[Ubuntu-SG] New to singapore

Thu Nov 20 05:48:23 UTC 2014

The problem with the difficulty in finding people with Linux experience in Singapore is because the market here relies heavily on Microsoft Windows. Most of the web servers that I encounter is running on Windows, even on Windows 2003. From a security perspective, if you are going to use and age old system, you must make sure that you have the infra to mitigate attacks.

Compared to our linux counterpart, which gets updates and patches and can be easily installed without having to worry about an application going obsolete. Support wise, its the familiar Red Hat and such.

However, most people (in Singapore) does not see RedHat or some other commercial Linux as comparable to Microsoft. Because they have been using Windows for a long time, using something else is taboo or foreign to them.

Compare this to Adobe Photoshop and GIMP. Why would I pay for Adobe Photoshop when I can use GIMP for free and has almost all the basic necessities? Still, people are buying Adobe because they trust the brand and its what schools in Singapore are using.

Sadly, in Singapore, a commercial entity enforces the standards of use instead of letting people decide what to you use. At the end of the day, it all boils down to dollars and sense. 

A funny thing that I experienced when performing a job in one of the IHL, due to an issue with Microsoft IIS/FTP which terminates connections while a file is being uploaded. I suggested to them to install FileZilla server, which is free and open source. Guess whats their response?
“Ohh….its open source and its free. So the support is not available. We dont want to risk something that does not have support to be installed in our servers.. We cannot trust the code."

And this whole hysteria comes from IDA. IDA relies on commercial vendors to come up with their policy instead of evaluating each and every recommendation. So the bottom line from IDA policy is, if it is open source and its free, means it does not have support and the code cannot be trusted.

And I cannot emphasise enough, commercial vendors rule Singapore, in terms of its IT policy and such. So if Microsoft is the leader, no one else can or will be able to challenge unless you have the commercial push for Linux to be adopted in Singapore and make it known.

Take a look and Apple. Big name, big brand, big advertisements. It is creeping more and more into the schools. In fact, School of Science and Technology, is enforcing 100% Apple Macs in their environment. You can check if you want.

If somehow a Linux vendor can break into this commercial space, and drive the push, I am sure the number of people using Linux will increase and easier to find one.

Regards,
 	Muhammad Heidir  | Father, Husband, IT Freak
SystemX | Punggol Arcadia
Mobile: +65 9026 6674
 	Website <https://systemx.sg” target=>   Email <mailto:md.heidir at gmail.com>    Map <https://maps.google.com.sg/?q=627A+Aljunied+Road,+BizTech+Centre,+#05-07,%20Singapore%20389842>   vCard <data:text/vcard;base64, QkVHSU46VkNBUkQKVkVSU0lPTjoyLjEKTjpIZWlkaXI7TXVoYW1tYWQ7O01yCkZOOk11aGFtbWFkIEhlaWRpcgpBRFI7SE9NRTo7Ozs7UHVuZ2dvbCBBcmNhZGlhOztTaW5nYXBvcmUKVEVMO0NFTEw7UFJFRjo5MDI2NjY3NApFTUFJTDptZC5oZWlkaXJAZ21haWwuY29tClVSTDpodHRwczovL3N5c3RlbXguc2cKRU5EOlZDQVJECg==>  
> On 20 Nov 2014, at 13:26, billy am <wickedpuppy at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> That is not hard to find. Most , or even everyone , people on this list can do it. Where are you advertising? 
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
> 
> http://billyam.com <http://billyam.com/>  || http://use-r.com <http://use-r.com/>  || http://shinyserver.com <http://shinyserver.com/> (BETA)
> 
> SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9
> Oracle SQL Expert(11g)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:20 PM, Ben De Luca <bdeluca at gmail.com <mailto:bdeluca at gmail.com>> wrote:
> For our entry level jobs I think we would consider have installed linux once on a computer. But I cant even find that. 1-2 years of experience and I wouldn't let you leave the interview, id produce contracts on the spot :D
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:17 PM, billy am <wickedpuppy at gmail.com <mailto:wickedpuppy at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Because most entry level jobs postings require that you have at least 1 - 2 years of Linux working experience , not volunteer experience mind you. 
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
> 
> http://billyam.com <http://billyam.com/>  || http://use-r.com <http://use-r.com/>  || http://shinyserver.com <http://shinyserver.com/> (BETA)
> 
> SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9
> Oracle SQL Expert(11g)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Ravi Mohan <faileas.greywolf at gmail.com <mailto:faileas.greywolf at gmail.com>> wrote:
> And most people want coders, rather than sysadmins, and the same sort of sysadmin 'culture' I've seen with US based folks dosen't exist here to the same extent.
> 
> Most linux folks here are self taught too - most schools here and in the region are heavily into windows, and quite a lot of the older, more experienced folks have no idea about linux - I was helping lecturers with *years* of IT experience through putty of all things. 
> 
>  . And eh, job hunting for linux admin type jobs, especially at the entry level is a bit of a pain. I've been applying to quite a few and no luck yet. 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:31 PM, billy am <wickedpuppy at gmail.com <mailto:wickedpuppy at gmail.com>> wrote:
> A few reasons why it is so hard to find Linux admins here , from my point of view and my experience applying jobs
> 
> 1) SG is small , tiny actually , total population is 5.3 millions.
> Compare that to Facebook/Twitter/Google customer base , in billions. Even if the entire Singapore population comes to your website , the daily hit rate will be no more than 5.3 millions.Compare that to Google/Facebook , in billions in hours , thats small. 
> 
> So then unless you are serving the regional market , why pay for Linux Admin , which is hard to find , than a Windows admin , which any Tom , Dick and Harry might be able to do with a simple training and certs? It would be like cracking a nut with an Elephant.
> 
> 2) Small country = small population also means that most companies are not interested/experienced in aiming/planning to scale up their operations. Few SG companies go out of SG to regional/global. So most don't see how IT costs can go up exponentially if you are a slave to M$. 
> 
> Again , contrast it with big countries , if you become popular in New York , you plan to conquer the entire US. There are plenty of Americans who might be interested in your product.
> 
> 3)  the dept head must be accountable for his payroll and SLA , so most will look for Windows admins. With VMWare , backup and restore is also easier. I got Windows boxes at work that crash weekly , but with the magic of VMWare snapshots , we can do DR and restore so that solves the problem as well. 
> 
> 4) A lot of big companies , Banks mainly , are also moving their IT infra to India/China with the rise of cloud usage. It no longer matters now if the DC is in Singapore or India. And of course , by the magic of very strong S$ , its definitely cheaper to hire outside than inside. 
> 
> Cheers
> Billy
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
> 
> http://billyam.com <http://billyam.com/>  || http://use-r.com <http://use-r.com/>  || http://shinyserver.com <http://shinyserver.com/> (BETA)
> 
> SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9
> Oracle SQL Expert(11g)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:19 PM, Muhammad Heidir <md.heidir at gmail.com <mailto:md.heidir at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hi Ben,
> 
> I deal with Linux blackboxes for the past 5 years ranging from custom built BlueCoat Proxies, Barracuda appliances to Imperva SecureSphere boxes.
> They have been very useful stuff. Some customisable some are not.
> 
> The best thing I ever did was to have one in AWS where it is currently hosting my personal/family site. Its a reliable OS if you know your way in it. But sometimes, its flaky when too many customisations are being done.
> 
> Let me know what you are looking for and I’ll try my best to assist you.
> 
> Regards,
>  	Muhammad Heidir  | Father, Husband, IT Freak
> SystemX | Punggol Arcadia
> Mobile: +65 9026 6674 <tel:%2B65%209026%206674>
>  	Website <>   Email <mailto:md.heidir at gmail.com>    Map <https://maps.google.com.sg/?q=627A+Aljunied+Road,+BizTech+Centre,+#05-07,%20Singapore%20389842>   vCard <>  
>> On 20 Nov 2014, at 12:07, Ben De Luca <bdeluca at gmail.com <mailto:bdeluca at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> 2 linux folk double the number of people I know who do tech in admin for linux here :D
>> 
>> Our company is almost entirely linux, about around 700 machines. We struggle to find any one who knows any thing about it. 
>> 
>> What do other people do? 
>> 
>> Ive got about 17 years of experience picked up slackware in the late 90's so I had something similar to the solaris at uni.  Though we do mostly fedora/ubuntu at work. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, billy am <wickedpuppy at gmail.com <mailto:wickedpuppy at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Hi Ben , 
>> 
>> Used to be several , 
>> 
>> - LUGS (Linux Users Group of Singapore)
>> - SUSE User Group
>> - Fedora User Group
>> - The rest I am not sure ... perhaps Mint may have? 
>> 
>> We did use to have a annual FOSS day about 5 years ago but not anymore. 
>> 
>> Cheers
>> Billy
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
>> 
>> http://billyam.com <http://billyam.com/>  || http://use-r.com <http://use-r.com/>  || http://shinyserver.com <http://shinyserver.com/> (BETA)
>> 
>> SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9
>> Oracle SQL Expert(11g)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Ben De Luca <bdeluca at gmail.com <mailto:bdeluca at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Are there other linux user groups here? does any one do meet ups? 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 11:56 AM, billy am <wickedpuppy at gmail.com <mailto:wickedpuppy at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Hi Ben , 
>> 
>> Welcome to Singapore! 
>> 
>> You are definitely not alone but there isn't that many Linux sysadmins either. 
>> 
>> Pls let us know if you need any help adjusting to life in Singapore :) 
>> 
>> Cheers
>> Billy
>> 
>> 
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
>> 
>> http://billyam.com <http://billyam.com/>  || http://use-r.com <http://use-r.com/>  || http://shinyserver.com <http://shinyserver.com/> (BETA)
>> 
>> SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9
>> Oracle SQL Expert(11g)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Ben De Luca <bdeluca at gmail.com <mailto:bdeluca at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Hey, 
>>    I am a linux sysadmin new to Singapore, just wanted to reach out and find out if I was alone :D
>> 
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