IT needs to retool tech workers for Linux growth

You folks miss the point. "Retooling" has a very specific corporate meaning. Re-tooling as all of you have spoken about it, exists, nay, mandates itself. I agree, as a OS-9 and then Unix hobbyist who talked his way into programming jobs in the early 90s, curiosity-fueled self education has a definite place.

"Re-tooling" does NOT mean letting someone internally motivated learn a new system, or guiding someone who wants to learn.

"Re-tooling" in the corporate sense means to take an arbitrary project or department-full of existing employees, run them through the cheapest possible "training", whether they like it or not, and then throw them in over their heads. Five years of Windows Studio programming in VB or ASP or C#, plus a 6-month Java training program, does not equal a linux programmer with 5.5 years of experience.

The difference between corporate-style training, and education is greater in practice than it is in theory.

Also, if you like good history mechanisms, you should investigate Zsh. Best interactive shell ever.

phsolide -

I've seen re-tooling done well and done badly. Some corporations are smarter and better than others.

Some are REALLY, REALLY bad, though, I have to admit.

Quoting:"Re-tooling" does NOT mean letting someone internally motivated learn a new system, or guiding someone who wants to learn.

OK, I missed that point. I assume forcing employees to do things against their likening never works?

Quoting:The difference between corporate-style training, and education is greater in practice than it is in theory.

I'm interested (even when being a hobbyist when it comes to IT). Could you elaborate on that a bit?

(As a sidenote: I work in a business where - using the Free Dictionaries definition - retooling is what I indirectly deal with everyday, however the tools we work with are physical, and everybody is happy to work with new tools because that always means the old ones were not good enough)

Quoting:And, I guarantee, anybody who has been in IT more than 5-10 years has been "re-tooled" to some degree or the other.

Indeed, I say that from 30 years experience in IT.

> I assume forcing employees to do things against their likening never works?

Seldom works. There are exceptions to every rule. In particular, income incentives can overcome a lot of resistance. Strange how that's so seldom used, isn't it?

> And, I guarantee, anybody who has been in IT more than 5-10 years has been "re-tooled" to some degree or the other.

I think I've lost count by now.

At my company, the IT division are already a bunch of tools. *goes to sit in the low-brow humour corner and trolls there*

>> "There are exceptions to every rule."

Including that one?

> Including that one?

Probably, yes. Some rules are written for specific situations which don't allow for exceptions (though ones could probably be devised if someone tried hard enough). Others are the results of natural laws which don't allow for exceptions.

It very similar to the saying "Moderation in all things" which by definition includes moderation.

This has to be one of the more odd, entertaining threads I've seen recently...anyway, metoo to the "some folks want to learn, some should just be pods in the Matrix" sentiments.

> "some folks want to learn, some should just be pods in the Matrix"

Heh, can I use that as a sig?

Anyhoo, to continue with the matrix analogy, I took the red pill and worked hard to learn all about unix and linux in the early 90s, at a time when my job description had everything to do with electronics and nothing to do with unix. It opened a door for a career change, and allowed me to jump from a sinking ship and catch a wave that is still going strong.

hmm, lotta metaphors there....

edit: fixed dumb grammatical error in 1st sentence of 2nd paragraph.

Do you ever think to yourself, "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

Nah, me neither.

herzeleid made me seasick- what color pill should I take?

All this talk about 'pills' and 're-tooling' makes me think that several posters here are really spam-bots in disguise.

Thank you, thank you very much! You've been a good crowd. I'll be here through Thursday. Don't forget to tip your waitresses. My next Gig will be in Redmond Washington. There's a company there looking for bad comics to push products for them.

number6x, make that trip next week. This week your talented spin us needed in Denver.

> herzeleid made me seasick- what color pill should I take?

This should help. Also, take some St Johns Wort, and call my office in the morning if symptoms persist.

http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/matrix.php

Quoting:Do you ever think to yourself, "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

No need to. My med-week-box only features yellow, white and pink ones. Actually, I never saw blue pills, ash I received a _lot_ of different pills from the pharmacy.

Quoting:"some folks want to learn, some should just be pods in the Matrix" sentiments.

The rest is busy reading LXer.

I want the pills with the little Ms on them. Or are they Ws?

TC --

Neither. They're 3s.

I thought they were Es. :(

Totally OT:

A college near here, with some very liberal attitudes about body exposure, have some improvised signs on the dorm showers:

M--Man inside W--Woman inside E--Empty 3--Room for one more

We now return you to your regularly scheduled distraction.