Linux Milestone: EdX's Free 'Intro to Linux' Course Surpasses One Million Enrollments

The Linux Foundation has announced that its free Introduction to Linux training course on edX has surpassed one million enrollments. The course helps students develop a good working knowledge of Linux using both the graphical interface and command line across the major Linux distribution families. No prior knowledge or experience is required, making the course a popular first step for individuals interested in pursuing a career in IT.

Introduction to Linux has helped countless individuals launch their IT careers. Jules Bashizi Irenge for example, completed the course then proceeded to intermediate Essentials of System Administration training and received a Linux Foundation Certified SysAdmin (LFCS) certification, and now is a PhD candidate who has contributed over 200 patches to the Linux kernel. Fabian Pichardo also followed the introductory course with Essentials of System Administration and LFCS, and now is employed full time as a software developer.

"To have introduced over a million individuals to Linux is a tremendous milestone," said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "One of our primary goals is to bring more talent into the open source community, and offering free, high quality training that is accessible to anyone who wants it is essential to achieving that goal...."

The Linux Foundation has been an incredible partner of edX for the past six years, bringing dozens of courses in high-tech and in-demand fields to our platform of 34 million learners," said Anant Agarwal, edX Founder and CEO. "Introduction to Linux, their very first offering, has been a true blockbuster - it's one of our top 10 most popular courses of all time. We're thrilled to congratulate Linux Foundation on reaching 1 million enrollments and look forward to bringing accessible high-tech education to countless more learners, together."

Introduction to Linux remains open for new enrollments. There is no cost to complete the course, and verified certificates of completion are available for $99. The Linux Foundation offers two dozen free training courses on open source projects including Linux, Kubernetes, Hyperledger, and more in partnership with edX.

1 million?

[pahles]

Just out of curiosity I clicked the link and enrolled. On the page it says "638,981 already enrolled!" Where on this world does 638,981 == 1,000,000?

Re: 1 million?

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

There's an icon saying 1,000,000+. The course can be completed at your own pace, maybe the 600k is just the number currently enrolled?

Re:

[Sin2x]

Below the badge it says: for all versions of this course. I presume, 638000 is for the current iteration, which is substantial, to say the least.

Sysadmin .. no longer lucrative?

[backslashdot]

Being a sysadmin, or even a backend application coder for corporations .. is that even a decent career anymore? This is anecdotal .. but to me it seems that nowadays it's a real pain to find anyone who is any good at front-end UI/UX coding .. it used to be that sys admins and backend developers were difficult to find and people were happy with any old ugly UI .. nowadays though it seems backend and platform management is easy, and the market is saturated. Not so with UI/UX. I mean, there are a lot of peopl

Re:

[Forty Two Tenfold]

There's no decent office package for */Linux systems.

Re:

[whitroth]

Have you ever looked at Linux?

LibreOffice is just fine. I spent years at work opening Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in it. Before, I spent years submitting Word document resumes, and now I submit Word document stories, all written in LibreOffice, with no problem.

As Chas C. Mulligan would say, you're an ignorant idiot.

Re:

[Forty Two Tenfold]

Fuck you too! I have been using */Linux almost exclusively since 2003 both personally and professionally. LibreOffice is unusable. Writer has worse functionality than Word 97. Try making a scripted form template in it. Try enabling code completion in basic dev. Find me a usable online developers manual/reference for macros. Don't make me laugh. I have more functionality in GDocs.

Re:Sysadmin .. no longer lucrative?

[whitroth]

Unfuck you back.

I've not had any trouble with writer. But then, in 1995, PC Mag did a review of then-current word processors, and noted that 90% of the users used 10% of THEN-FUNCTIONALITY, and of the 10% that did use the other 90%, they used it 10% of the time.

And maybe you can give me a good explanation of why the fuck anyone would want to put a script in a document. When I write documents, I can't imagine a reason to change it as someone reads it.

"Basic dev"? What part of LibreOffice is that... and why the *hell* would anyone write code in a word processor.

Why, yes, I do use vi.

Re:

[Forty Two Tenfold]

Oh, boy. Crawl back under your rock, you narrow-minded peon. Luv ya.

Re:Sysadmin .. no longer lucrative?

[jellomizer]

UI/UX coding in general has been transitioned to Web Applications. Why bother with X11, or Windows Form coding of an Front End App where you are going to run into someone in your org, who will not use your corporate OS of choice, and would want to do their work on a different platform. Also Web Applications are easier to deploy and translate much more easily to Mobile devices as well.

I am not sure on why you think backend application coding is no longer a decent career. While there is a trend towards pushing a lot of things towards cloud based services over the past decade or so. There is also an emerging trend towards increased vertical integration going on. In which many orgs will want better control of everything. This type of stuff tend to go in generational cycles.

Back in the Early Mainframe days, Timeshare computing was a big deal. As companies couldn't afford millions of dollars for a computer, so they rented time from these computers to do their processing. (Less sysadmin needs)
Then companies wanted their own mini-computers that allowed them to do what they wanted and when, without sharing. (Greater sysadmin needs)
Then computers moved over to Desktops where everyone just did their own thing on they PC (Less sysadmin needs)
Then we growth of internet services email, corporate webpages, sharing of files and all with a connection of the wild internet. (Greater sysadmin needs)
Move to cloud services for many of the common business functions (Less sysadmin needs)

Then what I see in the future.
Moved towards Vertical Integration. Where Cloud Services are no longer seen as secure and worth the risk, While the new hardened cloud software will be setup and ran at the business site, well protected behind firewalls and company VPNs. Which they have tight controls and with lower hardware costs, becomes more affordable. (Greater Sysadmin needs)

Re:

[whitroth]

Yes, says the just-retired-last-year sysadmin. "Any old Ugly UI" - to quote a friend, your mother dresses you funny, and you need a mouse to delete a file.

I wonder...

[RotateLeftByte]

how many of them are from people who work for Microsoft? As they (MS that is) seem hell bent on taking over Linux they'll need people who can at least spell it.
Embrace ? Tick
Extend ? Tick
Extinguish? In progress.

Re:

[kenh]

So? It was Linux that declared 'war' on Microsoft, remember the "World Domination' presentation slide from Linus? The Microsoft Tax revolts?

Re:

[kenh]

With 77% of desktop market share, why would MS feel the need to 'take over' Linux with it's nearly 2% market share?

Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-... [statcounter.com]

Re:

[jellomizer]

I am not so sure about about that.
I think Microsoft is moving toward more B2B type of work. Like IBM vs fighting the Desktop war.
Microsoft lost and seemed to have given up on the mobile market. Wich like it or not, is the new PC market. Which is Dominated by iOS (Unix based OS) and Android (Linux based OS)
At this point I think in order to keep strong in the B2B market. They need to show that they are Serious with their ability on Linux based systems. As trying to kill it in the past only showed how behind

Re:

[sarren1901]

Most real business is not done on a phone, even today. I'm not saying the phone is not a huge ecosystem that can help the work flow but when you need real computing done, you aren't turning to your phone.

Most people don't actually need anything more then their phone because they aren't doing anything important on the computer in the first place. As soon as you want to start creating stuff, be it office paper work, graphics or coding, you'll be wanting a real computer.

Microsoft would be smart to make sure th

Re:

[junglee_iitk]

FYI most backend development is done on Linux. Most front end development is done on windows. I don't know the reason behind it. One guess is that front end developers have 0 exp with systems so they use whatever has always worked for them and that is windows. Other guess is that they are frequently working with multimedia or the people working on multimedia and they are tied to windows via Photoshop etc. software.

2020

[thsths]

is going to be the year of the Linux Desktop. For sure!

Re:

[jellomizer]

The year of the Linux Desktop, will be the year that Desktops are no longer relevant. They will be deemed Workstations.

Being that people buy Desktops mostly to play games. Vs Laptops for work, or just use their mobile tablets and phones for normal stuff. Microsoft still has a big lead in games. Not due to Technology, but just the fact that Game Makers will build it for Windows, then perhaps do a crappy port to Linux if they feel like it.

Re:

[bjwest]

Microsoft still has a big lead in games. Not due to Technology, but just the fact that Game Makers will build it for Windows, then perhaps do a crappy port to Linux if they feel like it.

I blame this on the engine creators not creating a proper cross-platform game engine. At this point in the game there is no reason that all that's needed to compile a game for a different OS is to tell the compiler what OS to compile the game for. It shouldn't matter if it's compiling for DirectX or OpenGL or whatever, the engine should take care of the specifics during compile.

Not $99

[kenh]

Introduction to Linux remains open for new enrollments. There is no cost to complete the course, and verified certificates of completion are available for $99.

It's currently $199 for the completion certificate. [edx.org]

What About Windows?

[SlashbotAgent]

Is there a Windows counterpart for this course? I wonder what its enrollment levels might be.

I'd be willing to bet that very very very few Windows users underwent a 60 hour training course to learn the basics of how to use it.

And then, there is Apple iOS...

Re:

[bjwest]

Is there a Windows counterpart for this course? I wonder what its enrollment levels might be.

I'd be willing to bet that very very very few Windows users underwent a 60 hour training course to learn the basics of how to use it.

And then, there is Apple iOS...

It depends on how deep you want to get into how things work. Linux is at the stage now where you can get by in the pointy-clicky desktop world Windows users are used to, but if you want to know how to tweak your system to it's max, you need to either take a course like this for Linux or MS Certification for Windows, or do a lot of reading and learning on your own. If you want a job administrating a system, you will have to take a course and get a certificate on either system.

Answering your question, yes t

Re:

[Sin2x]

Windows desktop usage is easy enough not to need any training, and for server usage you have certifications, obviously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]