Windows or Linux admin?

jmreicha

I am looking for some advice about where I should be taking my career. I have a decent amount of experience with both Linux and Windows, most recently managing a Windows network, with only sporadic Linux projects.

I think I have come to a cross roads as I have been searching for jobs recently and can't really decide whether it would be better fit for me to shoot for a Windows admin or Linux admin spot (have gotten responses to both in my job questing). I feel like I could potentially do well in either although I like working with Linux more.

Has anybody been in a similar situation or does anybody have advice? Thanks y'all.

tldr; can't decide whether to go Linux or Windows admin route, need help deciding.

humbleboy

I'm very curious to hear everyone's input on this one myself. I'm leaning more the Linux route myself.

PROS:
1) The money seems a little better
2) I love the amount of control you have over the system. One bash command can do what would take 3 hours in Windows. I'm a Windows fan too so I'm not bias.
3) I just feel smarter when using Linux. I love when people walk by and go "Oh &*$%, what is all that?!"

CONS:
1) There is (in my opinion) a HUGE learning curve. I feel like in Windows you can fumble your way though most things... Linux is the complete opposite. You either know it 100% or you dont!
2) There are fewer Linux jobs out there.
3) Linux people are just all-out weird!

Everyone

If you enjoy working with Linux more, then you've already answered your own question.

It's best to know BOTH. Now obviously you will become better with one than you are with the other, but if you at least know your way around the other, you will do well.

tr1x

humbleboy wrote: »

I'm very curious to hear everyone's input on this one myself. I'm leaning more the Linux route myself.

PROS:
1) The money seems a little better
2) I love the amount of control you have over the system. One bash command can do what would take 3 hours in Windows. I'm a Windows fan too so I'm not bias.
3) I just feel smarter when using Linux. I love when people walk by and go "Oh &*$%, what is all that?!"

CONS:
1) There is (in my opinion) a HUGE learning curve. I feel like in Windows you can fumble your way though most things... Linux is the complete opposite. You either know it 100% or you dont!
2) There are fewer Linux jobs out there.
3) Linux people are just all-out weird!

Haha I love this post! I agree 100%.

I think it's great to have knowledge of both, you can become a very valuable employee if you know Linux and Windows. If you like Linux more, then concentrate on it, just don't alienate yourself from Windows because employers would rather you be able to use both.

demonfurbie

i would learn windows and linux and admin linux servers but support the windows 7 i would look at
redhat.com | Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) for a server/network admin cert and a MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician on Windows 7 (70-680 and 70-685) for desktops .. because in the real world your a network admin but the "users" are the real issue

onesaint

I'm a bit in the same boat. I was working in an AD WS2k3 environment, but for the last four years have delved into Linux, working with a Linux back end, Windows/Linux front. I have to agree, Linux is much more enjoyable (and elusive).

For your circumstance, I would go Linux if it's what you enjoy doing. However, I think it also depends on what your long term goals are. Are you looking for Enterprise or SMB employment now? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? If you go down the Linux path and don't touch a Windows env. for another 3-5 years, where does that put you?

jmreicha

Here is basically what the situation is.

I just finished an interview yesterday at a SMB, almost entirely Windows environment with about 40 servers, clusterd Hyper-V setup, definitely some cool stuff. I would be the only sysadmin and get to work on cool projects and build the infrastructure.

The down side is that it is in a smaller area (not thrilled about living in a small town).

I have an interview coming up for a Linux admin position in a big city, environment is primarily Linux based, 1000+ servers, separate teams for R&D, security, networking, etc with a sysadmin group of 10 members. So there is good room for growth for that position.

I'm having trouble weighing the pros and cons that come with these positions and how they relate to each other. Thanks for the feedback so far, you guys rule.

jwashington1981

humbleboy wrote: »

3) Linux people are just all-out weird!

I wouldn't necessarily say this is a con.

onesaint

jmreicha wrote: »

Here is basically what the situation is.

I just finished an interview yesterday at a SMB, almost entirely Windows environment with about 40 servers, clusterd Hyper-V setup, definitely some cool stuff. I would be the only sysadmin and get to work on cool projects and build the infrastructure.

The down side is that it is in a smaller area (not thrilled about living in a small town).

I have an interview coming up for a Linux admin position in a big city, environment is primarily Linux based, 1000+ servers, separate teams for R&D, security, networking, etc with a sysadmin group of 10 members. So there is good room for growth for that position.

I'm having trouble weighing the pros and cons that come with these positions and how they relate to each other. Thanks for the feedback so far, you guys rule.

Looks like 3 contests. Linux vs. Windows, Small town vs. big city, and SMB vs. Corp. I'd take the Linux based interview, do your best and if you get a good offer, take it. I have this opinion due to the following: 1. you dont like small towns, 2. you do like Linux more, and 3. more room to move in the Corp. setting. However, if you have compelling arguments (e.g., you got the offer from the SMB, but not from the Corp.) then go the other route.

Keep us posted.

jmreicha

onesaint wrote: »

Looks like 3 contests. Linux vs. Windows, Small town vs. big city, and SMB vs. Corp. I'd take the Linux based interview, do your best and if you get a good offer, take it. I have this opinion due to the following: 1. you dont like small towns, 2. you do like Linux more, and 3. more room to move in the Corp. setting. However, if you have compelling arguments (e.g., you got the offer from the SMB, but not from the Corp.) then go the other route.

Keep us posted.

Thanks for that post, it really helps put things into perspective. The main issue that I'm having trouble with is with 3) choosing between SMB and large corporate environment. In my mind it comes down to ability to move up at Corp. vs. gaining lots of experience at the SMB.

odysseyelite

jmreicha wrote: »

Here is basically what the situation is.

I just finished an interview yesterday at a SMB, almost entirely Windows environment with about 40 servers, clusterd Hyper-V setup, definitely some cool stuff. I would be the only sysadmin and get to work on cool projects and build the infrastructure.

The down side is that it is in a smaller area (not thrilled about living in a small town).

I have an interview coming up for a Linux admin position in a big city, environment is primarily Linux based, 1000+ servers, separate teams for R&D, security, networking, etc with a sysadmin group of 10 members. So there is good room for growth for that position.

I'm having trouble weighing the pros and cons that come with these positions and how they relate to each other. Thanks for the feedback so far, you guys rule.

I would see how the interview goes for the Linux gig. I think you will learn more in that setting. I'm not a huge fan anymore of being in a small setting with a one man shop. I've done it, I've been laid off, there was no one to help to back me up when needed. I think I learned less in the long run because the company was happy as things were running and did not see the reason to upgrade. Larger corporations have the pocket book during difficult times. Living in a larger area will allow other opportunities to present themselves. I've also learn to try to pick an area and specialize. Being a jack of all trades used to be a great place to be. Now focusing on networking, security, administration, exchange seems to the way to go. The larger setting would allow you to see what area you like. Network with other people there and sometimes someone will take you under their wing.

onesaint

jmreicha wrote: »

Thanks for that post, it really helps put things into perspective. The main issue that I'm having trouble with is with 3) choosing between SMB and large corporate environment. In my mind it comes down to ability to move up at Corp. vs. gaining lots of experience at the SMB.

I'm right there with you. I've been in SMB for years now and am thinking my next move will be to Corp. IT. Your experience will become more refined when your in a team with a specific focus. In SMB, we SAs usually end up wearing a lot of hats (as I'm sure you know). That isn't to say that varried experience isn't a wonderful thing, mind you.

Best of luck with the interview.

Hypntick

jmreicha wrote: »

Thanks for that post, it really helps put things into perspective. The main issue that I'm having trouble with is with 3) choosing between SMB and large corporate environment. In my mind it comes down to ability to move up at Corp. vs. gaining lots of experience at the SMB.

Depends on your background and skillset I would think. I left the corp for the SMB and i'm super happy I did. I've learned more in 3 months there than I ever did in 3 years in the corp jobs. Although the small town thing would kill me, gotta have something to do on the days off.

demonfurbie

see i like smb and small towns ...

onesaint

Hypntick wrote: »

Although the small town thing would kill me, gotta have something to do on the days off.

Wait, you mean there is something other than read Networking and infosec books on my time off???

cxzar20

It would be best to know both, but you dont necessarily need to be an expert in both. You could be a Linux Administrator with Windows skills. This is the same way in my career, I have much more experience with Cisco equipment but I can also handle Juniper.

If you know both very well it will only help you with perspective future employers.

Zartanasaurus

Both seem to have a good job market. If you can, learn both. I'm starting down the BSD/Linux path in the near future (been saying that for 10 years), because I want to be exposed to as many different options as is reasonably possible. Unix has been around a lot longer and I don't see it going anywhere. So if you already like Linux, I think 20 years from now there's a better chance Microsoft is dead and gone rather than *nix.

higherho

First thing is first. Will you be living in the area you are now for 5 years? Or are you willing to relocate? If you stay in your area then what is more popular their? Windows or Linux?

This is how I personally feel. A majority of the jobs I seem to find in my region are Windows based so I get a majority of my experience in that. I can get around in linux and know some basic bash scripting but I focus mainly on what will bring in the paycheck. Now if I was asked to learn Linux more because we will be getting Linux servers then I will be all for it.


I personally choose Windows Servers as my server speciality and Cisco as my Networking speciality.

Linux does not have that big of a market share compared to windows and I personally feel that I would have a better / higher chance at landing a job with Windows Server experience when I look at the big picture.

onesaint

higherho wrote: »

Linux does not have that big of a market share compared to windows...

Actually, its quite interesting. Depending on what data you look at things may be a lot more even for Win / *nix. For instance if its by revenue only (this not taking into account open source distros (CentOS, Debian, Etc.) like my back end:

Server OS share (by percentage of revenue) for Q4 2010
z/OS 11.3
Linux 17.0
Windows 42.1
Unix 25.6

From here. Mind you thats revenue from new servers sold. Unix / Linux sitting at 42.6% vs. Windows 42.1%.

Then there's also this which states of the 50 million web servers out there some 71.01% run Apache. Then of the 10 million IP addresses sampled some 95% of those servers run *nix. Please, see here. Drawing the conclusion that the lion's share of web servers are *nix based.

So, it seems that the Linux market share might be a lot bigger that meets the eye. They just don't have the marketing department that Microsoft does.

Forsaken_GA

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Both seem to have a good job market. If you can, learn both. I'm starting down the BSD/Linux path in the near future (been saying that for 10 years), because I want to be exposed to as many different options as is reasonably possible. Unix has been around a lot longer and I don't see it going anywhere. So if you already like Linux, I think 20 years from now there's a better chance Microsoft is dead and gone rather than *nix.

I don't think learning both is a good idea. They are very different worlds, with very different methodologies, and there's that old adage about serving two masters. Proficiency with both is alright, but mastery needs to go one way or the other.

Besides, if you do Windows administration, sooner or later, you're going to have to administer Exchange. And that's a special hell that should be reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theatre.

Forsaken_GA

As to the OP....

choose the one you want to learn, not the one that will pay better. Always seek a career that will make you happy, in addition to keeping the lights on.

Linux has a steep learning curve. There are many different ways of doing the same thing, so finding out specific answers to your questions may be frustrating, as you'll suffer from information overload. Being a good unix admin requires patience, competence, and just a little bit of intuition to feel your way through the minefield when you're learning, and it requires attention to detail, as a small change can easily have a butterfly effect on the rest of the system, and you need to be able to correlate what changes you made to what broke, and be able to follow the chain to realize whey the cause had the effect it did.

You will have to get familiar with the command line. One of the unfortunate side effects of Windows administration is that it hides alot of the complexity from you with the pretty GUI. If the commandline scares you, or frustrates you, unix administration is not for you. (Go away Powershell hippies, I'm not talking to you)

If you decide to go the Linux route, do NOT get all gung ho and tell yourself 'I'M GOING TO LEARN LINUX!' and then go install the latest version of Ubuntu or Fedora. You're not learning Linux, you're just learning a different freaking GUI. Find yourself a nice stable server distribution like FreeBSD, Debian, or CentOS. Install it as a base vanilla install, do NOT select any of the pre-made roles. This gives you a barely functional system that is capable of booting and not much else. This teaches you from the very word go about the necessity of installing and configuring basic network services, like SSH. It also forces you to learn that system's package management or, god forbid, compiling from source.

Once you've done this, identify which server technologies you want to learn, and then go make your new install (or if you're ambitious, installs!) do it. Want a web server? Great, go make Apache work. And then make it work with popular web software like Drupal or Wordpress so you can discover the fun of php modules. You want a mail server? Great, go install dovecot and postfix, using a mysql database backend to store your user information, and learn about the fun of things like spf records and DKIM keys to make yahoo actually accept mail from your system. Implement an LDAP server, and tie all of your machines and server software into that to get a single sign on environment.

If you can't find the wherewithal to do all of that, then unix administration is not for you.

Chris:/*

I support both because if you really know Windows you have to know how the back end works, to do the things that I would require (as stated above Powershell). At the same time if I had two applicants on my desk one who had only Windows experience and the other only had Linux experience and all other things being equal I would choose the Linux guy in a heartbeat. I do select personnel to work in my area regularly and this has happened repeatedly. I work in an extremely heterogeneous environment and knowing only one will only get you by so long. At least that is the world I live in :P .

Now I do agree Forsaken in that you should choose what you love to do not what pays more. If you do not love working with a set of technology and choose to go that route I can almost guarantee you that you will be changing careers much later in life than you would typically like to.

Best of luck in your decision.

jmreicha

higherho wrote: »

First thing is first. Will you be living in the area you are now for 5 years? Or are you willing to relocate? If you stay in your area then what is more popular their? Windows or Linux?

I am not tied to the area that I am in at all so relocating would not be an issue.

A little more background, I've been the sysadmin at a smallish (~100 users) company for the past year. This is a 90% Windows shop, but I have been implementing my own Linux projects there and have a solid Linux background from a previous role so I feel like I have a decent foundation in both.

So this is really the point in my career where I feel like it is time to specialize and I feel like I could go either route but the external factors I mentioned from previous posts are what I'm having trouble dealing with.

Thanks for all the support and feedback.

higherho

jmreicha wrote: »

I am not tied to the area that I am in at all so relocating would not be an issue.

A little more background, I've been the sysadmin at a smallish (~100 users) company for the past year. This is a 90% Windows shop, but I have been implementing my own Linux projects there and have a solid Linux background from a previous role so I feel like I have a decent foundation in both.

So this is really the point in my career where I feel like it is time to specialize and I feel like I could go either route but the external factors I mentioned from previous posts are what I'm having trouble dealing with.

Thanks for all the support and feedback.

Then it sounds like you know a little bit of both. From my experience and the people that we hired, it's not what OS you know its your ability to learn and your understanding of the technologies that run / support those OS's. IIS is not hard to learn / implement, same with apache when installing it on a linux box. But if you know both technologies and understand their purposes thats more valuable to me than someone who is just a linux guy or knows how to use the command line.

I honestly think its not hard to learn a new OS. If you have the dedication / motivation you can learn anything and honestly linux is not that hard. If your job market is dominate by windows then specialize in that but keep your linux skills up to date and if you need to master linux then put time aside and master it.

millworx

Personally I would say I'de specialize in a UNIX varient if you are going for an enterprise level job. Most larger companies run it, like Solaris, HP-UX, etc. But you have to love what you do and know a crap load. I agree with some of the posts above, you can fumble your way through things in Microsoft, but it's not so simple in *nix. Plus I think it pays more if you really know your stuff.

Zartanasaurus

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I don't think learning both is a good idea. They are very different worlds, with very different methodologies, and there's that old adage about serving two masters. Proficiency with both is alright, but mastery needs to go one way or the other.

Besides, if you do Windows administration, sooner or later, you're going to have to administer Exchange. And that's a special hell that should be reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theatre.

Yeah, I was speaking more in the "be proficient at both" sense than mastery of both. Good advice. I say all the time at work that I want nothing to do with Exchange, although it's required if you want to work in the Windows world.

jmreicha

Alright, here is a list of information about the two places that I have come up with. At this point I really just need to figure out which environment is best for me. What are your preferences or past experience with the two types of enviroments?

Windows vs. Linux

small town vs. big city
1 other team member vs. 10 other team members
small environment vs. large environment
similar pay (at least I think)
Not much room for growth vs. lots of room for growth

I'm probably missing a couple there but you can sort of see the big picture from that I hope.

Anyway, which would you take and why?