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Old 01-04-2008, 09:12 PM   #1
xri
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How many IT professionals know Linux?


As a Linux user, I thought initially that virtually all IT professionals (I know there are many types and levels) have had some contact with Unix. I believed that it was in a way a mandatory part of their training.

To my dismay, I have found on several instances that many of these "experts" know only Windows, and see my enthusiasm for Linux with disdain.

It's been frustrating when I got to work with a specific employer and tried to adapt my workplace to be Open Source friendly (like connecting with my home computer, making the files compatible, etc). Only on few occasions I received help from the "experts" and sometimes my intentions were met with outright hostility.

I guess I'm just venting my feelings on this post. I would like to see some advise as to how to survive my forced interaction with these narrow-minded fellows in the future.
 
Old 01-04-2008, 10:52 PM   #2
Mega Man X
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The absolutely best thing to do if you don't like your work environment is to find another job. I had a very good job last year that I waited for a life time to get, but I could not stand 8-10 hours a day together with a bunch of idiots, so I left.

On the other hand, if you like what you do and like the people you work with, stop trying to force Linux on people, especially if you are working in a Windows environment. It is like going to a catholic church and trying to show everybody how much better Islam is and showing them your Qur'an. Let them have their own opinions and do your job the best you can...
 
Old 01-04-2008, 11:27 PM   #3
jay73
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So what did you expect? To the average employer the average windows administrator is a guru. Have them grapple with something they haven't got a clue about and out goes their splendid reputation. Not to say that there aren't any excellent windows administrators, there really are - but the majority definitely are not. Other than conservatism, it's very much a matter of egos, reputations and the size of pay-checks (the size often being determined by the subjective perception of an employee's expertise in the field).
 
Old 01-04-2008, 11:28 PM   #4
carlosinfl
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Yeah - according to my boss and the company I work for, "UNIX (Linux also) is a dying technology.

I myself as the Network Administrator for my facility prefer Linux only but I will admit there is so much about Linux I just don't know at it becomes frustrating at times.

I am not going to say Linux is perfect because it does have its flaws as does anything else in the world however its all I know and am clueless in Windows environment.
 
Old 01-05-2008, 12:49 AM   #5
btmiller
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I'm a sysadmin, so I guess I count as an IT Professional, and the vast majority of the systems I support run Linux (with a few Mac and Windows systems plus the occasional system still running a proprietary UNIX).

Sadly, there are plenty of IT Pros who came into the field after the rise of Windows and so never had to work on *nix (and not all of these are paper MCSEs -- I've known several very good people who simply had never been exposed to *nix). It's too bad because I tend to believe most truly technical people would come to prefer *nix if they gave it a fair shot. Most computer science college graduates get at least some Unix exposure, but CS grads tend to go into programming more than systems and operations, from the numbers I've seen.

I don't believe for a second that Unix and Linux are dying. For example they're very popular in the research and academic markets (where I am) and are holding their own in the corporate data center. I did read something interesting (maybe on Jeremy's blog) that *nix doesn't have much presence in the small to medium sized business sector where, on the whole, the IT organization is smaller and potentially less experienced.
 
Old 01-05-2008, 02:06 PM   #6
xri
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It's very interesting to read your experiences as IT professionals.
I can see how wrong I was while expecting too much from these folks. I'm just a computer user and my area of expertise lies elsewhere. However, I enjoy tweaking my computers and demanding a lot from them. I will definitely refrain from doing the same with humans.
 
  


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