Why does it seem people do not go for Linux+

ITrascal

This category of the forum doesnt seem to be poppin like the cisco threads. Where are all the Linux folks at. I need some motivation lol

brownwrap

Are people scare of Linux? I hope so, secures my job. At least for three more years until I retire.

Hatch1921

I'm not scared of it... just not interested in it. I've taken 5 classes at the local CC and have a AAS in it... but... I truly prefer Cisco ...and the Cisco path. Some people hate Cisco and love Linux... To me... it comes down to what you are comfortable with and what keeps your interest.

alan2308

People are scared of things that are new and/or different. It's not just Linux.

DoubleNNs

Seems like getting good at Linux has a crazy steep learning curve. Not necessarily scared, but put off by the time and effort investment when there are other paths just as interesting and exciting.

Not a bad thing for Linux Admins/Support - keeps the competition down.

ajs1976

this is a certification forum. I don't think certifications are is popular for linux as they are for Microsoft or Cisco.

Asif Dasl

The Cisco forums are the busiest around here, even the Microsoft & VMware forums can get a bit quite sometimes too!

As for linux, I am a better Windows engineer but I will try to learn some more linux this year with VMware. I'm not scared of it though.

The_Expert

Like someone already mentioned - I think people are afraid of what they don't know. Or, folks will generally focus on MS Windows or Mac before thinking about Linux.

That's fine with me. I used to be one of those people too. I was afraid. I thought it was a geeky OS only for hardcore users.

I've changed my ways and now absolutely love linux (after my job required me to learn the OS and get certified in it).

And, for those of you who don't use VI - learn it! It's really not that complicated once you understand it.

elderkai

Vi/ViM are staples of my workflow.

N2IT

I'm not scared of it but I am timid around it.

Master Of Puppets

I think most of the people who are scared of linux are the ones outside of IT. People like us have no reason to be afraid of it.

ITrascal

Now there you guys are.

Plantwiz

Ajs1976 hit the nail on the head...this is a certification forum, folks are here to talk about their certification prep.

ITrascal, if you want 'people around' then you need only post your questions about your training, or such and you will see the members come by your thread to assist or clarify the items you need made clear. Likewise, if you have some expertise and are able to assist another member, feel free to comment appropriately to their question.

antielvis

I think one of the reasons there isn't as much discussion on Linux certifications is that certification wasn't important in the world of UNIX. Over the years I've met some very very skilled UNIX admins who had no certifications. I'm assuming their peers could easily identify they knew what they were talking about.

Are people scared of Linux? Not so much scared as perhaps not interested in the long learning required to become proficient at Linux. I have both Linux and Windows skills and I'll be the first to say learning the basics of a MS product comes quicker than Linux. Secondly, most people shuffle up through Support Desk to Desktop & are exposed to Windows..so the transition is easier to Windows Server is easier.

Initially..Linux does appear tougher to understand and use. But as you get the feel for it, you realize it's much more flexible than Windows is & more powerful. It's just that path takes a longer time.

Swift6

You wanted motivation..now you got it.

Linux is the so-called different to the common Windows approach. You will find a bigger resource pool of folks skilled in Windows than Linux.
However, you will find primarily find Linux in the backends of many critical systems worldwide. It really makes the world go round.

EV42TMAN

I'm not scared of it, I just believe that in the business environment is more trouble then its worth sometimes. For example I have a client that has a linux based web server that runs their photo portal. Its a web site where their clients upload and download photos that they want edited. The machine runs Red Hat 5.6 and I can't upgrade it without breaking the software that runs on top of it. So every time I have to troubleshoot it I have to walk through this process. First look at how that version of Red Hat works with Apache, Then look at how the web portal software modifies Apache, then look at how the software reseller's custom management software for the web portal modifies Apache. A 30 minute fix on windows turns into 2 to 3 hours on that machine.

sorry for the rant.

JaneDoe

I decided if I'm going to do a Linux cert, I'll the RHCSA even though I'm a Debian person. Red Hat certifications are awesome because they give you access to man pages and help menus so you don't have to memorize loads of crap you would usually look up. They test you based on what you can do not whether or not you've memorized the output of every command --help. I love performance based testing; it's more in line with how my brain works than the regurgitation of details required by multiple choice tests.

W Stewart

Redhat certs are probably the only certs that really matter in the US as far as linux goes and even then it's always usually only on the nice to have list rather than a requirement. A degree seems to be more of a requirement at times than any linux certification along with experience of course.

wallpaper_01

The first computer I used for a few years was a Microsoft DOS one, knew this inside out, then went to Windows 3.1/95/98 etc... When I discovered Linux in 2008 I think my DOS experience helped me not be scared, and a few starter commands were similar. But had I never experienced command line, I'm not sure I would have felt comfortable on Linux and maybe would passed it by. I can totally see why people don't want to use it or are scared.

I use Linux regularly but want to take the L+ to get my foundation down and eliminate bad habits I've probably picked up!

antielvis

wallpaper_01 wrote: »

I use Linux regularly but want to take the L+ to get my foundation down and eliminate bad habits I've probably picked up!

If you can make the CISCO CCNA you shouldn't have much trouble with Linux command line. They kinda/sorta feel the same in some ways. Not the same commands always but the same way of doing things. Netapp uses CLI too.

W Stewart

Once you install bash-completion, life will get a whole lot easier. Just double tab for the arguments to commands rather than reading through --help.

antielvis

W Stewart wrote: »

Once you install bash-completion, life will get a whole lot easier. Just double tab for the arguments to commands rather than reading through --help.

Tab completion is part of the BASH shell, so no need to install it. There are add ons for BASH and VI to colorize certain links, etc, and make it a bit easier to read.

emaz

For me personally when I have been on the job market, as some have pointed out, it has not been a requirement but more of a nice to have. Although, what I am noticing more are companies such a cisco, rapid7, RSA and others that provide their own hardware to customers their main application is built on top of the Linux OS instead of windows in order to avoid the downtime that is associated with windows patches. As a system/network admin when troubleshooting or upgrading these appliances you have to have somewhat of an Idea of what is going on in order to accomplish such tasks. Then again these companies supply support which will then take care of such things as well. I think as time moves on it could become more of the environment as more appliances/servers may be running off of the Linux core, but with Cisco and MS being the top dogs in corporate/business environment its hard to take up Linux as your strong suite of expertise.

brownwrap

emaz wrote: »

Then again these companies supply support which will then take care of such things as well. I think as time moves on it could become more of the environment as more appliances/servers may be running off of the Linux core, but with Cisco and MS being the top dogs in corporate/business environment its hard to take up Linux as your strong suite of expertise.

Well, I don't know Windows, nor do I know Cisco, but I do manage to make a living on only Linux and Unix. I have only used some flavor of one or the other in my day-to-day job since 1988. In fact most of my work these days is just a small piece of Linux, get software that is freely available to compile and run on Red Hat, like:

NCO Homepage

Sy Kosys

wallpaper_01 wrote: »

The first computer I used for a few years was a Microsoft DOS one, knew this inside out, then went to Windows 3.1/95/98 etc......I think my DOS experience helped me not be scared, and a few starter commands were similar. But had I never experienced command line, I'm not sure I would have felt comfortable on Linux and maybe would passed it by. I can totally see why people don't want to use it or are scared.

I know exactly what you mean, my DOS 5 - 6.22 exposure is making some correlations to me having to learn Linux in my new job (started 2 weeks ago lol). I remember having LAN parties playing Doom and Quake, using DOS to make a custom network boot disk for our IPX/SPX network hahahaha...but I digress.
I find Linux to honestly be challenging, but not impossible. Being able to have the DOS command line frame of reference has been a huge help in learning it. Like one of our instructors at work said about it the other day, "Linux is just like any other operating system, except there's 15 different ways to do the same thing".

W Stewart

antielvis wrote: »

Tab completion is part of the BASH shell, so no need to install it. There are add ons for BASH and VI to colorize certain links, etc, and make it a bit easier to read.

Tab completion and bash-completion are two different things. Tab completion will auto-complete file and directory names for you. It won't auto-complete arguments to commands. That's what bash-completion does and at least on CentOS it needs to be installed as a separate rpm.

ccnpninja

Knowing Linux helps in the networking world nowadays. I'm working with Cisco devices that rely on RedHat OSes..

pamccabe

Swift6 wrote: »

You wanted motivation..now you got it.

Linux is the so-called different to the common Windows approach. You will find a bigger resource pool of folks skilled in Windows than Linux.
However, you will find primarily find Linux in the backends of many critical systems worldwide. It really makes the world go round.

I apologize I didn't read every single reply because I'm busy. However, this reply really summed it up for me. Yes, Linux I think has a great web server market but you will find Window backbones everywhere. It is almost a must have skill. Linux/Unix jobs seem to be few and far between. Please correct me if I am wrong because I could be. Graduates can make good money right out of school with Windows knowledge. Linux/Unix seems to be a niche and most people aren't going to chase that. I know guys who have been doing help desk jobs for 10+ years and won't do an A+ certification because they have to renew it every few years. People are wired differently. Guys like us on this forum, see the benefit and will chase it, others have their job and are happy. To each his own.

ally_uk

I grew up with Windows started with 3.1 those were the days
My journey began with Linux a few years ago I was told by a sysadmin / guru to build a firewall out of a old Pentium 2 rig being the young grasshopper and naive and coming from a windows world I was like

" Sure what version of win would
You like me to install"

He looked at me bemused and replied

" Debian"

To which the cogs in my brain began to turn do I dare ask the question?

" Debian wtf is Debian? "

More questions followed

" Linux? Wtf is Linux? "

And so my journey into the world of GNU / Linux began. You can imagine my initial reactions when I first got the machine fired up a terminal prompt? Wtf is this? Where's the pretty pictures?

I was intrigued / hooked it became a hobby Whilst my other colleagues were sat on there XP boxes playing solitaire and installing drivers I was making use of my downtime, I would spend my time reading up on BASH and became a command line ninja in no time.

I put my new gained confidence to use and built a NAS old dual processor Pentium 3 rig loaded with a raid card and stacked to the rafters with ultra 320s I named my masterpiece Shinobi and it served us well for over a year

I guess I am wired differently I initially was intrigued with Linux even though I didn't know wtf is was I used to sit and watch the sysadmin do he's thing in the terminal and there was a certain awe about he's knowledge.

Windows has become my second option the reason being in comparison to Linux once you get under the hood and tinker and truly understand the power and open model and stability I have no real reason to use Windows.

Also I get something out of Linux which I don't get from windows I find it alot more interesting guess I have been bitten by the Linux bug.

Don't get me wrong I have used various Microsoft products but I really have no desire to learn there server technologies and if I needed to I can pick up windows related stuff pretty quick.

If you are feeling daunted by Linux best advice I can give knowledge takes time to acquire unless you are a god

Get hands on break stuff, experiment and enjoy if your not enjoying it dont do it

Zazzler

Not scared - always been on my radar, plus I manage a dozen Linux machines at my job. I always wondered between Linux+ and LPIC-1, I know they're both 2 exams - but are they they same exact exams? If so, why would people only take the LPIC-1 instead of starting at Linux+? I've always been curious. I don't know if people assume that Linux+ is "easier" or "harder" than taking the LPIC-1...

Before my job, I had 0 experience with Linux. So I killed my machine and put Linux on it instead of Windows, and just taught myself from there.

ehnde

Congratulations, you are on your way to beardliness.

I just passed LPIC-1 last month. It wasn't as hard as the CCNA composite exam but it was still pretty darn hard. LPIC-1 covers a wide range of topics. Don't care about printing and CUPS but love VI? Too bad...you need to learn CUPS. Treat those exam objectives like a bible and you will pass. And work on that beard.