There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Would being a Linux "power user" increase my chances of getting a job in IT/tech?

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?

riskable ,
@riskable@programming.dev avatar

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 ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

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 ,

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 ,
@riskable@programming.dev avatar

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 ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

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 OP ,
@SpiceDealer@lemmy.world avatar
  1. What are basic Linux permissions?
  2. What does chmod 777 do?
laurelraven ,

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 OP ,
@SpiceDealer@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks. Bookmarking for future reference.

ouch ,

Juwt remember “man chmod”.

riskable ,
@riskable@programming.dev avatar

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 ,

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 ,

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 ,

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 ,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

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

ByteOnBikes ,

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 ,

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 , 

<span style="color:#323232;">sudo chmod 000 /
</span>
grrgyle ,

Lol been there, and with the -R too

model_tar_gz , (edited )

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.

angelmountain ,

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 ,

How I wish.

netvor ,
@netvor@lemmy.world avatar

Happy cake day, my friend! 🐧 🥳

toynbee ,

Thanks! I didn’t even know.

netvor ,
@netvor@lemmy.world avatar
  1. don’t call yourself “power user”

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

stoy ,

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 ,

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

stoy ,

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 ,

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 ,

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

stembolts ,

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 ,

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

stoy ,

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 ,

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

netvor ,
@netvor@lemmy.world avatar

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

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

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 ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

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

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

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 ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

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

ProgrammingSocks ,

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

delirious_owl ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

You didn’t even mention the word linux

MyNameIsRichard ,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

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 ,

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 ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Well you just got dismissed early in the interview

LeFantome ,

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 ,

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 OP ,
@SpiceDealer@lemmy.world avatar

Deploy database? You mean something like SQL?

ByteOnBikes ,

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 ,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

somenonewho ,

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.

ephemeral404 , (edited )

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 ,

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 ,

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 ,

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 ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

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

grrgyle ,

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.

Tovervlag ,

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.

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

jbloggs777 ,

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 ,

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

jbloggs777 ,

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 ,

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.

electricprism ,

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

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

were takin it back .

LeFantome ,

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

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

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

Creat ,

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 ,

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

LeFantome ,

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

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • lifeLocal
  • random
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •