There's an article is going around Linux newsfeeds recently, titled "Where are the Linux Admins?", written by iTWire, an Australian IT publication. Looks like the same thing happening in Singapore is happening in Australia too.

NUS is not a Linux friendly establishment. It's getting better these 2 years, but the situation is still appalling. Sadly, the School of Computing is not pro-Linux either. Yes, the computing infrastructure is on Solaris, but the school modules, lectures, skill sets, tools, and emphasis, is not on open source, let alone Linux/Unix. Look, the one and only Unix system programming module is only 3 modular credits, compared to the norm of 4 modular credits. Is system programming that trivial?

It is not even cross platform. The software development module focuses on C# and C++ on VB6. Yes, Mac and Linux users have to find a Windows machine for this module.

With this curriculum, I am not surprised that the proficiency level in Linux has not increased much. The majority of people turning to Linux seems to be from the "Windows crashed on me" camp, and not the "Linux is cool/free/interesting" camps. How many of these will be interested enough to reach the proficiency of a Linux system administrator? I wonder.

This sad state of affairs is not encouraging. Even in linuxNUS, I am having trouble finding people with the expertise/mindset to do system administration. Using the 80/20 rule of thumb, there are few technically competent Linux users suitable to be system administrators, and fewer actually willing to be one. Sigh.

(Aside: I'm not saying that the interest level in Linux has not been increasing since linuxNUS was formed. I'm saying that while the user base has increased, the number of technically competent users has not really increased.)

This leads to an interesting question: how many fresh graduates are actually going on to work on Linux systems? The industry seems to be bemoaning the lack of competent Linux IT staff, yet there are so few competent Linux-trained graduates joining the workforce. I guess that means the "ls/cd" crowd will be the ones doing Linux system administration. Shudder...

Something must be done to make tertiary schools know that Microsoft is not the only platform used in the industry. If the industry doesn't complain directly to them about how misguided their pro-Microsoft platform curriculum is, Linux will forever be in a sad state of affairs in Singapore.