No prior experience. Just a willingness to explore. This week Jasmine walks through the free and low-cost resources that took her from zero to full stack and into a whole new career. We're also unpacking why one deeply technical talk and one very human one landed on the exact same lesson, moving files between FreeDOS and Linux without the fuss, and finding out why Fedora 44's Cosmic spin became Jay's daily driver, missing features and all.
On the podcast, WordPress.com's AI Product Lead Ronnie Burt makes the case that AI is creating more developers rather than replacing them, and digs into the stigma around making money with open source. This is edition #82 of the We ❤️ Open Source newsletter. Made and curated by Jason & Todd.🙂
This week we'll look at...
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Articles
 | No computer science degree. No prior experience. Just a desire for a deeper challenge and a willingness to explore. Jasmine walks through the free and low-cost resources that took her from zero to full stack, including CS50, 100Devs, Girl Develop It, and her first hackathon. WHY WE ❤️ IT: Jasmine didn't go back to school. She mapped out a better way so you don't have to. |
 | What does fine-tuning a small language model have in common with building your professional network? More than you'd think. Two talks from an All Things Open meetup, one deeply technical, one deeply human, ended up teaching the exact same lesson about specialization, timing, and doing the work before you need it. WHY WE ❤️ IT: A talk on QLoRA adapters and one on job referrals had no business landing on the exact same lesson. |
 | Running FreeDOS in a virtual machine is fast and convenient, until you need to get a file in or out. Here are two practical methods for moving files between a Linux host and a FreeDOS guest, from quick single-file transfers to full virtual disk access. WHY WE ❤️ IT: Two clean methods, zero fuss, for a problem every FreeDOS-in-a-VM user eventually runs into. |
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All Things Open 2026
We're making 50 free passes available to Tuesday, October 17 programming at All Things Open 2026 - only to the We Love Open Source community! Attend the traditional conference day for free and see 100+ sessions and speakers from around the world.
What's in your technology toolbox?
Thinking about ditching Gnome or KDE? Learn Linux TV takes Fedora 44's Cosmic spin for a spin (pun intended), covering auto tiling, window stacks, and why it earned a spot as Jay's daily driver, missing features and all.
WHY WE ❤️ IT: Jay explains why a desktop environment that's still missing HDR support somehow became his daily driver anyway.
From the We ❤️ Open Source Podcast
 | Ronnie Burt came up with his own AI mantra by talking it through with Claude. WordPress.com's AI Product Lead makes the case for why AI is creating more developers instead of replacing them, and explains why he thinks the stigma around making money with open source is finally fading. WHY WE ❤️ IT: He calls himself a "dangerous" developer, then makes a pretty convincing case for AI anyway. |
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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