[ninkendo]

Your question is a trap because you’re not qualifying what type of job you’re talking about. I could say “because your code runs on Linux and you should learn it” and then you’ll just say “well I wasn’t talking about jobs writing code running on Linux”.

Assuming the discussion is about a typical developer that runs code that is deployed to “the cloud”, and the cloud is basically 99% Linux, yes. You absolutely need to know enough about how Linux actually works to be effective at your job. Otherwise you’ll fall into the sort of trap zillions of “big data” engineers fall into, where you spend countless hours writing custom code that takes up terabytes of RAM that could have been a simple sed/awk/grep pipeline that uses a handful of kilobytes.

[dagmx]

Surely, if my question is a trap then so is the initial premise I’m replying to?

It doesn’t specify a job and that’s exactly what I’m calling out.

Even your response assumes that a “typical” developer is one who deploys to the cloud , but what is that based off of? And how many of those need to interact with the cloud infrastructure itself?

Your second point about taking up terabytes of RAM doesn’t really matter if it’s on the cloud or not, and certainly doesn’t matter if it’s Linux . It’s also assuming that you can’t have a UI frontend that just calls the necessary efficient code or CLI commands behind the hood.

So my question remains: what percentage of jobs actually require you to know Linux specifically?

[ninkendo]

I guess I sprung the trap.

We can apply the principle of charity and assume that because OP was making this complaint at all, it was probably in the context of jobs where ostensibly there is plenty of value in learning Linux. You don’t need to ask for qualification here, it’s just assumed by context that, for OP’s point, these were probable roles that really should have Linux knowledge.

But you turn that around and say “but why would you need Linux knowledge??!”, taking the least-charitably-possible interpretation of OP’s comment, as if they’re talking about janitors or something, challenging them to prove why the majority of jobs (!!??!!??) needs Linux knowledge.

I dunno man, maybe because in their head they’re referring to a category of people for whom working Linux knowledge really should be expected, and it’s assumed that readers of their comment will probably understand that, and that they’re not going to be prompted to qualify every last thing they say.

But sure. Yeah. Linux technically refers only to a Kernel and not the whole OS so people shouldn’t say “learning Linux” if they only mean a CLI and a basic unix-like environment. You’re very smart, thank god you’re here to clarify all of this for us.

I need to stop with HN for a while, the level of pedantry has gotten absolutely out of control and I’m getting angry just reading this shit.

[dagmx]

Oh come off your high horse.

The phrasing is exactly

> There are people here on this forum openly admitting they don’t see how ‘knowing Linux’ is useful

That could literally apply to any job, especially as a developer.

And then the rest of your inane rant is about something I didn’t say. I didn’t say anything about linux being limited to the CLI, in fact my other comments say Linux is much more than the CLI.m. So now you’re just inventing your own argument to be angry about.

So maybe take your own advice, and give a charitable reading instead of getting angry because you’re unable to make a point. Because not only did you take the least charitable version of what I said, you invented arguments I didn’t make.

And maybe you should take a break from the internet if things make you this angry this easily.

[ninkendo]

I will no longer feed trolls. Lesson learned.