

Linux Jobs Forecast: Pressing Need for Linux Talent - Sami_Lehtinen
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/announcements/2013/02/2013-linux-jobs-forecast-pressing-need-linux-talent

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RKoutnik
Our school's IT department just upgraded the server we run Moodle (an open
source CMS) on from Windows Server 2003 to Ubuntu Desktop. They used the
desktop version of Ubuntu because no one in the 13-man IT operation knew how
to use Bash.

We hackers live in a gated community. I've seen people in shock when they find
out someone doesn't run Linux as their main OS. I was flabbergasted to find
out none of our IT folks knew how to use the terminal.

tl;dr The double bell curve of tech talent is still in full swing.

~~~
rogerbinns
It doesn't really matter that they used the desktop version. The packages are
all identical. The kernels are compiled slightly differently (server kernels
have longer time slices) but you won't really notice that.

I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix. A major reason why it
happened is because people were familiar with Windows on their desktop and
found the gui tools easier to use on their servers. The various Unix vendors
did start coming out with graphical administration tools, but many of them
were pretty dire.

Using Ubuntu Desktop on the server means they can use it on their desktops and
become familiar. And maybe they will eventually graduate to using command
lines, but they don't have to for a lot of administration.

~~~
gnosis
_"I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix."_

On servers? There was no such era! Windows _never_ dominated the server
market. Sure, there were some companies that were Windows shops, but most
servers were and still are unix/linux.

 _"A major reason why it happened is because people were familiar with Windows
on their desktop and found the gui tools easier to use on their servers."_

This might be true for mom & pop shops where the servers were run by desktop
users, but on the enterprise level where corporations could afford their own
sysadmins, Windows is and always has been a minor player.

~~~
jrabone
Are you sure about that? Novell / NT Domains, then subsequently Active
Directory has been a big part of every large corporation I've worked at over
the last 20 years. Externally the web servers might be UNIX, but internally
the infrastructure is heterogenous and the office stuff (authentication,
email, etc.) lives on Windows.

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duaneb
This is one of those places when distinguishing between the kernel and
userland is not only useful but necessary. I just don't believe that "Ninety-
three percent of hiring managers say they will hire a Linux pro in the next
six months". Ninety-three percent of companies do NOT need kernel hackers,
they want UNIX pros.

EDIT: By UNIX pro, I personally mean people who are familiar with the typical
_nix stack, e.g. GNU/Linux,_ BSD, Darwin. This would encompass sysadmins,
programmers, etc.

~~~
Nux
WTH is a "UNIX" pro? From what I understand they want experienced Linux
sysadmins/devops.

~~~
duaneb
> From what I understand they want experienced Linux sysadmins/devops.

I mean, I just guessed based on how "Linux" is typically used, i.e. GNU's
userland. I don't exactly have time to call up "93% of hiring managers" and
ask them personally.

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jazzex
So I already know system admins are in high demand. I am a computer science
undergrad and hope to get a sys admin job out of college. What should I be
doing on my own to get a job like this? (besides playing with different linux
distros and learning commands).

~~~
lmickh
I would suggest looking into the Redhat certifications. Even if you don't want
to take the test, they cover a wide range of topics that will give you a good
base. The list of exam objectives alone will point you in the right direction
to get started. You aren't likely to brush into things like autofs just
playing around at home. But something like that is much more common in larger
environments.

Learn to do things that you read about in system admin blogs. Spinning up VMs,
clearing log files, and setting up monitoring systems. Learn to roll your own
package. Even better yet maintain one for a distro and put that on your
resume.

Make a effort to become familiar with several scripting tools. You don't have
to master them all, but make sure to pick up enough to be able to read code in
bash, perl, python, and maybe even ruby.

The final step to being a Linux admin is learn Windows. Most real world jobs
require that you have to deal with both. Even if it is not your primary
responsibility, you will need to know how to inter-operate with Active
Directory and the services that hang off of it.

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griffindy
I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but what exactly is a 'linux' or 'unix'
pro?

~~~
Toenex
I think the distinction he was trying to make is that UNIX skills are those
that are transferable between UNIX modelled OS's e.g. shell programming,
administration, application development. Whereas a Linux pro would be someone
whose skills are specifically on that platform. The most obvious reason being
kernel programming expertise which is almost the epitome/definition of Linux.

~~~
derekp7
Could also be someone from a Unix background that also knows specifics of how
to optimally manage typical Linux business deployments (usually RHEL, SLES,
etc). I can't tell you how many long-time Unix admins I've worked with that
didn't know anything about how to create a start/stop init script that was
chkconfig compliant (chkconfig originated from Irix I belive), and end up
making symlinks in /etc/rcX.d manually. Or be able to debug boot problems
(requires knowledge of at least some kernel boot parameters, the initrd, order
of the various startup scripts, etc).

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mikegioia
This is great news for Linux. There are a LOT of companies who's entire
infrastructure is the MS Windows environment and hopefully they'll begin the
switch!

~~~
lmickh
Increase in demand for Linux talent may indicate an increased use of Linux. It
also sends up a flag for existing MS shops that says "Don't bother cause you
won't be able to hire easily".

A significant chunk of MS's total cost of ownership argument is the wages of
Windows admins versus Linux admins. This news only gives that argument more
weight at least in the short term.

~~~
jrabone
Indeed. Scratch a working heterogenous single sign-on environment based on
Linux servers and I think you'll find well-paid admin staff behind it. Interop
is just not simple, although with Samba 4 it might just have got better - I've
not tried in the last 6 months.

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snake_plissken
All Linux is Unix but not all Unix is Linux. Applicable?

