Hot skills: The open source operating system
Linux offers growing job opportunities
What is it?
About 25% of enterprises will be running mission-critical
business applications on the Linux open source operating system by
2009, according to a survey by Saugatuck Technology and
BusinessWeek Research Services. By the end of 2007 the figure will
be 18%.
But this follows the revelation by IDC that after four years of
double-digit growth, sales of Linux servers are slowing down.
Although Linux servers now represent 11.8% of all server revenue,
growth for the third quarter of 2006 was about 16% of that for the
third quarter of 2005.
Hewlett-Packard sells the most Linux servers, but it is less
actively committed to Linux than IBM and, latterly, Sun.
Linux has been ported to more machines than any other operating
system and it is challenging Symbian for dominance of the
smartphone market. Elsewhere, it is making inroads into embedded
systems.
It is also being sold by Microsoft, after a deal with Novell,
which finally acknowledges that users may want both Windows and
Linux in their installations. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse were
among Microsoft’s first SuSE Linux customers.
Where did it originate?
In 1991, University of Helsinki student Linus Torvalds invited
help with a free operating system kernel, based on Unix, which he
described as “just a hobby, won’t be big and professional”.
Torvalds wanted to call it Freax.
Linux was first taken up widely as a platform for the Apache web
server. In 1999, Microsoft began taking it seriously, with the
first of many sweeping attacks. By 2000, IBM was offering Linux
across most of its servers.
What’s it for?
Linux is the foundation of the Lamp (Linux, Apache,
MySQL/PostgreSQL, Perl/PHP/Python) development stack. Linux-based
enterprise applications are also written in Java and C++. Although
generally seen as an alternative to Microsoft, it can be used as a
platform for C#, using the Mono version of .net.
What makes it special?
Linux is generally reliable and secure, without the
architectural upheavals of proprietary operating systems. Although
technically the operating system and support are free, the question
of cost of ownership has been muddied by hired teams of analysts;
Microsoft claims Windows is cheaper to own.
What is not in dispute is the value of the collaborative effort
that has gone into Linux. A study of one Linux distribution found
55 million lines of code that would have cost a supplier £1bn to
develop.
How difficult is it to master?
Like Unix before it, Linux appealed first to hardcore techies
who made few concessions to the less knowledgeable. Linux
distributions now come with all the user-friendly bells and
whistles that can be expected with any mass-market operating
system.
There are various Windows emulators, such as Wine, that enable
you to continue to work with familiar Windows applications while
migrating to Linux.
Where is it used?
As well as in the enterprise, on midrange systems and
mainframes, Linux is favoured for supercomputers. But it has yet to
make the long-forecast breakthrough onto the desktop.
What’s coming up?
2007 is predicted to be the year when Linux virtualisation
projects bear fruit, enabling multiple virtual systems to run in a
single physical location.
Training
Paid-for Linux certification and training is available from Red
Hat, IBM, Novell and other Linux suppliers and support companies.
There are free online tutorials on many sites. More information at:
www.linux.org
Rates of pay
Junior Linux systems administrators can earn £25,000 to £30,000,
rising rapidly with experience.
Catch up with previous Hot Skills
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