On Fri, 2011-02-25 at 12:10 -0600, Jason Hsu wrote: > I'm interested in a career in Linux IT consulting at an IT consulting firm. The type of work I have in mind includes helping companies and organizations migrate from Windows to Linux and helping startup companies and organizations get started using Linux instead of Windows. > > In addition to the list of consultants on the Debian web site (which includes Nick Kukuczka at ORBIT Technologies, Open Source Business Group, Kyle Drake at IT Security Services, and others), is there a list of IT consulting firms? > > In addition to Penguins Unbound, are there any other groups I should be meeting with? > > I have used Linux on the desktop at home for the last 4 years. I have experience with data recovery and prefer Puppy Linux for rescuing files from dying hard drives. (For some reason, Puppy Linux has superior capability at reading files from bad drives. Unlike PhotoRec, Puppy Linux recognizes the filenames and directory structure.) > > I've set up a firewall and DHCP server on an old computer at home using a minimal command-line only installation of Debian Lenny. I will set up additional servers (web server, mail server, print server, etc.) on this old computer. I will also bone up on security measures and test my own home network's security by trying to break into it from outside. > > Is there anything else I should be learning about? I understand that I cannot expect to learn everything I need to know on my own, but the more I can learn early on, the faster I can cut to the chase later. > I would recommend getting started with IPv6. It is not at a boiling point yet but it would probably be a good bullet point for a list of technologies you are familiar or comfortable with as it is going to be getting more and more important in the coming months and years, especially dealing with IPv6 hosts interacting with IPv4 hosts and vice versa. Additionally if you plan to do a lot of windows-to-linux type work I would strongly advise you get very familiar with Active Directory and Samba and all of the related components like kerberos, ldap, etc. Another would be get familiar with Exchange replacements. A lot of smaller shops running windows use AD and Exchange. Bynari, Scalix, Zimbra, etc all have some level of compatibility with Exchange and/or Outlook feature sets.