Cloud Engineer Boot Camp - Not As Advertised

GSQS

Having completed the LFS101, LFS201, and LFS211, I'm more than a little disappointed with this so called "course". It is being touted and advertised by the Linux Foundation as a turn-key solution designed to take someone who is new from green to competent. In reality, it is reference material (much of it outdated) compiled into slide presentations and .pdf documents. Limited .pdf "labs", little to no instructor led content, and no interactive content. It provides a useful roadmap of concepts, but little else. There's no way someone who is completely new is going use this to become competent without extensive outside supplementation.

coop

1) LFS201 and LFS211 are updated multiple times per year and are tested against all major Linux distributions constantly, so they are not out of date in any meaningful way. LFS101x gets updated somewhat less often (about once a year) as edx policy requires not doing it more often except for minor fixes. So vague comments like "much of it outdated" are lacking in substance and not helpful. Most of the comments about things not working anymore tend to be about minor changes as new distribution versions are unveiled in where a specific file is located etc, and any Linux administrator should be adept at resolving these conflicts as they are perpetual; Linux is not a monoculture and is constantly evolving, and the courses keep their eyes on this as best they can.

2) If you believe you can sit through a few weeks of training and this alone will make you an experienced high-level engineer or administrator you are not thinking realistically. I have seen the advertising material and it does not make it sound like you will be ready to do brain surgery after spending a few hours at home doing reading up on neuroscience. In fact I agree with "There's no way someone who is completely new is going use this to become competent without extensive outside supplementation." and the courses say so.

3) While there is instructor-led daily sessions, these are not instructor-led courses. The Linux Foundation does indeed offer real time instructor-led courses on all three of these areas (LFS300, LFS301 and LFS311)
but the cost is about 10 times as much for each course (even without exams) -- and this is relatively cheap by industry standard pricing. So the pricing here is quite advantageous and far from mercenary, the bootcamps are done as a service primarily for the community as well as the companies that sponsor LF, not as a big revenue generator.

4) The satisfaction rate has been quite high so far but everyone has their own particular taste in how to learn. Keep in mind your views are not universal.

luisviveropena

Hi,

I agree with Coop that there is no way to be transformed into a Linux expert in a small time period. The different areas to learn and cover are big, and becoming a specialist requires time and lot of practice. And we try to do our best to provide good content that can be useful for students.

For another side, I don't see any positive suggestion on how to improve the course. There are people reporting issues, suggesting to add steps in the labs to make them more clear, or to make some modifications to the labs. That's a real way to collaborate into any Linux/Open Source community, project or bootcamp.

Luis.

GSQS

Guys,

In the first place, the tone of my original post could certainly have been better, so for that I apologize. I should have cooled down and reworded some things before posting. Thank you for responding graciously despite my snark.

That said, the issue is what is promised in advertising VS reality. Someone new does not have industry context to reference internally, and should not have to purchase the courses in order to discover that the advertised claims of taking an individual from "newbie to advanced" are not realistic.

For instance:

https://youtu.be/OBtGkpVMiIE

coop

No offense taken. I did watch the video and noticed it said "6 months". That's quite a bit of time to do the courses plus additional study. I recognize it is still a challenge if you are starting from the beginning and there is no guarantee that can help anyone get a job in and of itself.