Linux Foundation's Linux Training Scholarship Program Opens for Applications

Linux Foundation’s Linux Training Scholarship Program Opens for Applications

Scholarships to be awarded in five new categories and to include one-on-one mentoring sessions with Linux Foundation instructors

SAN FRANCISCO, – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced its 2013 Linux Training Scholarship Program is open for applications.

Since its debut in 2011, the program has provided funds to developers and IT professionals who show incredible promise for building Linux careers and shaping the future of the operating system but who otherwise do not have the ability to attend Linux Foundation training courses.

The Linux Foundation’s Linux Training Scholarship Program in 2013 will award five scholarships to individuals who demonstrate the greatest need and who have already demonstrated some knowledge of Linux and open source software. In addition, winners this year will receive a 30-minute, one-on-one mentoring session with one of The Linux Foundation’s Linux training instructors.

The Linux Foundation is offering one scholarship in each of the following five categories. Each application will be reviewed by a panel of Linux Foundation staffers. Recipients will be notified early- to mid-August and will be publicly announced shortly thereafter.  For more details on the criteria for each category, please visit the Linux Training Scholarship website: mission link

§  Whiz Kids

§  Women in Linux

§  SysAdmin Super Stars

§  Developer Do-Gooders

§  Linux Kernel Gurus

Each Linux Training Scholarship will cover the registration fees for one course. Travel, Internet connection fees and other expenses are not included. The classes eligible for Linux Training Scholarships this year include:

§  Embedded Linux Development

§  Embedded Linux Development: A Crash Course

§  Embedded Linux Development with Yocto Project/OpenEmbedded

§  Developing Device Drivers

§  Linux Kernel Internals and Debugging

§  Developing Applications for Linux

§  Linux System Administration

§  Linux Network Management

§  Linux Performance Tuning

Applications are due by midnight PT on July 23, 2013 and can be submitted here: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/free-linux-training/linux-training-scholarship-program

The 2013 Linux Jobs Report shows demand for Linux pros exceeding other areas of technology for the second year in a row. Ninety-three percent of employers said they will hire Linux pros in the next six months, while 90 percent said finding Linux talent is difficult. When they do find it, they pay higher salaries and offer better perks to the Linux pros.

“We aim to help meet today’s unprecedented demand for Linux professionals by providing Linux training opportunities direct from the source,” said Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer services. “With more than 500 Linux training scholarship applications received last year and the Linux Jobs Report showing demand for Linux talent at an all-time high, we hope our Linux Training Scholarship Program can surface some of the talent that is showing incredible promise for influencing the future of Linux but until now were diamonds in the rough.”

Additional Resources

·      2012 Linux Training Scholarship Winners: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/announcements/2012/09/linux-foundation-announces-2012-linux-training-scholarship

·      2011 Linux Training Scholarship Winners: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/announcements/2011/08/linux-foundation-announces-linux-training-scholarship-recipients

·      Training with The Linux Foundation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfnKpBw_gcA

About Linux Training at The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation Training Program includes a comprehensive set of Linux courses that are distribution-flexible, direct from the source, technically advanced and customizable. Built in concert with its Technical Advisory Board of Linux experts and the leading maintainers from the Linux community, The Linux Foundation's training curriculum is constantly updated and synced with advances in Linux and includes new features as they are released. The Program combines broad, foundational knowledge with the networking opportunities that attendees need to thrive in their careers today. The organization has helped hundreds of companies move to Linux or gain advanced knowledge of the technology to give their development or operations teams a competitive advantage. For more information, please visit http://training.linuxfoundation.org

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences, including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

###

Trademarks: The Linux Foundation, Linux Standard Base, MeeGo, OpenDaylight, Tizen and Yocto Project are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Read More

Migration Needs a Plan

by Guest Writer +Simon Phipps

Migration Needs A Plan

Simon Phipps, Meshed Insights Ltd

Perhaps you’ve considered migrating your company to an open source desktop productivity suite? There are a host of good reasons for such a move. The most obvious one that comes to mind is to save on license fees, but don’t be fooled. For the migration process to be a success and the full benefits to be reaped, you must invest in the changeover itself. Don’t believe that because you want to save money long term you should skimp short-term. A look at the City of Freiburg’s attempted migration reveals the dangers of treating the new software as a drop-in replacement. (Image right Credit: Wikipedia.org)

The true benefits of the change arise not from avoiding license fees but from the flexibility your company gains. That flexibility comes from cross platform interoperability and the longevity given to the tools and file formats you are free to use. Even simple changes can make a big difference. For example, a company-wide policy of using hybrid PDF format for all documents distributed internally is a significant first step into freedom. Distributing editable document versions of any format, open or not, encourages unnecessary complexity at the desktop as well as potentially limiting the life of your “corporate memory”.

Together these benefits give a significant level of control over your IT environment and the far lower rate of change makes documents accessible for the longest possible time. That stability alone ensures that the features in use across your company’s ecosystem are as interoperable as possible. Thus the savings come a little further down the line, once the new system is up and running, and not just as a result of the changeover.

To make sure that the changeover to open document formats and open source tools is a successful one (bringing all the desired benefits and being adopted quickly by staff), requires planning, foresight and intentionality with regard to the migration process itself. Continuing their practice of creating resources and “letting the work do the talking” The Document Foundation have recently issued a white paper explaining how to conduct a successful migration. Naturally TDF use LibreOffice as the open source suite to install, but other open source alternatives work just as well with the same ideas.

The migration guide condenses the hard-won experiences of a number of community contributors who make their living consulting on office productivity migrations. It walks through a 10-step plan, involving everything from analysis of your existing practices through training strategies and implementation of the new software and beyond into recording and learning from the process itself. Hopefully the paper will evolve as the community adds its experience – it’s a hybrid PDF after all, anyone can edit it and this would make a great focus for the cross-community collaboration some folk are calling for.

Already TDFs migration guide has a wealth of good advice, highlighting the need for planning, preparation and ongoing funding for making a change of this nature to your companies working habits. The obvious subtext to the document’s creation is that with the growing importance of the open Web and interoperability, making the migration to open source tools and formats is a consideration worth serious thought. It’s a change which may just make the difference for your company.

__________________________

Simon Phipps is currently President of the Open Source Initiative and a board member of the Open Rights Group and of Open Source for America. He has served on a number of advisory boards for other projects, including the GNOME Foundation, OpenSolaris, OpenJDK, and OpenSPARC.

© 2013 Meshed Insights Ltd.   Licensed for use under CC-BY-SA 3.0 crediting meshedinsights.com, other rights reserved.

Related articles

• Migration Needs A Plan
• Technical change to open source is the easy part
• The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 4.0.2
• LibreOffice adoption soaring, but OpenOffice still open source king
• 10 Open Source Solutions For Your Business

Read More