[ubuntu-za] NEWS: A Career in Linux is What You Should Be Pursuing In 2014

[Wesley Werner]

Hello,

That is very interesting, thank you!

My personal feeling differs on that, and I'll tell you why: that article is driven from a technologically promiscuous society.

The report lists the respondents by country, and among others, U.S. 58%, Europe 21%, Asia 7%, Africa 1.7% (which I read as sub-saharan, that is a lot of ground to cover)

I have only come across a handful of companies here in ZA that do the same, regardless it is still skills worth knowing! ;)

It seems like multiple factors are the cause of this, and I can only speculate on a few of them:

* having a late start with computing, ZA did not see the same explosion of hackers, hobbyists and pioneers.

* We have a much smaller base of users who appreciate the worth of OSS, an attribute acquired through the point above.

* With the advent of computing used for business in ZA, instead of a strong base of knowledgable hobbyists jumping in, we are sold predefined packages and processes by Microsoft. Not to be outdone by their competitors, companies take the bait without seeking alternatives.

* Not only did Microsoft sell software, it also bought the opinions of all those people.

* In more recent years, Microsoft launched their Bizspark campaign, offering free licenses to startups, buying even more opinions while companies unknowingly get locked into a business process that most of them will be unwilling to escape from.

* the result are people who have a bias that OSS, for business at least, is not good enough, not professional, and not supported.

I am sure there are more, and these are just my opinion. But maybe this is a chicken-and-egg problem: if we culture more Linux skilled people and put us out there as an alternative, will it work?

Could we fight against a company that flings billions into marketing? And face it, marketing is all that people really see!

Wesley


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