Brian Beck took first place in this year’s “Inspired by Linux” t-shirt design contest. We followed up with him shortly after the contest results were announced to find out more about his involvement with Linux and the open source community and what inspired his design.
Beck will travel to LinuxCon Europe in Barcelona this fall and a limited number of t-shirts sporting his design, along with second-place winner Sabrina Aqil’s design, will be on sale starting this week at LinuxCon North America in San Diego. Both shirts will also be available shortly online in the Linux.com store.
What do you do? Who do you work for?
Beck: I am the instructional technology specialist at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research at Angelo State University. I provide faculty development and try to interject as many open source software packages, along with the open source mindset, as I can.
The main reasoning is to provide a more creative and flexible workflow for faculty as well as saving taxpayers money. At the same it’s time allowing the students the freedom to take the software, use it and share it with others! I strongly believe that Linux and the open source mindset should be taught in every public school system across the face of the earth! This is why I’m a big advocate for Linux and open source!
Why did you decide to enter the design contest?
Beck: I decided to enter the contest because I have been truly “Inspired by Linux” and all that Linux and the open source mindset stand for. And this was my way to give back, as I am not a programmer or developer.
What are you looking forward to at LinuxCon?
Beck: One of the main things I’m looking forward to at LinuxCon is honestly to thank as many people as I can. Without them — the developers, engineers, programmers and power users — I couldn’t do what I do, and the rest of the world wouldn’t be as far along as we are without them!
How do you use Linux?
Beck: I use Ubuntu Linux 12.04 mostly in higher education. As far as my hobbies go, I use Darktable for my photography, as well as GIMP, Inkscape for graphic design, print work… and of course designing T-Shirts! 
And one of my favorite things to do is create things in Blender 3D. All while using Linux!
I also co-founded and teach for TexOS – The Texas Open Source Project. We take donated computers, install Linux, teach others how do use it, as well as teach them the open source mindset. And we give it to them to keep and take home. We couldn’t do this without Linux.
Why do you support the Linux Foundation?
Beck: I support the Linux Foundation, because the Linux Foundation supports everyone else! It is because of the training and support at a high end level, and most importantly it is the community that surrounds open source that only fuels my fire to give back more to others!