My New Web Developer’s Blog

I just wanted to publish this blog now, without much fuss, and so I opted to simply use Debian’s Jekyll packages — a static site generator — which work out-of-the box using the default Minima theme. Later on I may customize the theme, because I’m not completely satisfied with it (or I’ll just use another static site generator), but for now this blog will do. (Update: This blog has now been rebuilt with Hugo.)

Why the rush though? It’s because I’m currently establishing my web development business, which focuses on static websites, and I have a lot of things to write about but nowhere to put them down. That is, I have simply realized that I need a tech blog of my own. Furthermore, by creating this blog and by committing to write content for it, I’m now officially calling myself a web developer. And that is a rather scary thing to do.

You see, I’ve learned web development on my own. Before, I only knew how to sign up for free services that offer websites, like Blogger and WordPress.com. (I was able to go online, but it was very limiting.) Going from that kind of dependence on tech companies to building and self-hosting my own sites had taken a lot of courage, hard work, and time. It wasn’t easy, to say the least, and to make things even harder, I was also a Windows† user: To become a “real web developer”, I needed to migrate to Linux. Which I did.

My initial motivation and desire to self-host my own websites came to me because I had enough of the limitations imposed by WordPress.com and other similar web services. To put it bluntly, if I wanted more features or more freedom for my website, then I would need to pay them more money. However, the more I read about self-hosting — the alternative way of doing things — the more I wanted it: I too desire the freedom and the power that come from owning my web presence. It was a powerful motivation back then, and it’s still a powerful motivation right now: for me to continue, and to even actively pursue this difficult path I’m on.

So yes, becoming a web developer has been a hard journey for me. Sometimes too hard. And no matter how far I’ve come, and no matter how much I’ve done, there’s still so much to learn. After all, this is technology we’re talking about, and it is ever-changing, ever-evolving. Nevertheless, I think that I’ve already learned enough, and with more preparations (like more studying), I believe that I could start offering now my services to others. So that is why I’m building my business, and actively pursuing this path of becoming a real web developer. And that is why I have this blog.

† I have nothing against Windows, or against web developers using Windows. But the majority of servers on the Internet are using Linux, and it’s already a given that a developer should be familiar with it — as evidenced by any technical documentation found online. Besides, by its very nature, Windows shields the user from much of the system’s non-graphical components, and so I’ll never reach my true potential if I had stayed on that platform.