[Tuxaloosa] Linux Proficiency

[Cameron Purvis]

If you're not a goals kind of guy, you might want to think of it more
as a journey.  That's hokey, but in terms of Unix/Linux I can't help
but think that it's a process that mever gets completed.  The
automated stuff, like Allen suggests, are just layers over the 'bad
old way'.  The nice thing about the bad old way is that if doesn't
matter which Linux you learn, it's approximately the same anywhere you
go.

As for what it means to be proficient, I think it depends on context.
When I started working with this stuff the basic needs of our Unix
environment, and the range of what it could do, were different.  Given
the skills you see as neccesary to service the Unix landscape you
perceive, what would you think is important to know?

I started out with access to a Sun box, an Ultrix system and an old
(old!) Slackware system, and was getting nowhere.  "How much to I know
this" became something unmeasureable without specializng on one
consistent platform  (Redhat) and then focusing on particular tasks.
Otherwise it was impossible to tell if my problems were due to lack of
skills or weirdness in the platform.  Even if the choice isn't the
best, it's consistent.  Distro-hopping is a big barrier to progress;
there is always a nicer distro, probably coming out today, and another
one next week.  If you at least stick in the family then there's less
to unlearn.  I don't let myself change Linux flavor more than once a
year, after an exciting month where I went through four flavors on my
home computer and realized I was accomplishing nothing.

It's been a while but my first roadmap was something like:  hit the
high points and then drill into the stuff I needed to do.  I gauged my
personal progress in terms of specific clusters of tasks.  Once I knew
how _printing_ worked, I just needed to find out the dialect
differences on any other Unix I needed to use.  My initial roadmap was
something like

- installation and login
- log file identification and extracts (sed, awk, perl)
- job scheduling (cron, at)
- printing (lpd) from and through the system (print server services)
- web server (static pages, cgi)
- X Windows install (hey, it was a long time ago)

and so on.  Once I got pretty comfortable with something and was used
to it, I'd kick things up a bit by, for instance, moving away from the
Redhat standard package and downloading the current one and building
from source.  Building stuff from source is a great way to knock the
'magic' out of it.  Another alternative is if you find something
that's hard, easy, or interesting to you, take a tangent!  Get 'into'
it and monkey with the works.  Some people have a few super-hero skill
areas;  you might be the guy who completely groks cups, or grub, or
something like that.  And being a person with general proficiency but
a complete zenlike knowledge of a few things is admirable and often
quite hirable :)

If you really want to up the ante of knowing the low-level parts,
check out Linux From Scratch.  It's a real old-school build technique
that basically has you build your whole system from source.  The WHOLE
thing.

As for certifications, a colleague really like the Redhat
certification.  It cost a little money but he said it was quality -
not just class tests, but testing and teaching and practical exams:
here's a web server.  It's down.  Fix it.  :)




> -----Original Message-----
> From: tuxaloosa-bounces at tuxaloosa.org
> [mailto:tuxaloosa-bounces at tuxaloosa.org] On Behalf Of Michael Ramm
> Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 10:07 PM
> To: Tuxaloosa; BALU Linux/Free Software Discussion; Alabama Ubuntu LoCo
> Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Linux Proficiency
>
> I am not a goals kind of guy, but I have decided that in 2009, I would
> like to become proficient in the Linux operating system.
>
> What exactly does that mean? I am not really sure, and that is why I
> bring the question to the lists.
>
> I have been using Linux full time on my work laptop since late 2007. So
> I am at about 1 year of using Linux everyday. I am light years ahead of
> where I was when I decided to move to Ubuntu. I have stayed with Ubuntu
> on my work laptop, but my desktops at home have seen Ubuntu, Crunchbang
> [1] and Arch Linux on them. I have settled on Crunchbang 8.10 for my
> desktop, and possibly my next work laptop.
>
> When I first started thinking of metrics that I can use to measure
> proficiency, I thought of some sort of Linux certification. There are
> two Linux certifications that I found. CompTIA Linux+[2] and Linux
> Professional Institute [3] has a three level certification program as
> well. I am thinking that I would not get the actual certification, but
> instead just pass some of the practice tests. I have heard from a
> twitter friend who is also a Linux trainer that both of those certs are
> out of date.
>
> What are your thoughts on metrics for Linux proficiency? What can I use
> to gauge my progress through this trek?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Michael
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