Linux Foundation Launches Training Program

Lisa Hoover 0 482 Views

Everyone is talking about how open source technology is the answer to budget cuts and belt tightening in the workplace. There's no denying its use is on the rise and, in fact, the Linux server market is predicted to extend into the tens of billions over the next few years. Clearly IT professionals with Linux skills will continue to be in high demand.

If you want to learn new skills to stay competitive in the IT industry or simply hone the ones you have, take a look at the Linux Foundation Training Program. It's a new series of in-person courses that will be offered in various cities around the U.S. and at Linux Foundation events throughout the year. The Foundation will also customize courses for individual companies.

The Training Program officially launches at the Linux Foundation's Annual Collaboration Summit scheduled next month in San Francisco, California. Initial course offerings include:

· Essential Linux Device Driver Development Skills

· Creating Applications for Linux

· Kernel Debugging and Performance

In a prepared statement, Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation, said, “We’ve received consistent feedback from companies worldwide that the rising number of Linux deployments is putting new demands on a talent pool that needs more Linux-related developers. We believe the Linux Foundation can provide a vendor-neutral forum in which students can learn from the community’s most influential contributors in order to drive their careers in more lucrative directions.”

It's important to note Zemlin says these courses are vendor-neutral. Some open source software vendors already offer training courses but, naturally, they're aimed at specific applications or solutions. Apple and Microsoft offer certification courses, but are, of course, vendor specific.

The courses put together by the Linux Foundation are well-rounded and broad. Based on about them, it appears the classes give attendees the information they need to make informed decisions about the right solutions specific to their company. Graduates of the Program also get access to the Linux Foundation, "which will provide students with networking resources with the developer and vendor community through a variety of its resources." Sounds like the perfect program for anyone who wants a long-term career in the IT sector.

Dani AI

Generated

As notes, instructor-led, vendor-neutral training can speed practical skill acquisition more reliably than reading alone. The real return comes from lab time, reproducible exercises, and concrete follow-ups that turn course concepts into everyday habits. The short checklist below highlights what separates a useful class from a nice talk and suggests immediate, low-risk steps to lock in learning.

Recommended prep and logistics

  • Basic C and comfort with the shell, Makefiles and Git.
  • Familiarity with building a userspace program; compiling the kernel or modules is a quick next step.
  • A laptop able to run a VM (or provision a disposable test machine); a snapshot-capable image (VirtualBox/QEMU) reduces risk.
  • Copies of kernel headers or source for the target kernel version used in labs.
  • Expect to run privileged commands; a saved snapshot and isolated test VM avoid accidental downtime.

How to convert course time into capability

  • Treat the class as a launchpad: immediately reproduce each lab at home in a VM, then add one small extension (new sysfs entry, minor ioctl, extra tracepoints).
  • Track work in a Git repo with clear commit messages and a short README; this becomes demonstrable evidence for hiring or internal reviews.
  • Learn the common toolset used in class (dmesg, perf, ftrace, kgdb/crash) and keep short cheat sheets for quick recall.
  • When testing drivers or kernel patches, prefer isolated test images and physical spare hardware when hardware faults are possible.

Quick hands-on starter (tiny test module)

/* hello.c */
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/init.h>

static int __init hello_init(void) {
    pr_info("hf: hello loaded\n");
    return 0;
}
static void __exit hello_exit(void) {
    pr_info("hf: goodbye\n");
}
module_init(hello_init);
module_exit(hello_exit);
MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

Build in a folder with a simple Makefile and use:
make -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$PWD modules
insmod hello.ko ; dmesg | tail ; rmmod hello

Caution: run kernel work in VMs or test devices and keep snapshots.

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