Survey: Bosses are DESPERATE and GAGGING for Linux skills Demand for IT professionals with Linux skills is stronger than ever, but a new worldwide survey of more than 850 hiring managers and 2,600 Linux professionals indicates that companies are having a hard time finding qualified hires. Among the findings of the survey, which was conducted by careers website Dice and the Linux …
Will it? What will you be developing?
"linux skills" is so nebulous a term as to be effectively meaningless, is the problem. Do they want you to write device drivers or do they need you to install Hadoop or manage an LDAP server? I keep getting sent emails asking me to go back to working on embedded linux for the building industry - sorry, not going to happen because the skills involved -although moderately well-paid (less than £55 though, by a long shot) are a long way from my skillset gained while working on RF base station firmware and that was 10 years ago. I've been doing other stuff since then.
There is literally SO MUCH other stuff that the odds on finding a job doing exactly what you do are minimal and the odds on having the required experience for the big money are vanishingly remote.
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Spread the word and it is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
OMG! Someone's OD'd on the space-cakes.
There'll NEVER be Office for Linux. NEVER. How would MS fully control their painstakingly honed rolling-incompatibility-programme™ and inbuilt-obsolescence™ without maintaining full control of the platform?
A carefully hamstrung toy-Office-cum-subterfuge-tool, quite possibly... but a full "Office for Linux"?!!! NEVER.
If they don't bring Office to Android, somebody else is going to eat their lunch on the tablets. Currently, there is no viable office competitor on Android, so the window is still open to safeguard their office semi-monopoly by porting Office to Android. If they wait one more year, it might be too late.
Plus without office on Android, even more people will be driven into the arms of Google Docs and they will realize that the benefits of collaboration outweigh the lacking features of gdocs.
If they don't bring Office to Android, somebody else is going to eat their lunch on the tablets
It still doesn't seem likely. They may have got some of the way there with the cut-down version of Office for Surface RT, but it is exactly that: cut-down. I've read lots of unsubstantiated comments here that the Office code base is such a mess of x86 assembly for things like macro support is unlikely to be ported any time soon. Also, I read here on the Register that there seem to be political problem within Microsoft as to whether they should even develop and release an ARM version (or a Surface RT version, to be precise) of Outlook. If that's to be believed, then there's probably a considerable faction within MS that would never accede to releasing a Linux (or Android) version of any of their desktop tools.It would completely go against the whole philosophy of maintaining customers through locking them into the Windows ecosystem. And even if they do go down that route, it may, as you say, already be too late .
On a slightly unrelated note, I think that there is definitely a niche there for a "good enough" (which incidentally is a phrase you used to hear at MS to describe their development/release philosophy) office suite. I've been thinking for quite a while now that a suite that had the 80% of features that most people actually need and use could easily capture a significant chunk of the market for "office"/productivity software. People are fed up with massive, bloated systems with tons of arcane features that they'll never use. By paring it down and providing good interoperability between components and across platforms, it should be "good enough" to satisfy all but the most hardcore/insane of users. In keeping with the 80% of functionality idea, I'd suggest calling it "Pareto" (if such a thing doesn't already exist). So long as developers were ruthless about not implementing features just for the sake of it, I think it could go a long way.
This is just my opinion, though. Personally, I've not used Word in many years and I have no need for it unless someone demands a document in that format. If I need something professional looking, I'll plump for LaTeX every time (edited in emacs, naturally :), or just use XML and CSS if I want to mess with layouts and fancy stuff. In either case, I prefer to concentrate on the content rather than formatting (which gets done at the end and is abstracted away from the actual content). This seems to be the opposite of the way that most Word users (and developers) work--style over substance, you might say.
Currently, there is no viable office competitor on Android,
That's because you can't have a viable Office competitor without a real keyboard. Seriously, have you tried to type a report or work with a spreadsheet with nothing but a touchscreen and a virtual keyboard? I'm sure my hairline shrunk back another quarter inch in terror the day I had to do that.
Why not? They produce office for the other single-digit desktop platform as well. So porting to Ubuntu, Suse, RedHat, Mint, RedStar... should not be a technical problem.
No, I'm sure there's no technical problem at all. It'll be what Microsoft euphemistically refer to as "a political problem" - meaning monopolist strategy. That "other single-digit desktop platform" will never offer real competition. A tightly controlled walled garden running exclusively on outdated but overpriced novelty hardware from a single vendor. Hardly a realistic alternative to the cut-throat PC channel - for the myriad corporate minions - is it? Shiny gratification for a handful of bourgeois upper management types maybe but a mass-deployed tool for the plebs to type on? Hardly!
Office for Linux on the other hand... that's a totally different kettle of fish. Contemporary Linux systems run comfortably on whatever decade old commodity hardware happens to be lying around. For example, I just happen to be typing this on an old single core PentiumM laptop sporting 1.5GB RAM and the infamous Intel 855GM graphics abomination. It's running a very recently released (2013) derivative of Debian's forthcoming Wheezy (Crunchbang-Waldorf) which I've been fairly savagely torture-testing. The OS is running from an .ISO file (it's not even "installed" anywhere)!... on an 8GB USB stick!... There's no HDD fitted and no other storage.
Some handy system stats from Conky:
Uptime:______ 20d 14h 45m
Ram:________ 864MiB/1.2GB
Swap usage:__ 1.26GB/4GB
Disk usage:___ 493MiB/616MiB
CPU usage:___ 4%
The "swap" is a partition on the stick and the "disk" is the .ISO(USB)/fusion(RAM) filesystem in case you're wondering.
Clicking to close this Firefox window, I'm warned "You are about to close 174 tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?" I also have an Iceweasel window running. Only 86 open tabs in that though. I've also had three fairly large PDFs lying open for a week or two, along with a text editor with half a dozen tabs, four file browser windows, fifteen "mid res" (2288x1712) JPEGs from the missus, a handful of system tools and three terminal windows (all resting ATM) strewn across three virtual desktops. None too shabby an assortment of clutter I feel. System is as nippy and pleasant to operate as the moment I booted it. I've been expecting the kernel to run out of base RAM at some point - this is a pre-PAE pentium - but 20.5 days in I'm starting to think I'll crack before the it does. If you haven't noticed, I'm quite impressed - but not surprised. So...
Office for Linux? No. Methinks not. The moment Microsoft released it Linux would eat Microsoft's lunch. Office is the Windows lock-in - without that why wouldn't any firm immediately roll out craploads of cloned Debian, Cent OS or RedHat stations for the Office drones? The brass would have their shiny Macs, the drones would have solid, stable, almost timeless systems to work at and everyone but Microsoft would be laughing all the way to the bank. Slowly migrate those odd specialist apps for the technical types, beancounters and whatnot and what's Microsoft left? MS Office. If I was Balmer, that prospect would not be something I'd want to facilitate.
Never understood the "my workstation has been running x years" claims. My company WS goes on Monday around 9:00AM and out Friday around 17:00. Not needed over the weekend. Depending on what I do it might be off past 17:00 during the week - depends on how lazy I feel closing the IDEs etc. Privat unit(s) are only active when I use them. I have no wind propellor on my roof so I pay through the nose for power(1) so why run when they are not in use. They are "sleeping" since Win8 mostly.
Uptime is for servers. And even there regular schedules reboots are common to check that a box with patches etc in comes up clean. We did this even for our process control units once every six month (Specialist OS) as well as various Unix and AS/400 series. Better planned with the backup system running than unplanned (Power etc) and not getting the units back.
As for Linux replacing Windows please remember that Windows is not a cost factor for companies. Small ones get the OS bundled anyway, bigger ones get it at around the same price the OEMs get it. For Linux (or any Unix - you could as well run Solaris on Lenovo or Dell boxes) to replace Windows it has to offer better TOC for the companie. And stuff like "repositories" do not count for many companies since they would never allow "direct updates". Rather the updates etc. are checked by IT and then distributed from an internal server like WSUS on Windows. Installation is "ready image" and a programm that can generate a complete system from a prepared DVD so all units are clones.
Add in stuff like central policy settings that get forced at login-time to the ActiveDirectory and software like Sharepoint (not too uncommen in companies for INTERNAL use) as well as good mid-level RDBMS (SQL-Server) and file servers with sturdy journaling file systems (NTFS) and you have a package that is nice and tidy. Add in Exchange (and Outlook) that are a class better than the only full alternative (Dominoe/Notes) and make use of many of the above systems. Going "all Windows" for internal IT is convenient and a good long term investment given the fact that MS has a proven track record of delivering updates well past the "end of sales", longer than the LTS support at Linux in total typically.
(1) I have recently contacted a slave trader and he promises me four health greenies that I'll put to work on a bicycle generator
Define "experience". I've been in IT for over a decade. I've used Linux on countless occasions. I've deployed Linux servers and clients left, right and centre. Hell, I've programmed on Linux and created things that run all manner of systems.
But the same could be said of a lot of other people, who've done less than me. There's a big difference between slapping in a Linux box from an Ubuntu CD as a basic computer, not touching it to configure it, and deploying a properly managed Linux roll-out, even if it's only for a few select machines. There's a big difference between sticking in a pre-fab Linux server and sitting down and building one from software components.
I have a Linux server in front of me now, another running the website for my workplace, and 50 client machines on Linux upstairs - not to mention what's lying around in terms of kiosks, touchscreens, etc. that do their job nor even things like embedded Linux clients that we use for certain purposes.
The server, though, runs everything from fax-to-email services, Internet load balancing and fail-over, SMS gateway (with automated integration to do things like open firewalls and even cut the power to other devices through USB relay boards), file server, backup staging server (backup to that, it backs up to a remote overnight), web filter, email server, support ticket server, instant messaging server, VPN server, it provides any number of facilities that staff use every day - hell, it even interrogates remote Firebird databases on embedded devices in our access control software to draw up In/Out boards on the intranet that it serves, and print out lists of people in the case of a fire.
Now if/when I go, and someone has to come in and manage that, a guy who says "Linux skills" on their CV might not be anywhere close to being able to actually manage it, replicate it or replace it - even with all the documentation in the world. Hell, the version of Hylafax I use has my own custom patches in it and replacing it with a stock version stops a lot of things that people expect to "just work" from working. The kernel is patched to provide proper dropped-connection detection for the external lines and to kick them back into action and modify routing tables as necessary. I know people who, in trying to replicate that functionality, could spend £10,000 on 20 different devices to do the same things.
My problem with this is that it's like saying "Windows skills are in big demand". All that you'd get it you put "Windows" into a job title / description is a thousand applications from school-leavers who "know Windows". But if you just advertise the job title, that should be enough. If I was to wander into a old-school Unix shop tomorrow, I don't claim to know damn all about it, but if it was my current job that just so happened to be using Unix instead of Windows/Mac/Linux, then I would be expected to pick it up. The skills are transferable and the knowledge is easily available. Somehow singling out Linux as "some magical thing" that earns more money, I think is a silly thing to do. Anyone worth their salt should have played with all current operating systems in one form or another, even if in only quite minor ways.
If you can't find people with Linux skills, you're not even trying to hire the right sort of people anyway. You're hiring people who've gone through an MCSE and think they know everything there is to know about computers, servers, the Internet and everything else. Of course they are cheaper, but if you'd hired properly in the first place, you could throw just about anything in front of the right person and you wouldn't even need to pay them to train on the new OS, programming language or whatever else.
The number of people with half-assed Linux "skills" is less than those with half-assed Windows "skills", of course. That goes without saying. But the problem is that if you are honestly hiring someone with a job title of, say, "Linux IT Manager", or "Linux Server Deployment Specialist" or whatever else you want, then it just shows that your existing staff aren't competent or capable of learning something new. In the same way, I'm expected to "just know" Server 2012 and Office 2013 without any formal training, from testing through deployment to end-user support. Because I was hired properly, it's not a hindrance. But sod having to advertise for a "Server 2012 IT Technician" or whatever.
It costs more, because you're not hiring button-clickers. You're hiring people who have a broad knowledge that covers more than the job initially requires. And separating them from the "I once installed Ubuntu" crowd is kind of what the whole recruitment process is about, whatever the OS.
It does beg the question as to what exactly Linux skills are. From my perspective it is the ability to install and manage preferred distro only and a good example of how the IT industry continues to sell deskilling as desirable.
I guess it's broadly to be welcomed that Linux is being accepted as a standard server OS and licences aren't just being paid for pretty logos but any companies running anything important on those servers should be prepared to pay for proper sys admins who can install from source, including patching if necessary.
"Now if/when I go, and someone has to come in and manage that, a guy who says "Linux skills" on their CV might not be anywhere close to being able to actually manage it, replicate it or replace it - even with all the documentation in the world. "
Hmm. I've had to manage systems created by people like you. It's usually easier to scrap them and start again with something maintanable, and standard. Most companies only hire sysadmins like that once. Once is enough, sigh.
You make a good point actually. There're plenty of people out there who 'know' Linux well enough to run it at home, but there's a world of difference between running a Linux desktop with the latest version of Mint and deploying and maintaining a Linux server farm. Personally I have my fair share of Linux skills and could probably do some of the jobs that are looking for said skills, but I'd never claim to be at a professional level with Linux in general. I can handle Linux clients and LAMP servers, and if I had to I could probably handle file and print servers, but I'd have to be daft to apply for a position as a Linux administrator with my skillset.
That is the reason why the controllers and distributors of many bot nets and bots are hacked Linux units at the big hosters. Their personal for that department is typically neither certified nor experienced and the installations often are used well past "due date" to cut costs. There is a lot more to secure a system box than setting a root password.
Good Admins are costly. They need training and tutorship well past "4th semester IT student that likes Linux" and a broad set of skills not only with the base os but also with the software that runs on it, firewalls, load-balancers. performance tuning for the server job(1) and system architecture. And for a system that is visible to the world a good admin is essential.
Setting up a "toy" box for internal testing/development even at the company level OTOH is plug and play with the big distributions as it is with Windows server. It sits resonably save behind the company firewall (or the DSL router firewall) and modern distributions are pretty much locked down. That is something any software developer does on the side. Performance issues rarely come up (slower is actually better for a test server - if it works good there the customer servers will have no problems) so tuning is not required
(1) A file server has different needs than an application server or a database server and so on
Your system sounds like a complete clusterfuck. One might go so far as to suggest you've purposefully built it to be incomprehensible to anyone but yourself for job security purposes.
"I know people who, in trying to replicate that functionality, could spend £10,000 on 20 different devices to do the same things."
If those were 20 different devices which were maintained in a standardised manner, and which could therefore have their ownership passed on to others in a usable state without having to rebuild the whole system from scratch, then that sounds like it would be £10,000 well spent.
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Meanwhile, a second Senate bill floated on Wednesday, dubbed the "Startup Act 3.0", would create additional visas for foreign entrepreneurs.
Here is a self-defeating block on major skills migration to the US, virtually guaranteeing cowboy performance and incestuous solutions, and the madness resulting from those is an open secret. ........ Register Now U.S. CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED ..... http://icvirtualfair.com/
Although, and a lot of folk may not already know this, if you are needed because of what you can do to and/or for Uncle Sam, no matter where you be from, can you suddenly be also a US citizen, which is handy if cowgals are your bag .... or cowboys if that is your bent, and dollars by the fistsful do not disagree with you.:-)
But, if the gospel truth be told, anyone with the right skillset available for purchase and deployment and future maintenance and protection, is a cash cow for bilking if you are able, or milking if you are not yourself smarter enabled, and invariably always easily bought with nothing more valuable than flash cash/printed paper, which is quite magical, is it not, because for practically/virtually nothing is it possible to have virtually/practically everything and anything, provided those with the right skillsets are provided with their passionate needs and physical desires which can all be easily bought with flash cash so you yourself don't have to bother yourself with supply.
Fuck going to America on a skilled worker visa, most visas don't put you on a path towards citizenship, and without citizenship, you're treated worse than Sri Lankan maids in Dubai.
Friend of mine, working in America for the same company for 5 years, the company and DoHS fuck up his visa renewal, and he gets deported back to the UK in order to renew the visa. Those 5 years, due to his visa type, don't even start him off the road to citizenship. Neither does his baby daughter, legally a US citizen.
Even with citizenship, you're treated like an American, and who wants that?
Neither does his baby daughter, legally a US citizen.
If she was born on US soil then you've been lied to. Anyone born here is a US citizen, regardless of the nationality of the parents. At least until she's old enough to renounce it (if she so chooses, of course). That is, of course, unless the law has changed since my high school civics class twenty some-odd years ago.
As for the road to citizenship, I'm no expert but I believe you have to live here for 7 years before that road opens for anyone regardless of the visa type you have. I was handed my citizenship at birth though, so I may be mistaken about that. The people who have to earn their citizenship are better informed on such things than the rest of us are.
I love these articles, they are such a work of fiction. £55k is average? Where? The City and for ultra-highly qualified experts? Take that £55k and divide it my two, that'll give you are more accurate figure.
As for switching jobs - nearly impossible. The market is dead and the employers want many, many years of expertise and skills for buttons.
Places that are not London, or the UK (or maybe Europe?)
IT/Software Salaries here are very deflated compared to other places. In the US and Australia they wouldn't stand for the sort of money employers get away with paying in the UK. The only way I've found to match it is to go contracting.
"City != London != UK"
Well it also wasn't a UK survey, it was global, and likely with a huge bias for the US, where $60K would be an insult to anyone with a bit of experience, but £40k seems to be regarded as a 'pretty good salary' here by a lot of folks (outside The City of course).
What is included in the money? I.e how is health care, retirement pay etc. Part of the salary. split 50/50 or not at all and "pay your own".
British NHS or german "Krankenkasse" may not be the greatest think but they beat what many US workers have easily. Same for retirement systems, number of days of etc. (I.e germans get 25 days minimum if doing 5days/8hours, 30 is more typical)
http://jobboerse.arbeitsagentur.de/vamJB/startseite.html?kgr=as&aa=1&m=1&vorschlagsfunktionaktiv=true
"Linux bash" 138 hits
"Windows MSCE" 2 hits
"Linux gcc" 9 hits
"Windows Visual C++" 146 hits
"Linux Perl" MORE THAN 200 hits (200 is the limit)
"Linux Qt" 51 hits
"Windows Qt" 44 hits
For a start it's "Microsoft MCSE" - There are Server, SQL and Cloud MCSEs...
From Jobserve, a rather better known jobsite:
Microsoft Server - 5,835 jobs
Microsoft MCSE - 4,693 jobs
Linux Admin - 2,756 jobs
Visual C++ 1,483 jobs
Linux Perl 1,293 jobs
Linux bash 1,178 jobs
I don't know about DWP, but ArbeitsAgentur does have proper jobs in their listings. The search engine works properly. Of course there are tons of other agencies around here.
And yeah, search engine statistics are certainly not the Objective Picture Of Reality. Maybe someone can come up with the URL to that one !
"I don't know about DWP ..."
I didn't know about ArbeitsArgentur myself. So I went there. If you do the same with the DWP you might get my point.
"And yeah, search engine statistics are certainly not the Objective Picture Of Reality. Maybe someone can come up with the URL to that one !"
And yet, you used those statistics to try to make your point. So I don't know what you're actually trying to say there. Anyway, don't worry about. Everyone here seems to trawl for a site - any site - to support their point. Anyhoo, in your short time since joining, you've demonstrated you're another Eadon (if not just a sock puppet,) so I'll pop you in the same "Troll - don't respond or vote" bin. Please try to avoid posting too much - it's a pain scrolling past this kind of stuff. Thanks.
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