Linux Demanding Growing Faster than Talent Pool
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@johnhooks said:
@coliver I've done work for a few doctor's offices around here. They've switched to Medent for their medical records. They deploy on-site CentOS servers, but their clients are only Windows based. I haven't seen the back end, so it could possibly be just an Oracle or DB2 server, but why develop on Linux and then not have a Linux client?
Because that is where the money is. The office workers need more than just the records software. For the vast majority of office workers that means word/excel/outlook and that means Windows.
Why waste the time trying to develop an application for Linux when no one will buy it?
Server side, it makes no sense to develop for Windows server as that adds cost to the person you are selling to. They already have desktops, but they may not have a server. You provide a solution that runs on a free server OS and you have magic business solutions.
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@JaredBusch said:
@johnhooks said:
@coliver I've done work for a few doctor's offices around here. They've switched to Medent for their medical records. They deploy on-site CentOS servers, but their clients are only Windows based. I haven't seen the back end, so it could possibly be just an Oracle or DB2 server, but why develop on Linux and then not have a Linux client?
Because that is where the money is. The office workers need more than just the records software. For the vast majority of office workers that means word/excel/outlook and that means Windows.
Why waste the time trying to develop an application for Linux when no one will buy it?
Server side, it makes no sense to develop for Windows server as that adds cost to the person you are selling to. They already have desktops, but they may not have a server. You provide a solution that runs on a free server OS and you have magic business solutions.
Not that $600-800 for a Windows license isn't nothing, but I really doubt that's killing a project like EHR installs.
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@JaredBusch Good point. I found it a little weird because the install process is literally a bunch of batch scripts. You have to call their "tech support" when you add a new client. They download some batch scripts to the pc from their website and then run them. So now that I think about it, I don't know whether the program is just copied to the client from the server or if the application is some kind of Java/something else. It doesn't look like a native windows application (if that makes sense) the way it behaves, almost looks like a web app. I guess that's why I was thinking that way.
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Obviously looks don't mean that much, but the way the menus slide in and fade out, things like that.
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@Dashrender I agree. The one office only has four employees and a doctor. The whole system cost $40K and $300 a month for support. So the windows licenses are next to nothing.
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@johnhooks said:
Obviously looks don't mean that much, but the way the menus slide in and fade out, things like that.
I hope that's not a real patient record.
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@johnhooks said:
@JaredBusch Good point. I found it a little weird because the install process is literally a bunch of batch scripts.
That's not that unusual.
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@thecreativeone91 Off google images, so I have no idea.
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@johnhooks said:
@coliver I've done work for a few doctor's offices around here. They've switched to Medent for their medical records. They deploy on-site CentOS servers, but their clients are only Windows based. I haven't seen the back end, so it could possibly be just an Oracle or DB2 server, but why develop on Linux and then not have a Linux client?
No real connection between the two. Since the back end and the front end are presumably not tightly coupled, the decision as to what to use for one would have no influence on the other.
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@johnhooks said:
@coliver I've done work for a few doctor's offices around here. They've switched to Medent for their medical records. They deploy on-site CentOS servers, but their clients are only Windows based. I haven't seen the back end, so it could possibly be just an Oracle or DB2 server, but why develop on Linux and then not have a Linux client?
I'm always more surprised that companies are still making OS specific apps. It seems like programming for the web has gotten to the point where this would be almost unnecessary... especially since you then don't have to worry about the underlying OS as much.
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@coliver said:
@johnhooks said:
@coliver I've done work for a few doctor's offices around here. They've switched to Medent for their medical records. They deploy on-site CentOS servers, but their clients are only Windows based. I haven't seen the back end, so it could possibly be just an Oracle or DB2 server, but why develop on Linux and then not have a Linux client?
I'm always more surprised that companies are still making OS specific apps. It seems like programming for the web has gotten to the point where this would be almost unnecessary... especially since you then don't have to worry about the underlying OS as much.
Yup, almost exclusively shops that feel that they have no need to be competitive and keep up with the industry.
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What I don't get is why these companies don't promote from within... They've already (hopefully) got some type of IT Talent pool. Promote the internal guy and get him trained up and give him a little pay raise... and then hire somebody to do the internal guy's job at an entry level pay scale for that job?
Everybody wins... We all know that HR wanting somebody with 12 years of experience really means they want somebody who can handle a Linux Box decently, as well as fix the coffee maker, change light bulbs, catch pests and make the web site contact aliens from Mars.
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@dafyre said:
What I don't get is why these companies don't promote from within...
We always prefer prompting from within if we can. It doesn't happen as much for someone to transfer out of another department into IT because they usually lack even the basic skills but we promote every where else and inside of the IT department.
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Some of our DevOPs Programmers used to be mechanical engineers.
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@thecreativeone91 I get not promoting a user directly into IT (unless said user actually has the aptitude to learn it!).
I'm just talking about in situations where there's a Sr. Linux Admin who leaves for greaner pastures, leaving a Jr. Linux Admin behind... Promote the Junior to Senior... Promote the Newbie to Junior, and then hire a new Newbie....
Give the new Sr. a good payraise, the New Junior a decent pay raise, and hire the newbie at newbie-rate, lol. It's a win for everybody.
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@dafyre said:
@thecreativeone91 I get not promoting a user directly into IT (unless said user actually has the aptitude to learn it!).
I'm just talking about in situations where there's a Sr. Linux Admin who leaves for greaner pastures, leaving a Jr. Linux Admin behind... Promote the Junior to Senior... Promote the Newbie to Junior, and then hire a new Newbie....
Give the new Sr. a good payraise, the New Junior a decent pay raise, and hire the newbie at newbie-rate, lol. It's a win for everybody.
I don't know of many shops that have the full chain and mentoring capabilities that don't do that. It's the shops with no means of turning someone into a senior that I generally see hiring them from the outside.
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I've been thinking about getting some Linux experience and developing some expertise. I do have very light experience with it. I've been in the Windows sysadmin field for about 20 years and I'm considered to be a senior engineer I would say. I'm paid pretty well and I'm sure some will say just keep getting better at the Windows world, but I'm tempted by the potential that having Linux expertise might bring to my career. Thoughts anyone?
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@jonezee said:
I've been thinking about getting some Linux experience and developing some expertise. I do have very light experience with it. I've been in the Windows sysadmin field for about 20 years and I'm considered to be a senior engineer I would say. I'm paid pretty well and I'm sure some will say just keep getting better at the Windows world, but I'm tempted by the potential that having Linux expertise might bring to my career. Thoughts anyone?
Linux earns, generally, far more than Windows and my estimate is that the gap will only widen unless you move into DevOps style Windows management and move to pure PowerShell or other code-based tools. Linux is a growing market, growing pay rates and the demand versus available resources just keeps getting bigger.
