Online courses

The UKs current economic climate means Im fearful for my job. My companys sales are declining rapidly and although I wouldnt be first to get the shove, it may happen eventually.

I am not qualified to do anything although I do have average GCSEs and poor A-levels. I wasn`t really interested in much apart from music (tried and failed) and girls (happily married) at school.

However I now find myself with a linux computer and an interest in unix, open source, even programming (of which I know nothing). How I wish I could rewind 15 years and go and study these subjects, although I bet there weren`t many linux courses then.

I`d love to be a mature student and get down with the kids on campus. But I have a young family and a pretty hefty mortgage to service so it is essential to stay in full time work.

I know my way around the shell and have picked up numerous tips and tricks and I rekon I could accomplish most things with the help of google and these forums but I need something to say "I have studied and passed this"

Does anyone know of, or can anyone recommend any online courses in linux/unix. One giving a recognised qualification would be nice, but not required (with the knowledge I can sell myself).

Ive looked at the open university but they dont offer anything in this field. I don`t know the first thing about windows.

Thanks.

think the university of Newcastle have some stuff and well... id STRONGLY recomend moving to sweden for a cupple of years and studdy there! Its free! And its a change in enviroment which is great for people looking to start over! Take the wifre and kids and move to stockholm and start studying at KTH! (look it up) http://www.kth.se/?l=en_UK

Best education there is to offer for free and minor leagal difficulties for european citisens!

Good look! (did i mention studies are free?

Thanks for the reply. But first I would need a job in sweden and like I said Im not qualified to do anything. Ill check Newcastle out. Cheers.

I found myself in the exact same situation a few years back. I just went back to school full time while working full time. One thing I learned, the paper helps you get a job but the school teaches you nothing. I have a 3.2 GPA and know almost nothing about any of the things I am learning, other than theory. I have a year left, lost my job and went out looking for work in the field I was studying. I mastered HTML after I got my first job back in July and I still struggle with CSS from time-to-time.

My point? The best way to learn, I have found, is to set time alone with a book and teach yourself. If you already have a degree, spending money will not help you learn. If you do not, go back and get it just for your resumee. Employers want to see results more than anything else. If you learn a programming language then join an open source development group, then show your potential employer the program you are working on it will go a long way, provided you pick a good program.

In school, the first programming languages I "learned" were HTML, CSS, JavaScript & PHP (I got an A in the class, yet left it not knowing one thing about JavaScript or PHP). From there I moved to Java, which I never learned at all really.

Depending on the programing you want to do, if you want to do web, I would say HTML & CSS, then JavaScript, then Ruby on Rails, as Ruby is more of a "real" programing language and Rails is (IMHO) the best way to build web sites.

If you want real programing, skip all of that and pick up "Head First Java". I did not finish the book, but I can say that EVERYTHING I learned about Java came from that book. My class and text book were worthless. This book saved my life, it is awesome! I just switched majors and dropped my Java class because I found the book too late.

Hope that helps, good luck!

ubuntu do courses now, if you want a look check here: http://www.ubuntu.com/training/certificationcourses

Free linux classes- http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/index.html http://linuxbasics.org/course/start

IBM has some excellent online training for programming, lpi cert, etc http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-bash2.html http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/edu/l-dw-linux-lpic2201-i.html?S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=LPIGR

http://www.linux.org/lessons/

10 Sites Offering Free Linux Courses Online http://education-portal.com/articles/10_Sites_Offering_Free_Linux_Courses_Online.html

Some good ubuntu references http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/#toc2 http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Intrepid https://help.ubuntu.com/community/

Beginning training- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Beginners/Guide

Free command sheet http://fosswire.com/2008/04/22/ubuntu-cheat-sheet/

LinuxCommand Learning the shell Writing shell scripts http://linuxcommand.org/index.php

http://www.lpi.org/

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I can relate entirely, dude. I lost my job at Home Depot and, never having gone to college, I'm having to almost start my life over from scratch.

I'm fortunate in that I don't have a mortgage over my head or a family to feed, but it's still not a complete "walk-in-the-park" proposition, either.

This is going to sound cliched and trite, but it's true: Anything really worth doing in life is never easy, and it's the struggle which improves us. Don't give up on your desire to better yourself. And if you're reading this and thinking something along the lines of "Well, I can't afford not to have a job, not to pay the bills, not to feed my family," then understand these two things:

1. Like it or not, you've allowed something else to run your life, and you'll never find true happiness or satisfaction until you wrest back control of your own life;

1. Remember that, on an aircraft, they always tell you to put the emergency mask on yourself *first*, because you're no use to anyone else if you've passed out. (There's a lesson to be learned here.)

As I said, I don't have a college education. There's any number of legitimate reasons for that (and some not-so-legitimate ones, too), but nevertheless I've effectively neutered my own potential. Like I said, you put the respirator on yourself first, and this is an example of not having done so myself. So therefore I'm heading to college starting this January.

You also have to understand this has not been an exactly easy road for me to hoe in getting here. Clearly, this being an Internet public message board I'm not going to go into personal details, but suffice it to say it's taken both a job loss and a personal tragedy to both push me onto the path I should have been, and simultaneously to enable me to travel upon it.

Consider this, too: What if your worst fears are realized, and you lose your job? What then? Now you are without a job and without a college degree. If you think life is tough now, just you wait and see how tough life could be (God forbid) then. There is always a way. It may not seem like it, and it may not be clearly visible, but it's there. Take a deep breath, have faith in yourself, and find it.

Now, vis a vis certifications, there's a bunch. My suggestion would be to obtain the following (in no particular order): Net+, Linux+, RHCE, and A+. And then, as others have suggested, if coding is something you are feeling the call to do, then get involved in the F/OSS community, because it's useful, respected, and something you can genuinely point to IRL (in real life) as an actual, credible accomplishment.

Good luck, and may the wind be always at your back.

Mike