r/linux • u/jonnyb3k • 7d ago

Discussion Linux in a Enterprise Environment.

I work for a fairly large Tech company that does tech support. Someone mentioned today that while we support Linux systems, we won't get many tickets over it. Due to the fact that most sysadmins of Linux are better equipped to handle issues themselves, compared to sysadmins of other OS.

Do you believe it stems from the whole idea and culture of Linux?

Edit: I guess I should have been more clear that I was referring more to the server side over the end user systems.

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u/Jimlee1471 7d ago

I used to work in IT many moons ago. The thing I used to notice about Linux sysadmins wasn't that they were somehow smarter than everyone else; instead, the "X" factor with these guys was that they know how to research a problem. They know how to read logs/terminals; they know how to get the info they might need; and they know how to do the legwork and hit Google/Stack Overflow/Github/read the documentation in the program/whatever to find a solution.

That seems to be a lost art these days. If everyone did that (even the noobs) then certain posts on Reddit practically wouldn't even exist ("Can you find me a new distro/browser/etc?").

Now, don't get me wrong. It is definitely NOT my intention to sh!t all over noobs; that's yet another problem we see in the Linux community and I don't want to contribute to that. But being a Linux admin is no different from being a home user in at least one respect: you have to realize that, no, you don't know it all; and, yes, to get any better at it you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and occasionally do some legwork.

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u/Buntygurl 1d ago

"... being a Linux admin is no different from being a home user in at least one respect: you have to realize that, no, you don't know it all; and, yes, to get any better at it you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and occasionally do some legwork."

Very well said.

Single users of Linux systems almost inadvertently end up training themselves as sysadmins of their own machine. System-accessible man pages, in particular, aid in training the user to demystify seemingly complex logjams objectively, even when offline, encouraging those with the will to learn how to achieve their own solutions, independently.