help you as well.
But whether you seek to develop the next great open source software project or simply want to gain the skills needed to compete for the thousands of well-paying Linux administrator or development jobs, it will help you to know how to install, secure, and maintain Linux systems.
So, what are the prospects for Linux careers? “The 2014 Linux Jobs Report” from the Linux Foundation (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linux-foundation/linux-adoption-trends-end-user-report-2014) surveyed more than 1,100 hiring managers and 4,000 Linux professionals. Here is what the Linux Foundation found:
● Linux talent is a high priority– Hiring people with Linux expertise is a priority for 77 percent of hiring managers.
● Career advancement with Linux– As for career opportunities, 86 percent of Linux professionals reported that Linux knowledge increased career opportunities.
● More Linux recruiting– Of the hiring managers surveyed, 46 percent reported that they planned to increase recruitment of Linux talent from the previous year (up 3 percent from the previous year).
The major message to take from this survey is that Linux continues to grow and create demands for Linux expertise. Companies that have begun using Linux have continued to move forward with Linux. Those using Linux continue to expand its use and find that cost savings, security, and the flexibility it offers continue to make Linux a good investment.
Understanding how companies make money with Linux
Open source enthusiasts believe that better software can result from an open source software development model than from proprietary development models. So in theory, any company creating software for its own use can save money by adding its software contributions to those of others to gain a much better end product for themselves.
Companies that want to make money by selling software need to be more creative than they were in the old days. Although you can sell the software you create that includes GPL software, you must pass the source code of that software forward. Of course, others can then recompile that product, basically using and even reselling your product without charge. Here are a few ways that companies are dealing with that issue:
● Software subscriptions– Red Hat, Inc., sells its Red Hat Enterprise Linux products on a subscription basis. For a certain amount of money per year, you get binary code to run Linux (so you don't have to compile it yourself), guaranteed support, tools for tracking the hardware and software on your computer, access to the company's knowledge base, and other assets.
Although Red Hat's Fedora project includes much of the same software and is also available in binary form, there are no guarantees associated with the software or future updates of that software. A small office or personal user might take a risk on using Fedora (which is itself an excellent operating system), but a big company that's running mission-critical applications will probably put down a few dollars for RHEL.
● Training and certification– With Linux system use growing in government and big business, professionals are needed to support those systems. Red Hat offers training courses and certification exams to help system administrators become proficient using Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. In particular, the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certifications have become popular (http://www.redhat.com/certification). More on RHCE/RHCSA certifications later in this chapter.
Other certification programs are offered by Linux Professional Institute (http://www.lpi.org), CompTIA (http://www.comptia.org), and Novell (https://training.novell.com/). LPI and CompTIA are professional computer industry associations. Novell centers its training and certification on its SUSE Linux products.
● Bounties– Software bounties are a fascinating way for open source software companies to make money. Suppose you are using XYZ software package and you need a new feature right away. By paying a software bounty to the project itself, or to other software developers, you can have your needed improvements moved to the head of the queue. The software you pay for will remain covered by its open source license, but you will have the features you need, at probably a fraction of the cost of building the project from scratch.
● Donations– Many open source projects accept donations from individuals or open source companies that use code from their projects. Amazingly, many open source projects support one or two developers and run exclusively on donations.
● Boxed sets, mugs, and T-shirts– Some open source projects have online stores where you can buy boxed sets (some people still like physical DVDs and hard copies of documentation) and a variety of mugs, T-shirts, mouse pads, and other items. If you really love a project, for goodness sake, buy a T-shirt!
This is in no way an exhaustive list, because more creative ways are being invented every day to support those who create open source software. Remember that many people have become contributors to and maintainers of open source software because they needed or wanted the software themselves. The contributions they make for free are worth the return they get from others who do the same.
Becoming Red Hat certified
Although this book is not focused on becoming certified in Linux, it touches on the activities you need to be able to master to pass popular Linux certification exams. In particular, most of what is covered in the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) exams for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is described in this book.
If you are looking for a job as a Linux IT professional, often RHCSA or RHCE certification is listed as a requirement or at least a preference for employers. The RHCSA exam (EX200) provides the basic certification, covering such topics as configuring disks and filesystems, adding users, setting up a simple web and FTP server, and adding swap space. The RHCE exam (EX300) tests for more advanced server configuration, as well an advanced knowledge of security features, such as SELinux and firewalls.
Those of us who have taught RHCE/RHCSA courses and given exams (as I did for three years) are not allowed to tell you exactly what is on the exam. However, Red Hat gives an overview of how the exams work, as well as a list of topics you can expect to see covered in the exam. You can find those exam objectives on the following sites:
● RHCSA—http://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/ex200-red-hat-certified-system-administrator-rhcsa-exam
● RHCE—http://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/ex300-red-hat-certified-engineer-rhce-exam
As the exam objectives state, the RHCSA and RHCE exams are performance-based, which means that you are given tasks to do and you must perform those tasks on an actual Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, as you would on the job. You are graded on how well you obtained the results of those tasks.
If you plan to take the exams, check back to the exam objectives pages often, because they change from time to time. Keep in mind also that the RHCSA is a standalone certification; however, you must pass the RHCSA and the
