Would being a Linux "power user" increase my chances of getting a job in IT/tech?
from SpiceDealer@lemmy.world to linux@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 03:49
https://lemmy.world/post/17993418

I’m trying to get a job in IT that will (hopefully) pay more than a usual 9 to 5. I’m been daily driving Linux exclusively for about 2 1/2 years now and I’m trying to improve my skills to the point that I could be considered a so-called “power user.” My question is this: will this increase my hiring chances significantly or marginally?

#linux

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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 27 Jul 2024 04:03 next collapse

What is a usual 9 to 5?

MajorHavoc@programming.dev on 27 Jul 2024 04:04 next collapse

Yes. Yes it does.

Look for job listings that require command line Linux skill.

The candidate pool who can get around on a Linux command prompt is growing, but it’s still pretty small. It gives you some advantage toward networking, Cybersecurity, systems administration, and cloud deployment.

electricprism@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 04:13 next collapse

Power User is a term invented by Microsoft but we get the idea

originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com on 27 Jul 2024 13:42 next collapse

were takin it back <img alt="." src="https://cdn.catsweat.com/68/42/6842f29c2b950c911021357061bed1b6d00bab42195d92b0069248ef4a561f07.jpg">

LeFantome@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 21:01 collapse

I did not know this. Thank you for the history lesson.

BodilessGaze@sh.itjust.works on 27 Jul 2024 04:18 next collapse

It depends on the role. My first job was doing manual QE on Windows, and knowing Linux wasn’t much help at the time, but it did help me transition to a coding role in the same company a year later. I’m now doing platform engineering at a major tech company, but that has a high barrier to entry, which I suspect is the case for most roles that are Linux-focused. If you’re trying to get your foot in the door, I think you should look at job profiles for low barrier to entry roles (e.g. tech support) and try to work your way up.

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 27 Jul 2024 04:50 next collapse

Depends. It/tech is a massive space so not certain if you’re applying to tech support or like server architecture. So some specifics would be nice.

One thing to point out:

I thought I was a freaking wiz kid at Windows because I knew about the registry and how to modify settings. But then I learned a lot of the “hacks” on the internet are bad for the enterprise.

On Linux, it’s even worse, with so many blog posts recommending sudo this, and install this app that. And if you don’t have a background of WHY, you can do a lot of damage. And with AI, it’s even worse. So many bash script kiddies asking AI to write the ugliest code I ever seen.

Now that Im a senior engineer, I realize I know nothing and leave much of the IT space to trained professionals.

scytale@lemm.ee on 27 Jul 2024 05:58 next collapse

This is very good insight and something that no one else touched on. OP if you see this, while being a power user on your personal linux machine does help with skills and getting you jobs, it’s still very different from administering an enterprise linux machine in a corporate environment. One thing you can do is set your own homelab and mini environment at home. This will get you more experience with actual administration and will be a great asset to disclose in interviews.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 27 Jul 2024 17:43 collapse

God help me if I ever end up with someone who just copies and pastes commands from chatgpt into a server

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Jul 2024 03:18 collapse

Hopefully God AND some with a lot of subject matter knowledge. It’ll only get worse.

adespoton@lemmy.ca on 27 Jul 2024 05:01 next collapse

When I got into IT, I had years of experience with Mac OS, UNIX, a bit of IRIX and VMS, BSD and even a bit of Linux.

And then I spent 10 years mostly managing a Windows shop. I still ran OpenBSD on the internal support servers, but had to support a full Microsoft stack for anything customer-facing.

What will increase your hiring chances is being adaptable and having a portfolio of success stories to reference during interviews.

Vinny_93@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 05:04 next collapse

I’m in data engineering and that market is dominated by Microsoft. Understanding an os is essential if you’re, say, a sysadmin.

I’d recommend looking into some certifications. Some businesses are very sensitive to those.

1984@lemmy.today on 27 Jul 2024 05:15 next collapse

Depends what you mean with a job in tech. If you want to work as technical problem solver or programmer, then it’s very useful, almost required.

wargreymon@sh.itjust.works on 27 Jul 2024 05:27 next collapse

absolutely… you know servers are mostly linux right?

NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 05:43 next collapse

the point that I could be considered a so-called “power user.”

There is no certain point. Power user is a rather vague description. It still includes “user” as opposed to admin or developer or guru etc.

If vague is good enough in your area, go for it. Otherwise look for a more formal qualification.

Good luck.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca on 27 Jul 2024 05:57 next collapse

Probably not. I guess it depends what you want to do in IT. And the org. Some orgs use a lot of Linux, and Linux is a whole different ball game at the enterprise level. It’s not just knowing about Linux, but how to properly manage, secure, and patch it at scale.

It might also depend on if you have previous IT experience. If you’ve got a ton of previous experience it could help.

utopiah@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 06:23 next collapse

Yes if

  • the environment you would work on is Linux based, obviously (which it often is when servers are involved, even with Microsoft due to Azure cloud and containers)
  • you master the command line, i.e you know a bit of e.g bash, can write your own scripts that do basic functions
  • you understand how the OS works, i.e permissions, services, package managers, etc

but not really if you are mostly clicking through buttons of the window manager and/or would work in a Microsoft environment with its own set of tools, conventions, etc.

Which brings up obvious suggestions :

  • do improve your mastery of the command line
  • apply to jobs that put Linux forward (but that might bias to a sysadmin position, which might not be what you prefer)
massive_bereavement@fedia.io on 27 Jul 2024 06:42 collapse

I had a job offered based on the fact that if you know bash, you can translate that to powershell, as translating knowledge is easier than learning from scratch.

utopiah@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 06:55 next collapse

Makes sense to me. I would also assume that if one can program in bash they can program in pretty much anything. Yes it will take some time to adapt but a lot less than somebody who can’t program in any language in any environment.

That being said, I would advise against starting in an environment that is possibly alienating and exclusive. Microsoft does everything it can in order to lock-in users but also developers. They find bridge, like PowerShell or WSL, then IT relies on certifications specific to their ecosystem. So if OP is fine with such practices they could start there but I’d suggest to keep that only if more direct alternatives are not available.

digdilem@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 07:33 collapse

True. Learning your first programming language (or scripting language) is usually the hardest.

flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz on 27 Jul 2024 06:24 next collapse

Specifically for a job of Linix sysadmin, probably yes. If you can afford it do a certification, it will help you stand among other candidates with no work experience.

For other IT jobs it’s not so relevant. Linux is technically on the servers but the infrastructure is hidden from you by multiple levels of abstraction.

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Jul 2024 03:30 collapse

Certifications will absolutely get your foot in the door if you have zero experience.

Don’t think of it as “affordability”, but rather an investment in your future. In the US, you’re spending $400 to study and successfully get a cert in a few months versus $80k doing a college program.

But lets say you seriously can’t afford it at all, then the $10 udemy courses to train you is pretty good to at least know the lingo, and then a few years setting up your own self hosting.

kionite231@lemmy.ca on 27 Jul 2024 06:28 next collapse

I had the same question. I have rather good understanding of Linux and command line however at my job where Ubuntu is used other people easily caught up with me. They still don’t know much about what exactly a command does but they know when to run it so IMO it doesn’t matter how much Linux you know the only knowledge matters which you could use to have your job done quickly and efficiently.

hawgietonight@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 07:00 next collapse

If your goal is to make yourself more valuable to employers/clients the best path is to specialize in some critical and niche enterprise tech. People that are good at stuff businesses were lured into using get paid very well. In my case it was SharePoint, but that’s just an example.

Knowing your way around the OS is taken for granted in these positions, so you have one piece of the puzzle, which is great, but you need the other pieces.

But be careful, if I have to choose between two experts, one with basic win+linux and the other only linux, I’m choosing the former.

dino@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 09:59 collapse

Very bad advice, getting your niche might pay off for a certain job in a certain time period and makes you clueless and worthless in any other job other timeframe.

Rather focus on general overview and tools instead. I can imagine how you brain is melting away dealing your whole work day with only sharepoint, rofl.

hawgietonight@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 11:14 collapse

Well, it was addressing the pay issue, and it is the most secure path to higher paid position fast. Moving on to new stuff comes naturally and the industry will push you to their next hotness, so not really a problem.

stoy@lemmy.zip on 27 Jul 2024 07:04 next collapse

What education do you have in the area?

The IT/Sysadmin sector does have a risk with knowing enough to be dangerous.

Daily driving Linux is great to get used to the command line, but is different from running servers.

If you have no experience with running Linux servers, I would be focusing on that part, rather than daily driving at this point.

Running a server requires a bit of a different mindset to that of just using a desktop.

You need to be far more restrictive about installing software on the server, be more cautios of reboots, and in general focus on stabillity.

You also need to familiarize yourself with Debian/Ubuntu and Red Hat/Fedora based distributions, their package managers, apt and dnf, the general layout of the system, they are mostly similar, but they have their own flavours, especially when it commes to the config files.

Learn the basics of vim, it will allways be installed on a server, I prefer nano but can use vim if needed.

A big part of my job when I was a Helpdesk technician combined with a Linux sysadmin was storage, I had to set up VMs in vSphere and Nutanix and give them the correct ammount of storage, sometimes also expand the storage on a server, and work with mountpoints.

Play around with LVMs, learn the concepts of PVs, VGs and LVs, learn how to expand them, how to move an LV from one PV to another inside a VG, learn how to mount them.

Learn how to set a manual IP, this can change from version to version of a distribution.

Learn to get annoyed at YAML files.

Understand how to secure a system, I’ll admit that I never really had to do this as all servers I worked on was behind strong firewalls and not accessable from the internet, but I did my best with what I had.

LifeCoffeeGaming@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 07:45 next collapse

This is a great response, would heed its points especially the yaml files.

stoy@lemmy.zip on 27 Jul 2024 07:51 collapse

Just make a template, once done you can easily do it while blasting Scooter, get pissed when it breaks due to a change of interface names, switch to Sabaton while you battle it out. After that you go to the local zoo and watch some Lynx just relaxing all day and ask yourself where it all webt wrong.

stembolts@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 04:32 collapse

Prefers Nano over Vim? Why’d you have to go and commit a felony. Now I can’t take anything you say seriously. Damnit.

stoy@lemmy.zip on 28 Jul 2024 06:46 collapse

It is what I am used to, your approval did not factor into my choice.

stembolts@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 14:59 collapse

And no sense of humor over what was clearly a joke comment. Icing on the cake.

Now I believe you now, you do use Nano.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 20:33 next collapse

Well, they could have been joking too. But touché.

stoy@lemmy.zip on 28 Jul 2024 20:49 collapse

Ah, I was involved in a hectic discussion in another thread, I also know that Linux users can be quite outspoken about their choice fs editor, so I didn’t catch the joke.

Sorry about that! (:

stembolts@programming.dev on 29 Jul 2024 06:21 collapse

We’ve all done it, I’m sorry if my joke wasn’t apparent as well. Text is dumb.

netvor@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2024 00:24 collapse

You should have used nano(1) to write that joke.

velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 07:24 next collapse

No, it won’t. Corporations in today’s time have this entitlement that you should know everything beforehand. You need a lot more than that. Oh, you don’t know Ansible? Don’t understand Terraform? Can’t fix a Docker config? Haven’t used AWS? Rejected, next?

digdilem@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 07:32 next collapse

Put it this way - it doesn’t hurt.

Nothing fully replaces real world experience with the exact software and technologies your potential employer uses, but having demonstrable ability to use and understand linux is very transferrable. Ultimately it comes down to the interviewers and what they’re looking for, and to the more technical of those, choosing linux as a daily driver shows you’re more interested in understanding how computers work and that you have a degree of problem solving ability.

Read some adverts of the jobs you want to get, being realistic that you may need to start low to get that experience, and build ability in what’s wanted, especially the bits that are marketable.

slazer2au@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 07:41 next collapse

Honestly, it depends on the business.

If I were the hiring manager we are a 80/20 split on win vs Linux servers. You may be top tier on 20% of our systems but we have automated about 85% of the tasks on those boxes. The other 15% is being covered by the windows people.
How do I justify hiring you to do 15% of the work of the others?

In order to be paid above average, you need to be good at something others find hard. But don’t pigeon hole yourself to one thing.

Being good at windows and Linux will make you a more attractive hire. As a Linux daily driver you should have no excuse to not know virtualisation or containers. Run up some qemu VMS or some LXC containers to expand your skillset.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 27 Jul 2024 17:45 collapse

I make it a condition of my employment that I never touch windows servers, and I get paid very, very well.

Linux experience is far more important than windows experience, IMHO. Almost every company has Linux servers. Loads of companies don’t have windows servers.

istanbullu@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 08:21 next collapse

yes

pimeys@lemmy.nauk.io on 27 Jul 2024 08:49 collapse

Exactly this. Having an interest and a hobby to an open source system will make you better in your job and a much more interesting candidate to hire.

Source: started with linux in 1995 as a kid. Never having issues finding great jobs.

Edit: I did not mean being a devops here, but finding an interest in open source software and learning a highly lucrative programming language while going. You can get pretty far with Rust or Go in the modern startups, C or Java in enterprises. Being very good with Linux drives this interest.

Creat@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 08:29 next collapse

It highly depends on the job. Some companies run fully on Windows, no exceptions. There it obviously would not help. But many still either host various services on Linux, or buy hosting/cloud commuting that is Linux based. There it might even be necessary.

It also depends on what you mean by “power user”. I would generally advise you to look into the server side of things. In my work, there are zero Linux machines that have a GUI of any kind installed. t The 50 or so Linux machines are all administered through SSH and Shell.

dino@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 09:47 collapse

This! Also if you company only employs windows machines … run.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 20:57 collapse

Or just start introducing Linux containers and VMs that run on Linux. You can use Docker Desktop and Putty from Windows.

MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 09:00 next collapse

To give yourself a better chance, learn things like:

  • Bash scripting
  • Docker
  • Docker Compose
  • Kubernetes
  • Oauth2 and and an authorization server like Keycloak
  • Build and deployment tools like Jenkins

Also learn how to deploy database and web servers manually.

It sounds like a lot but they’re things you’ll be expected to use.

dino@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 09:46 next collapse

No, dont learn docker, learn containerization and what tools can be used for it. No to Kubernetes that comes much later and/is VERY specific. No clue what keycloak is, but it sounds useful. Never hear about Jenkins. Id rather say get a grasp on python and skim what tools are used to administer servers -> ansible and puppet maybe.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 27 Jul 2024 17:39 next collapse

Well you just got dismissed early in the interview

LeFantome@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 20:50 collapse

I almost want to agree with parts of this but I cannot imagine the downvotes for supporting a comment that includes “never hear about Jenkins” and “don’t learn Docker”.

Jenkins has about 50% market share for anybody keeping score at home. In many verticals, the market leader has about 35% market share so 50% gives Jenkins enough domination in the market that saying “never hear about” them is going to hurt your credibility.

I think most organizations using Kubernetes should not. However, most of those would still benefit from containerization and so knowing Docker is a good thing even if you use a different tech ( Podman is the same thing ). While I think people should not be using Kubernetes as much as they do, it is still going to help you to know it when you are asking those people to hire you.

Knowing Python is fantastic advice for DevOps and IT in general.

Ansible and Puppet are solid recommendations. I think Ansible is the market leader ( probably about a third ).

Keycloak is great but it had less than 5% market share and so not knowing it is not going to hurt.

dino@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Jul 2024 07:06 collapse

From wikipedia and their github it sounds like jenkins is mostly used for development/programming. So maybe thats why I never heard about it shrug.

SpiceDealer@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 23:12 collapse

Deploy database? You mean something like SQL?

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Jul 2024 03:24 next collapse

Yep. You should absolutely know how all the pieces connect.

One IT responsibility is setting up servers. You should at least know how to get a website running off of a Linux machine at a basic level. But what we judge you on is your ability to manage and secure it.

MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 07:52 collapse

Yeah, or a nosql database. The point is to know how to deploy and manage servers manually as well as using the tools to do it.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 27 Jul 2024 09:00 next collapse

My personal experience: Absolutely!

I’ve always landed on jobs/projects that involve Linux server. Generally startups with not much expense to spare would go for this route. However, even bigger companies would opt for enterprise Linux.

I wouldn’t say that will work on every IT jobs out there, but when it does, you know you’re in for a fun ride!

superkret@feddit.org on 27 Jul 2024 09:11 next collapse

Yes, because you’re already familiar with the command line. But for a job in the professional Linux world, also try out RHEL (not Fedora), and familiarize yourself with best practices in patch management. There’s a lot more to it than just dnf upgrade if you have applications depending on specific versions of packages, CVEs need to be mitigated ASAP, downtime needs to be minimized and reverting a borked upgrade (including the installed database) needs to work 100%.
Also, get familiar with containerization, SELinux, VMWare hypervisors, a version control system, the LAMP stack and Samba.

dino@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 09:49 collapse

Good advice here, although I would recommend going for debian instead, get a grasp how different package managers in linux do the same thing.

  • Containerization
  • KVM
  • webserver apache/nginx yatta (ceritifcate handling, god I hate this)
Quazatron@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 09:49 next collapse

It will. Keep in mind that, depending on the type of job, you’ll have to keep learning new tech just to keep up: virtualization, containers, orchestrators, automation, backups, logging, auditing, scripting and God knows what else. It’s a good starting point to get you the jobs that the Windows crowd won’t touch because of the command line.

bionicjoey@lemmy.ca on 27 Jul 2024 10:19 next collapse

I’ve hired for junior positions on a sysadmin team and Linux as a hobby is the number 1 thing I look for. It moves your resume to the top of the stack.

Mango@lemmy.world on 28 Jul 2024 14:50 collapse

Oh nice!

jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de on 27 Jul 2024 14:51 next collapse

Lots of good advice here. I’ll add that you could develop an understanding of IP networking and how it works on Linux, network interfaces, with containers, with iptables as well as stateful and stateless firewalls, CIDRs and basic routing, IP protocols and some common protocols like DNS and HTTP. This used to be pretty common knowledge in applicants 15 years ago, but very few have it today I find. DHCP and PXE boot is fun to learn too, and is still common in datacenters.

PlexSheep@infosec.pub on 28 Jul 2024 13:57 collapse

What is the alternative to DHCP? Besides static IPS of course.

jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de on 28 Jul 2024 15:54 collapse

Not much, although it’s not strictly necessary for IPv6. But not much is pure IPv6 yet. Perhaps 2025 is the year of IPv6!

PlexSheep@infosec.pub on 28 Jul 2024 21:11 collapse

Oh damn you’re right ipv6 has something included. Ipv6 is so cool, sad that hardly anyone supports it. Not even I myself on my home server because I couldn’t get routing from ipv6 to my internal ipv4 hosts working.

riskable@programming.dev on 27 Jul 2024 14:58 next collapse

I interview developers and information security people all the time. I always ask lots of questions about Linux. As far as I’m concerned:

  • If you’re claiming to be an infosec professional and don’t know Linux you’re a fraud.
  • If you’re a developer and you don’t know how to deploy to Linux servers you’re useless.

So yeah: Get good with Linux. Especially permissions! Holy shit the amount of people I interview that don’t know basic Linux permissions (or even about file permissions in general) is unreal.

Like, dude: Have you just been chmod 777 everything all this time? WTF! Immediate red flag this guy cannot be trusted with anything.

communism@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 17:48 next collapse

Can I ask if the reverse applies, eg is having no idea how to use non Unix like OSes (like Windows) any kind of red flag? Kinda been considering trying to go into a tech career so that I can have a 9-5 office job (I’ve until recently worked in what would be considered “blue collar” jobs, recently switched to an education job, would be nice to just sit down in an office and use computers for a living). I’ve used (GNU/)Linux from a very young age (parents had an Ubuntu laptop), as my primary OS/daily driver since I was 13, and exclusively (i.e. got rid of my Windows partition due to Windows enshittification) since I was idk maybe 16 ish? So I’m pretty comfortable doing things in Linux. But I have a reputation for being a tech person among my friends and they ask me to fix their stuff sometimes and whenever it’s a Windows problem I literally have no idea how to use the OS lol. So are Windows skills and knowledge also expected for tech jobs or just Linux/Unix-like?

billgamesh@lemmy.ml on 27 Jul 2024 18:37 next collapse

Depends on the tech job. A lot of corporate IT support jobs care a lot more about troubleshooting windows because that’s what the employees use

riskable@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 14:12 collapse

There’s not much to learn in Windows land! Learn how to set file permissions, how the registry works (and some important settings that use it), and how Active Directory works (it’s LDAP) and you’ll be fine.

If you’re used to using Linux nothing will frustrate you more than being forced to use a Windows desktop. The stuff you use every day just isn’t there. You can add on lots of 3rd party tools to make it better but it’ll never measure up.

When you have to go out on the Internet to download endless amounts of 3rd party tools the security alarms in your head might start going off. Windows users have just learned over time to ignore them 🤣

communism@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 17:27 collapse

If you’re used to using Linux nothing will frustrate you more than being forced to use a Windows desktop. The stuff you use every day just isn’t there.

Absolutely. I tried using Windows for gaming some years back when Wine wasn’t as good and it was such a struggle. I was used to thinking there’s more software for Windows since it’s more widely used, but I was shocked at both how much software I used was Linux (or POSIX-compliant) only, some of which had no Windows alternative. I remember struggling so much to just try and get some files off a LUKS-encrypted drive on Windows and was shocked that there was basically no option at the time. I also hate how Windows users just download random exes off the web for all their programs. I only ever used chocolatey to install anything for that brief Windows stint.

SpiceDealer@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 23:08 next collapse

  1. What are basic Linux permissions?
  2. What does chmod 777 do?
laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 28 Jul 2024 03:23 next collapse

Quick and dirty: the basic permissions are read, write, and execute, and are applied to the owner, the group, and everyone else. They’re applied to all files and directories individually.

It’s represented by a 3 digit number (in octal, which is base 8, so 0 to 7). The first number is the permission given to the file’s owner, the second to the file’s group owner, and the third to everyone else. So, the owner of the file is the one user account that owns it, the group applies to all members of that group. User and group ownership are also applied to each file and directory individually.

Read, write, and execute are represented by the numbers 4, 2, and 1, respectively, and you add them together to get the permission, so 0 would be nothing, 1 would be execute but not read or write, 2 would be write but not read or execute (and yes there are uses for that), 3 would be write and execute but not read, 4 is read only, etc through to 7 which is basically full control.

This will take a little bit to make sense for most people.

chmod (change modifier, I think) is the program you use to set permissions, which you can do explicitly by the number (there are other modes but learn the numbers first), so chmod 777 basically means everyone has full control of the file or directory. Which is bad to do with everything for what I hope are obvious reasons.

chown (change owner) is the program you use to set the owner (and optionally the group) of a file or directory, and chgrp (change group) changes the group only.

It gets deeper with things like setuid bits and sticky bits, and when you get to SELinux it really gets granular and complex, but if you understand the octal 3 digit permissions, you’ll have the basics that will be enough for quite a lot of use cases.

(Additionally to the 3 digit number, permissions can be represented a bit friendlier where it just lists letters and dashes, so 750 (full control user, read and execute group) could be shown as rwxr-x—, where r=read, w=write, and x=execute, and what they’re applied to can be represented by the letters u for user (aka owner), g for group, and o for other)

This goes into more detail of those basics: opensource.com/…/understanding-linux-permissions

SpiceDealer@lemmy.world on 28 Jul 2024 03:41 next collapse

Thanks. Bookmarking for future reference.

ouch@lemmy.world on 28 Jul 2024 03:51 next collapse

Juwt remember “man chmod”.

riskable@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 14:18 collapse

Also, they didn’t mention it but you can always just do this (the easy way, thanks to GNU): chmod a+x somefile to give it execute bits. It works intuitively like that for w and r permissions too.

It’s just quicker to type out chmod 775 than it is to do it the other way 🤷

Saizaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Jul 2024 08:48 collapse

Read, write, and execute are represented by the numbers 4, 2, and 1, respectively, and you add them together to get the permission

Maybe I’m the weird one here but this seems like a counter intuitive way to remeber/explain it. Each octal digit in the three digit number is actually just 3 binary digits ( 3 bit flags) in order of rwx. For example read and execute would be 101 -> 5.

laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 28 Jul 2024 17:23 collapse

While that’s literally what it is, that’s not really how it’s represented and requires also understanding binary numbers.

Even knowing that, I’ve always found it easiest to get to the permissions the way I described, which when you think about it is actually the same as what you’d do to translate binary into decimal/octal if you don’t have them memorized: look at the values of each position that’s set to 1 and add them together. So, 101 in binary would be 4+0+1, or 5, which is the same as saying read is 4 and execute is 1 and add them together, the latter of which I think is easier to learn (and is how I’ve always seen it taught, though clearly YMMV)

Both get you to the same place though

Saizaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Jul 2024 21:46 collapse

That’s a fair point, I guess I used binary numbers so much i uni that I just know the small ones by heart and that’s why I find it easier. Following the example, I never convert 101 as 4+0+1, I just see it and know it’s 5.

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de on 12 Aug 09:19 collapse

“chmod 777 is opening your front door with a sledgehammer”

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Jul 2024 03:20 next collapse

Have you just been chmod 777 everything all this time?

Oh man, I ran into a dev at a meetup who proposed this solution.

And I had to do a polite, “Oh wow maybe that works but I don’t think that’s a solution in my company” because YIKES.

Shareni@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 09:08 next collapse

If you’re a developer and you don’t know how to deploy to Linux servers you’re useless.

Welp, found your red flag

model_tar_gz@lemmy.world on 28 Jul 2024 22:08 collapse

sudo chmod 000 /
grrgyle@slrpnk.net on 29 Jul 2024 01:59 collapse

Lol been there, and with the -R too

model_tar_gz@lemmy.world on 29 Jul 2024 02:12 collapse

Sorry for your loss. I hit myself with the ‘rm -rf /*‘ several years back when I was actually trying to do ‘rm -rf ./*‘.

Now I do ‘ls’ instead of ‘rm’ just to make sure that what I’m deleting is what I’m intending to.

Figured I was very lucky that it was just on my own workstation and not on any of the servers I was tasked with maintaining. I lost a day or so of work. Had it been our dev server? Would’ve destroyed my team for a while.

GustavoM@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 15:29 next collapse

Even a simple “I know how to setup a network-wide ad blocker on docker by using my own image” can get you far, so yep.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 27 Jul 2024 17:37 collapse

Thats oddly specific. I think “I have experience with Linux” would be better

GustavoM@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 18:27 next collapse

This is a IT-related question – of course being “oddly specific” is a great idea. Even if the job in question does not use anything docker related.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 29 Jul 2024 17:54 collapse

The word “Linux” doesn’t even appear in that though

ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social on 27 Jul 2024 19:48 collapse

On a resume you might format this like “Skilled in setting up networked Docker images”. Absolutely a valued skill and worth mentioning.

delirious_owl@discuss.online on 29 Jul 2024 17:54 collapse

You didn’t even mention the word linux

therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip on 27 Jul 2024 17:51 next collapse

When looking for Linux tech jobs to apply to, a lot of them actually have Vim experience as a preferred quality. Can any experts confirm this?

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Jul 2024 03:23 collapse

Nah. That’s like bragging that you memorize a lot of Pi digits.

Some on the IT team in my company use vim, some use nano, some probably use notepad or something ridiculous.

It’s just a text editor and knowing vim doesn’t automatically make me assume you’re competent at anything.

Evotech@lemmy.world on 27 Jul 2024 19:55 next collapse

Depends on the job!

Linux opens up a lot of possible job openings

ephemeral404@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 03:35 next collapse

If you’re applying to work with my team. A big Yes.

Seeing a developer use Windows is a big turn off, I can clearly see all the future dev environment problems I’d need to assist them with.

And if you understand linux permissions, the architecture, bash, common tools, etc. I can envision how you will make the dev experience better for everyone and contribute to fix any deployment issues. Unlike windows, you won’t be introducing ovearching solutions to problems which can be solved with a simple bash script.

recarsion@discuss.tchncs.de on 28 Jul 2024 08:13 collapse

Exact experience I’ve had, in every workplace I’ve been Windows users have been a non-stop liability and required support for workarounds and hacks. Seeing their workflow through screenshare was kind of a culture shock.

lynndotpy@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 10:03 collapse

This has been my experience as well.

It doesn’t help that, prior to 2023 (I believe), Microsoft’s OpenSSH fork simply did not recognize ProxyJump. I administered a server behind a bastion, which meant every Mac and Linux user could ssh in. Windows users had to use some strange program like PuTTy.

dubyakay@lemmy.ca on 28 Jul 2024 14:10 collapse

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but PuTTY has been the defacto terminal emulator on windows for the past two decades.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 29 Jul 2024 02:32 collapse

After you’ve used a normal Linux shell for SSH, using putty feels like trying to paint the Mona Lisa with an EtchaSketch.

orcrist@lemm.ee on 28 Jul 2024 09:49 next collapse

You didn’t tell us what you think the usual 9 to 5 pays. Are you asking whether a tech job pays more than minimum wage? Many of them do. Also, when you’re interviewing, and even when you’re writing a cover letter, try to avoid the term power user, and instead provide details of things that you’ve actually done. Anyone can call themselves a power user, but what does that even mean? If you say you’re a power user, if you’re lucky the interviewer will ask you for details, and if you’re unlucky they won’t, because they’ll assume you’re just grandstanding. So you’re better off providing a little extra information up front, and not gambling on them asking for it.

lynndotpy@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 09:56 next collapse

Learning Linux was probably the very best thing for my career.

The fact that I use Linux as my primary OS has been a positive in almost every interview I’ve been in as the interviewee. Linux has been used everywhere I’ve been, and that represents a huge amount of upskilling they can skip.

As an interviewer, I’d say that developers who use Linux generally understand their development stack better.

[deleted] on 28 Jul 2024 14:03 collapse

.

ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca on 28 Jul 2024 13:39 next collapse

Depends on the job, a lot of places don’t use Linux

However Linux jobs tend to pay more than the non-Linux equivalent if you can find one

erwan@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 14:15 collapse

Most places deploy to Linux, and for those knowing Linux helps a lot. Also a lot of places will give MacBook pro, expect you to know the CLI so a lot of Linux knowledge will be useful there.

LeFantome@programming.dev on 28 Jul 2024 19:37 next collapse

“The Cloud” is mostly Linux—specifically Linux containers. Kubernetes and Docker are Linux specific technologies.

Most “IT” roles these days will be for from Linux knowledge ( not all of course ). It is a good skill to have.

If you do encounter an environment where they do not use Linux, it may be because of a lack of skilled staff. You could be the reason they adopt it.

angelmountain@feddit.nl on 28 Jul 2024 20:58 next collapse

This morning I was still awake, my veines exploding because of all the “anti-sleep medication”, having a quick cool-down from the party still going on inside, when I hear someone randomly say: “yeahh rm -rf!”. One thing let to another…

Linux skills make you friends as well as get you jobs.

toynbee@lemmy.world on 28 Jul 2024 23:02 collapse

How I wish.

netvor@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2024 00:26 collapse

Happy cake day, my friend! 🐧 🥳

toynbee@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2024 01:28 collapse

Thanks! I didn’t even know.

ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk on 28 Jul 2024 20:58 next collapse

“In IT” could mean anything from first line support worker to software project manager to network engineer. Can you be more specific…?

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 28 Jul 2024 21:36 next collapse

get a cheap mini-pc and set it up as a linux router/server/lab

does wonders to teach you the tech used in the industry, and you can even setup your own netflix, google drive, spotify and more.

Tovervlag@feddit.nl on 28 Jul 2024 23:19 next collapse

In my area being a linux admin actually pays less than I expected. I kinda always hoped to get into a linux admin role. Now I have a sort of cloud ops role and it makes more than a typical linux admin would. It would just be silly for me to pursue this any further. That doesn’t mean I don’t touch Linux on a daily basis at work. But it’s more alround.

grrgyle@slrpnk.net on 29 Jul 2024 02:11 next collapse

In my personal experience, yes. There are so many jobs that exist around the Linux ecosystem, being comfortable with concepts like piping, file permissions, scripting, git, etc, will invariably give you a leg up.

somenonewho@feddit.org on 29 Jul 2024 06:17 next collapse

As many people here have pointed out already, it’s highly dependent on what type of Job you’re looking for and in what industry.

When I was applying for my entry level Job (actually an apprenticeship to become a sysadmin), the fact that I was a linux user (especially daily driving Arch) and that I had set up my own self hosted projects was a factor in me being set up in the department that was actually interesting to me (the Linux/Server department) instead of the Windows/Client department but I probably would have gotten the job either way. My work there set me up deeping my path into Linux sysadminship where I still am today.

netvor@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2024 00:32 collapse

  1. don’t call yourself “power user”

It might just be me but it gives off “I can set up a printer, yay!” vibes.