On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Eric Lovrien <eric.lovrien at gmail.com> wrote: > I am just wondering how many people work a full time job working on just > Linux? I see many job postings out there for Windows Admins ..etc with > experience in Linux (1/90th of the job role). Over the last few years I have > been dreaming of the day I can do it full time. I don't see many job > postings out there for these types of positions. I almost fit this description. I work at a software development and support company (Nagios Enterprises), and our software is designed on and runs on Linux only. Our supported platforms are Red Hat and CentOS, although most of us use Ubuntu writing the code and such. We're not "just Linux" as our desktops actually run Windows XP, and that is used by one of the developers and our sales/marketing department, but the other developers / support / documentation people use Ubuntu in various sorts of virtual machines for most of our work, with dozens of CentOS VMs going for testing. My previous IT job (at Saint Paul College) was probably 40/40/20 Linux/Solaris/Windows, with Windows on workstations in half the computer labs, Solaris on some of our "big" servers and serving the thin clients for the other half of the computer labs, and Linux (originally Fedora, switched to Ubuntu) for all of the various smaller servers. > What is the best way to break into some of these roles? Do you pick a disto > like Red Hat or SUSE and get certified in them, or do you start to > implementing open source solutions like request tracker, sugar crm..etc > running on a Linux system and build your experience that way? Can you get a > Linux Admin role by just passing the LPI exam? You don't get a Linux admin role "just" by doing anything - people hire based on a combination of factors. For me, the Saint Paul College job came by a combination of being noticed as a bright student with an interest in Linux and absurdly serendipitous timing. The Nagios job already had that on the resume, plus customer service and writing experience, and at that point the LPIC-1, and again, timing. My suggestion is this: Do what you love, and eventually you'll have enough experience to get paid for it. If you want to be "the Red Hat guru", by all means go work on RHCE. If you want to be a database administrator, learn MySQL, PostgreSQL, and maybe some Oracle, DB2, and/or MSSQL if you can get your hands on them. I actually have one Microsoft certification (XP admin), but don't intend to go for a full MCSE, and don't always even list it on my resume, because that's not what I want to get hired to do. And in case it wasn't obvious yet, never, EVER underestimate the values of a) TIMING, and b) WHO YOU KNOW (and the impressions you make). The Nagios job was because I happened to look at job listings as part of my semi-routine "what are people looking for in the market?" check and seeing one that actually interested me. The Saint Paul College job I didn't even apply for - they approached me. And for reference, Nagios usually posts positions in two places, this list and Craigslist. They aren't admin jobs (we're not that big), but Linux-related anyhow. - Tony