Linux Foundation sets up Job Board, cites 80 percent growth in Linux-related jobs
By Vlad Savov 
posted January 15th 2010 7:16AM
posted January 15th 2010 7:16AM
[Thanks to Overlord59 for the Tux images]
posted January 15th 2010 7:16AM
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what is this 80% in real numbers?
So, samurai and 30's-era gangster are now jobs you can apply for? WHERE DO I SIGN UP ? ? ?
@blland I person working 4 sdays a week?
@blland It's not hard to hit 80% (OVER 5 YEARS) when you start with like 5 jobs to begin with.
Love the pictures of the dude in different 4 outfits!
@allston232
Minitux ftw
@allston232 I was going to add that same comment, so I'll just add to what you wrote. Those Penguin picture are too funny.
Android didn't do this?
@Reisa
I wouldn't think Android or ChromeOS had much, if anything, to do with this. I highly doubt corporate America is adding "linux-related" jobs for cellphones and netbooks.
I would think it would be more server room related with virtualization and other cost reduction measures driving this.
@Reisa, Android is, if we except the core-level stuff, further from linux than even the webOS. If something is responsible for the job maket increase in the linux arena, it certainly ain't the Android...
A fully burdened employee costs the same no matter if he has Windows, Mac or Linux skills. The cost of licenses is nothing compared to the cost of people where healthcare and other costs grow faster than license costs.
Linux is not enough for companies to hire "new" people.
Companies are still more likely to outsource/offshore than to hire new people.
@Zo
it does cost the same health and benefit wise.. but you will get more bang for your buck with a linux adept individual.. more than likely he/she is skilled with other os packages and has inherent knowledge of networking and computers in general.. a benefit of bumbling thru a distro to get things working right...
like it or not linux is in the corporate sector running the backside and frontpages of society
I may have not been hired for my linux skills but it proved very useful overall to everyone involved
@Zo
You don't understand :
Business that move to linux do it not only because it's saving them licences.
Most of the time they do it because they see a synergy possible.
If the OS you use is at the core of your business then open-source can be really profitable for you.
I suppose a lot of those jobs are related to the mobile world.
Android, WebOS, Maemo, Bada...
Yesterday I received a list of proposal for internships @ ST-Ericsson from the industrial relationship guy at my Uni.
14 offers : 13 Linux based, mostly Android.
@arcnemisis
My experience at my company (who is launching a Linux based system) is that "adept" is relative and no different than in any other platform -- you cannot conclude -- if this person knows Linux, then the person can also do these other things. Sorry, I have seen excellent Windows people and Linux people but they are just as sparse on both platforms. We are using two different distro's and we went so far as hire directly from those companies consultants only to have to bumble and post on newsgroups etc. to figure it out ourselves.
My opinion is that the Linux community is sometimes way to arrogant about what they can/cannot do and after two years on my current project I have to say the people and the software is often no better and the "bang for the buck" is little at best. Linux has its own warts that few like to talk about. The bean counters at my company are saying our total savings is 3% to 5% at best break-even worst case given theLinux route we took and that is with working closing with two different Linux distro vendors and using their people.
I am not saying that Linux does not have its place, its just not the end-all-be-all that it is often extolled to be.
I am sure to get flamed, but my experience has been that it is not that much better of a platform at least for development. I believe for some of things it does, it does really well but if you stray from the sweat spot its not better than any other platform.
@Flix C
I am very familiar and after a 2yr lifecycle and I have reams of spreadsheets and white papers specific to my company project.
If you make all your money from hardware and you can give away your software, sure open source is the way to go. If you make your money on application software, the license costs are a wash especially when you are talking about distribution at the global scale. In order to be perfectly legal the company lawyers had to go out to get Black Duck for compliance and setup new procedures and also do proper licensing -- in the end -- the software and compliance is going to cost us more than if we use Windows. However, we make our money on hardware units sold so the business plan for making up that cost over a certain number of "years"
The mobile industry loves Linux for that specific reason -- they make money on the hardware not the software -- the software is free to give away because the money is the hardware.
On the software side, it would be just as hard and expensive to develop and sell software on the Linux platform -- in software the major cost is people and in that case it is a wash.
Again, I am not putting down Linux, the economics just do not always come out on top in favor of Linux in my experience.
From a purely jobs perspective, go where ever makes you happy just don't limit it to a specific technology because this industry changes fast.
@Zo
Do you have any effing clue how expensive it gets to provide Windows, Office, Visio, Project, Sharepoint and Exchange to many seats?
Sorry, but the licensing costs are non-trivial.
Hell, we just ditched Project for this reason, but we've still got a suite of other MS cash cows doing nothing but sucking up revenue. Most companies get zero benefit from the every-few-years Office "upgrade" other than more headaches and incompatibility.
Vlad,
Where's the link to the job board in your story? All I see are self links here.
I answered the call 3 years ago, best move I ever did.
Linux Jobs? Really, then why did my team of 12 LINUX Geeks get laid off along with myself? Only 3 of them have found work in the last year. A lot of companies are posting to the job boards, but few are hiring. And if they are hiring, it is for as much as a secretary makes.
I certainly hope that all linux geeks are not cross-eyed. But now that I think about it...
80% growth...that'd be...hmm, carry the one...
Congratulations, Linux community, on the addition of 4 new job openings to your ranks. Keep on Tuxin'!
I don't think it has much to do with how much you pay a Linux professional VS. how much you pay a Window professional, but it has to do with how many virtual machines you can squeeze into a hypervisor based solution i.e. ESX, XEN, etc. All sorts of companies are virtualizing their infrastructure and they need people to manage them and for those who are not aware ESX is basically a modified version of RHEL 3 and Citrix XenServer is also a Linux variant; it is much easier for a Linux admin such as I to transition as a virtual infrastructure administrator than someone who's only experienced in the Windows world. As far as resources based on OS's and for those who run virtual farms, have you seen the resources (especifically in RAM) needed for a server 2008 machine running a web, ftp or file server VS. a CentOS or RHEL 5+ running the same type of services?