“Quite simply, the best Linux training ever.”

What defines a fantastic course?
When you learn something useful. When you make connections with fellow students. When the material inspires ideas. When you argue for hours about cron.
What is cron? Cron allows you to schedule tasks and scripts in a Linux system. You can decide when and who can and cannot run cron. Linux allows you to run any system task through the cron system.
The trainers on the course allowed us to explore. Who would have thought that a simple scheduling system could cause such a disagreement. Rudolf and Brian, you need to read the man page on cron.
From 21 February to 5 March I attended the ict@innovation Linux Systems Administration Train-the-Trainer workshop in Randburg, Johannesburg. The training was provided by ict@innovation, a programme of FOSSFA, and GIZ. Jumping Bean provided the outstanding trainers.
The course covered the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC-1) which is a junior level Linux system administration qualification. The course is distribution neutral, which means that it does not favour a specific Linux distribution.
The students on the course came from very diverse backgrounds. They represented Southern Africa and students from all over the region attended. The cultural differences were soon forgotten as the intricacies of the command line and bash scripting were explained to us at varying speeds.
Bash scripting was very interesting and sometimes very confusing. Has anyone managed to get that script that changes all filenames to lowercase to work without user input?
One of the great myths behind Open Source software is that no-one knows how to support the software. The idea behind the LPIC certification is that anyone with this certification can support open source software. On this course the main point was to train the trainers to present the course to others in their regions.
All the participants have plans in place to train many more people in LPIC. In South Africa alone over 100 people per year pass this highly technical course. The ict@innovation initiative will ensure that more people in the region will have basic Linux System Admin skills. The programme is running in Eastern and Southern Africa and may later roll out to Western Africa.
Computer Skills for Africa will offer the course from April 2011. Make sure you speak to John about enrolling for the course.
I would like to thank Evans Ikua and George Nyambuya from ict@innovation (FOSSFA/GIZ) and Balthas Seibold for GIZ for organizing the event. It would not have worked without your hard work and dedicated support. The trainers from Jumping Bean were fantastic. Mpho, Trust and Mark allowed us to explore the material and made it interesting and exciting. Thanks guys I really enjoyed the course.
I would not have found the course interesting without my wonderful classmates. Your hard work during the classes and after hours certainly inspired me to work harder.

John Fordyce,

LPIC-1 Certified

Computer Skills for Africa
Kwa-Zulu Natal
South Africa