nrf you make an excellent point, as always. As an example, I just got a job (can you believe it in this economy? ;-) teaching at Southern Oregeon University. The networking classes don't have many people in them, partly because students know that the labs aren't great. We have some Cisco gear, which nobody had touched until I got there. I got a nice little lab up and running, but it's not really sufficient. We can't afford to get much more though.
Now, on the other hand, the Linux classes are overflowing. And the Linux lab has litterally walls and walls of 133 MHz PCs all running Linux. The students gobble that stuff up. One of the Linux classes is at night over the dinner hour and it still gets an excellent turn-out. It doesn't matter to these students that the hour is inconvenient. Linux is more important than food, beer, family time, watching TV, or sleep. :-) You may not want to compete with these young 'uns, as nrf says. Stay ahead of the game and do what they don't have as much opportunity to do: networking, especially Cisco networking. Priscilla nrf wrote: > > > Linux is very difficult to learn really well. True, CCIE lab > equipment is > > expensive, but I think it may take less time for some people > to become a > > CCIE than to get the kind of facility with Linux that the > Linux-guru jobs > > require. > > I think a far bigger problem with choosing Linux as a > financially stable > career is something you just hit on the head right there - > barriers to > entry. Financially speaking, there are none. Anybody can just > piece > together a couple of old PC's and fire up Linux and start > learning. And > right now, there are literally tens of thousands of high school > and college > kids playing with Linux - and, I don't want to sound morbid, > but they're > going to be your job competition in a few years. Do you really > have much to > work with if you know Linux, but so does every college student > graduating > with a CS degree in the future (and they will)? Not to > mention all those > people in countries like China, India, and Russia who are short > on cash but > long on brains and tenacity? > > That therefore means that if you want to remain employable in > the Linux > space, you will always need to stay ahead of the Jones's, and > the Jones's in > this case are obsessed high-school nerds who think it's > actually fun to code > for 100 hours a week. Hey, if you have the brains and the > tenacity to keep > pace, then more power to you. Or, if you happen to like Linux > (I gotta > admit, it is pretty cool), then by all means. But if you're > seeing Linux > just as an opportunity to make money, then unless you possess > Herculean > fortitude, I think you'll be disappointed. > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=66760&t=66669 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
