In the RISE Developer Spotlight, our goal is to highlight and introduce valuable contributions from RISC-V community members who have achieved our Developer Appreciation award. With that, we would like to introduce Ekaitz Zarraga, the author of RISC-V Support in Lightening JIT library
Name: EkaitzLocation: Bilbao
Who are you? In 200 words or less tell us the most important things to know about you!
I’m Ekaitz and I’m the freelance R&D engineer behind ElenQ Technology, an ethical company where I mostly code, teach, write and do classic engineering work.
I always loved learning and sharing what I learned. My job as a freelance is just me, in a way that is useful for others, rather than harmful, that’s why I write Free Software and put effort in the transmission of knowledge.
Your hobbies? Inside or outside of tech what are the things you like to do in your free time?
My friends always joke about all the things I do. I like to learn about how everyday things are made. Anything is good: I made cider, cheese, beard butter, soap, shoes, pottery, bookbinding… all of those I learn once and then move to another.
Something I actually did for long is art, specially sculpting miniatures and drawing, but I have to say in the last few years tech related stuff absorbed me too much and I left it aside for long. I’m trying to get back to it.
Inside tech, I contribute to Free Software, specially to GNU Guix.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I don’t remember what I wanted to be, but now I realize I was already an engineer at that time. I liked to build things and learn about how things worked. I asked too many questions.
What led you to a career in tech?
I studied Telecom engineering (EEE equivalent) because I liked science and math and the name of the subjects looked cool, but mostly because I wanted to get a job afterwards (you did the same, be honest). Even if I loved computers I didn’t know what programming was. First year in university they taught us a little bit about programming but I got really interested on it. Next year we had a lab with some computers with Kubuntu installed and I started to use it at home, too. For the final project, a teacher proposed us to make something for KDE. I was delighted by the idea, because I had been using Kubuntu since I discovered it. That was my first real software project (a Free Software project!) and that’s what pushed my career more to the software side because I loved the feeling of solving a puzzle that happens to be useful.
Do you remember your first open source free software contribution?
That final project I made in university was merged in KDE-Telepathy. It was my first real project and I had never used Git before… It was very hard for me to organize but it finally got there thanks to the help of the KDE people.
Since I heard about Free Software (I prefer not to use the term Open Source) the idea resonated with my values, my passion for learning and my enthusiasm about sharing what I learn. Since then, I never stopped publishing my programs as Free Software, contributing to projects I like and advocating for Free Software.
How did you get involved in RISCV?
Some years after that project, thanks to a friend I made, I got into GNU Guix and I started contributing to it. Some day a member of the Guix community asked for people interested on helping with RISC-V related things, in general. I raised my hand, because I have been interested by RISC-V for long, and I took that as a chance to learn about it. There I ended up porting a JIT compiler to RISC-V and working in the bootstrapping process of Guix for RISC-V.
What is your favorite thing/project/tech to work on?
I cannot say I have a favorite thing, the process is what I like. But I have to say that I really like working with GNU Guix as a distribution. It’s the first GNU/Linux distribution that made me feel more like I could contribute to the distro and I became more than a user thanks to that.
In few months since I started to use it I started to contribute to it, and now I’m happy to say I’m part of it.
Tell us about the thing you’re most proud of and why?
Sometimes I teach for government-subsidized courses for the unemployed, and I’m very proud of the students that, coming from a hard situation, thanks to their effort, finally get a job and their life changes. You did it, folks!
What is the best connection you’ve made through open source free software?
The connection with my true self and with the feeling of usefulness that I did not have before.
What is your #1 top tip for getting involved in the community?
Curiosity drives you to interesting places if you let it flourish. Giving yourself time to dig on things and raising your hand when you have the feeling that something can lead you to learning new things is the best way to go. Do what your heart tells you, and don’t worry much about anything else (money, other people’s opinion…). Getting involved in the community will naturally happen if you have interest for something.
What’s your favorite open source Free Software conference?
I’ve talked at FOSDEM several times, more than in any other conference.
[Anything else you’d like to share]
I’d like to thank all the random people I find in my journey that trust me and help me make my living and provide to my family doing what I love and I think is right.
Social Media/Website
Where can people find you?
In the fediverse @ekaitz_zarraga@mastodon.social
Or in my website elenq.tech, that has a blog
