Linux Admin Courses

These courses are made for the absolute Linux newbie (first time swimming in the command line).

• INTRO course teaches you how to swim.
• ADMIN course tells you where to swim.
• CONFIG course walks you through setups for common stack and software installs, as well as regular workflow tools.

The goal is to get you super comfortable and familiar with the command line. So you can do many tasks yourself or understand how to follow online guides written by others.

Yes and no.

“Yes”, because you’ll be good enough to manage your own servers and execute command line tasks on your own. Even if certain aspects are too technical or scary, you’ll at least be able to ask for help in a much more detailed way and get better answers. For sure…you’ll be comfortable enough to adventure more with servers and ultimately develop the experience you need to turn pro.

“No”, because you won’t be fast or efficient enough to do complex tasks. The same Linux task can take 5 hours for the beginner or 5 minutes for the pro. So it’s likely, you’ll only enjoy (or find it worthwhile) doing it for your own servers rather than managing servers for clients (especially ones you didn’t set up and have weird configs).

My course is intended to get you in the water, having fun. Once you know how to swim…you’ll have to learn much more to be a true server phr3@k.

Traditionally, Linux admins are considered “lower skill” in the systems-admin world.

• Sys-admins are cheap and easy to find. $25/hr can get you a guy with 5-10 years experience.
• The better ones are dev-ops or systems engineers. Good ones cost more like $45/hr and up.

HOWEVER…their skill is extremely valuable in today’s fast-moving world. Imagine a massive water leak without a plumber on hand. How much financial damage would you have in an hour if it wasn’t fixed?

Same goes for servers. The skill is essential in any situation where you’re running mission critical services and applications. Knowing how to fix things yourself can save you a ton of money and headache. Knowing how to fix things for clients can make you an absolute hero.

I love that I’m not a classically-trained systems administrator. And by that, I mean that I self-learned on the job over the years managing my own servers…instead of from a class or textbook. I focus only on the most common tasks and commands. And I structure my Linux workflow to fit alongside my application development tasks, not against them (like in the usual developer vs sys-admin conflict).

I feel most Linux courses (or books) are TOO comprehensive, too detailed, too much time wasted on things nobody actually deals with on a day-to-day. They scare off prospecting Linux users right away with too much lecturing on Linux-philosophy and GUI-shaming.

I think you should start with my course to learn how to do 95% of the day-to-day Linux stuff. Then on your own time, like when you’re not busy, read the hardcore Linux stuff for a fuller context of how the Linux ecosystem works within today’s cloud infrastructure (and all the various options available). Personally, I just think my course is wayyyy more fun and empowering than anything else out there.

I don’t offer discounts regardless if you’re poor, wife is dying, car blew up yesterday, lost your job, whole family has cancer, you’re my #1 fan, etc.

Free (and incredible) knowledge exists in Google. Please give that a try.

No refunds…unless you threaten to post negative reviews of me online. At which point I’ll give you back your money. But will think of you as those people who ask for refunds after watching the movie.

What I’d rather you do is give me feedback to improve the course. But you have to be fair. I can’t be spelling out every detail for people who aren’t at the minimum technical level to attempt this.