JournalofAppliedComputingandInformationTechnology

ISSN2230-4398,Volume12,Issue1,2008

IncorporatingtheNACCQpublications:BulletinofAppliedComputingandInformationTechnology,ISSN1176-4120JournalofAppliedComputingandInformationTechnology,ISSN1174-0175

RefereedArticleA8:

LongitudinalstudyofLinuxnetworkinginNZindustryandITPeducation

DileepRajendranWaikatoInstituteofTechnology,NewZealanddileep.rajendran@wintec.ac.nz

Rajendran,D.(2008).LongitudinalstudyofLinuxnetworkinginNZindustryandITPeducation.JournalofAppliedComputingandInformationTechnology,12(1).RetrievedJune2,2015fromhttp://www.citrenz.ac.nz/jacit/JACIT1201/2008Rajendran_LinuxNetworking.html

Abstract

Thispaper focusesonthenetworkingservicesthatcanbe(andtosomeextentarebeing) taught using the Linux operating system. First it collates information fromrecentliteratureaboutserveranddesktopoperatingsystems,allowingthereadertosee the position of the Linux in the market.The second part uses a quantitativeanalysis of networking job advertisements in New Zealand (NZ), to investigateemployerdemandforLinuxknowledgeandskillsincomparisontoothertechnologiesin this job category. Data was gathered for one year to see if trends could beobserved and there is a comparison of the results from a previous study.HavingidentifiedthelevelofindustrydemandforLinuxinthefirsttwosections,thefinalpartinvestigatestheextenttowhichLinuxnetworkingservicesaretaughtin89%ofNewZealandITPs.Additionaldatawasgatheredabouttheparticularservicesandsubjectareasinwhichtheservicesaretaught.

Introduction

There are many aspects of the Linux operating system taught across a variety ofcoursesandsubjectareas inNewZealand institutesof technologyandpolytechnics(ITPs).ThispaperparticularlyfocusesonthenetworkingservicesofferedbyLinux.

It is important to teach fundamental platform-independent knowledge and skills incomputing.Inrelationtonetworkinganddatacommunications,platform-independentskills could include things such as IP-addressing, subnetting, routing, routingprotocols and terminal emulation. It is also important that the tools used to teachcomputingsuchastheoperatingsystemandvendor-specificsoftwarearechosentohelp with student employability, as this is one of the aims of New Zealand ITPs(ITPNZ,2008).Tothisend,industrytechnologytrendsandemploymentdemandsareinvestigatedtoassistITeducatorstoincludetechnologythatreflectsthedynamicallychangingworkplacethatstudentsencounter.

This paper extends an earlier conference paper (Rajendran, 2007) by investigatingemployer demand for technologies in NZ networking jobs over the duration of oneyear.Ananalysis is done toobserve changesover this time.There is alsoupdatedinformationfromtheliteratureontheoperatingsystemsmarketandadditionaldatawas collected for the final section from NZ institutes. This gives a more complete

perspectiveoftheLinuxnetworkingservicestaughtindifferentsubjectareasacrossthe country, enablingmoremeaningful conclusions to bemade. The results of thefinal section are of value when considering the Linux networking services to beincludedinteachingandindeterminingwhetheritisconsistentwithotherinstitutes.Itmayalsobeofvalue to thoseconsideringanational ITPcollaborativecomputingdegree(Corich,2006)inNZ.

Thisworkwasmotivatedbytheauthor’sexperiencesandobservationsofnetworkingand operating systems papers in aNZ institute of technology. Itwas evident that,althoughawidevarietyofusefulandimportantservicesweretaught,therewasroomforfurtheraspectsofLinuxnetworkingtobeincluded.

LinuxintheMarket

Many agree that Linux is a major player in the global server operating systemsmarket (Galli, 2007; Kumar, 2007; Morgan, 2006; Orr, 2003; Thibodeau, 2007;Wikipedia,2008),alongwithMicrosoftandUnixservers.It isknowntobeusedforsome very large systems; Magid (2007) gives the example of Linux servers beingusedtoruntheGooglesearchengine.

SomeofthediscussionthatfollowsrelatestofiguresobtainedbyBurks(2006)fromtwo of the top three market research companies in the IT Industry (GartnerIncorporated and the International Data Corporation (IDC), where Gartner is thedominant one). Thibodeau (2007) quoted figures from the Gartner Data CentreDivision,projectingthe2007serveroperatingsystemmarketworldwidesalestobeWindows(36%),Unix(30%)andLinux(16%).Otherserveroperatingsystems(suchas Open Virtual Memory System, Netware and mainframe operating systems)together share the remaining 18%. Gartner also project growth for Microsoft andLinuxuntil2012.Linuxservershaveshowndouble figuregrowth in thismarket fornearly fouryearsup to2005 (Galli,2007;Morgan,2006).Galli (2007)graphs IDCannual growth figures over this time, showing that 2003 Linux servers exceededMicrosoftbyaround30%.ThisisconsistentwiththeLinuxservergrowthobservedbytheIDCinNZandAustraliaduringthistime(Varghese,2003).

2007 statistics indicate that Microsoft and Linux are growing and sources attributethistothe increasinguseofx86servers(Galli,2007;Thibodeau,2007).Thibodeau(2007)saysthegrowthofMicrosoftandLinuxisattheexpenseofthemarketshareofUnixservers.HoweverGalli(2007)showstheoverallmarkethasbeendecreasing,as is that ofMicrosoft and Linux.Galli quotes IDC figures that show thegrowth ofLinuxhasbeendecliningmorethanMicrosoft,butIDCacknowledgethat“thenumberof servers shipped do not perfectly equal the number of operating systems in themarket”andheindicatesthatfiguresdonottakeintoaccountthatpeoplebuyemptyserversorrecycleoldWindows/UnixserversandinstallLinuxonthem.

ToasmallerextentthanMicrosoftWindowsandMacintoshOSX,Linuxisalsousedasa desktop operating system. Some consider it difficult to install and use (Magid,2007). However, it has been growing in popularity on the desktop (Predd & Cass,2005).InparticulartheUbuntuLinuxdistributionisbecomingverypopular(Brooks,2006;Castelluccio,2006;Vaughan-Nichols,2006)andisregardedasoneofthemoreconsumerfriendly versions of Linux (Magid, 2007). However,Mossberg (2007) feelsevenUbuntuisstillnotuser-friendlyenoughforthevastmajorityofcomputerusers.Kumar (2007) found that there is a significant level ofmigration fromMicrosoft toLinux on both servers and desktops for organisations of all sizes in India, NewZealand,Singapore,Australia, theUKand theUSA. Therewas alsomigration fromUnix servers to Linux, though this is believed to be stabilising (Galli, 2007).QuantitativeanalysisofNZnetworking jobadvertisementsToestimate thedemandfor Linux in comparison with other technologies sought after by networkingemployers, jobadvertisements from twowell known jobadvertisingwebsites inNZwereanalysedatthreedifferenttimesoveroneyear: inNovember2006,July2007andDecember2007.

AdvertisementAnalysisMethodology

The Seek (seek.co.nz) and TradeMe (www.tradme.co.nz/trade-me-jobs/ index.htm)websiteswereused.Foreachwebsitethe‘search’neededtobedefinedtofindjobsrelatingtonetworking.Jobsrelevanttothisresearchhadawidevarietyoftitles,forexample, network administrator/ engineer, systems administrator, ITspecialist/consultant, security engineer, IP systems engineer. Systems analyst,databaseadministratorandprogrammer/developerjobswerenotincluded.Carewastakentoavoidduplicatejobadvertisements,i.e.anotheradvertisementforthesameposition.

For the Seekwebsite, relevant jobswere found under the ‘Information Technologyand Telecommunications’ classification. There were two subclasses: ‘Networks &Systems’and‘Engineer:Network’.FortheTradeMewebsite,relevantjobswerefoundunder the ‘Information Technology and Computing’ classification. There was onesubclassforTradeMe:‘Networks&Systems’.BothsubclassesforSeekwerecombinedtogiveanothersetofresultscalled‘SeekSubclassesCombined’andasbothwebsiteshadonecommonsubclass(Network&Systems)thiswasalsocombined(Network&SystemsSubclassCombined).Sotherearefivesetsofresultsforeachiteration(referTable1).

In each advertisement, the technologies of interest were noted and grouped intothreemaincategories:

Must-Have:Skills/knowledgerequiredforthesuccessfulapplicant.Preferred:Skills/knowledgethesuccessfulapplicantwouldideallypossess.Nice-to-Have:Skills/knowledgethatwouldbeadvantageousforthesuccessfulapplicant.

Asimpleweightedanalysiswasusedwheretheelementswereprioritisedandgivenanumericalweighting(orjudgment).The‘Must-Have’categoryisgivenaweightingof3, ‘Preferred’ is given a weighting of 2 and ‘Niceto-Have’ a weighting of 1. EventhoughthispaperismainlyinterestedintheresultsfortheLinux,

Microsoft and Unix operating systems, other technologies appeared frequently inthese job advertisements. These are included to give the reader a better sense ofwhereLinuxisplaced.Technologieschosenforthisresearchare:Linux(L),Unix(U),Microsoft(M),Cisco(CS),Citrix(CTX),Novell(N).ThoserelatingtoRFEngineer,VoIPetc were put into a category called ‘other’. This category is not included as it iscomparativelysmallandcannotbeusedtodrawanyconclusions.

Asidefromtheunweightedandweightedvaluesofeachtechnology,thepercentageoftotaladvertisementsinwhicheachtechnologyisfound,isalsocalculatedbydividingtheunweightedtotalforthetechnologybythetotalnumberofjobadvertisementsforthat subclass. These values are included as they lead to some interestingobservations.Thewebsites,classes,subclassesandtechnologiesinvestigatedandthemethodologythatisoutlinedabovewerekeptconsistentthroughouttheyearinordertoseeiftrendscouldbeobserved.

AdvertisementConsiderations

There was a reasonably clear distinction between Unix and Linux in the jobadvertisements. There is a possibility that Linux was notmentioned as a ‘nice-to-have’whenUnixwassoughtafterandviceversaasthetwooperatingsystemshavesimilarities (Kaplenk, 1997; Kumar, 2007; Orr, 2003; Wikipedia, 2008). Thispossibilityisignoredinthisanalysisasitisnottangible.Althoughitdoesaddtotheusefulness of including Linux in teaching where there are transferable skills if onelater decides to learn Unix. Linux has even been used to teach Unix systemadministrationcourses(Kaplenk,1997).

Microsofthasawidevarietyofsoftwareproductsinthesejobadvertisements.Forthefollowingresultsitwasdecidedtocombinetheseintooneheading(Microsoft)asthebreakdownofspecificMicrosofttechnologiesisnotthefocusofthisresearch.

AdvertisementResults

Table 1 displays the final weighted, unweighted and percentage of totaladvertisementscalculatedforallfivesubclassesandthreeiterations.

Table1.Weighted,unweightedandpercentageoftotaladvertisementsforalliterations

AnalysisofAdvertisementData

Weighted total results that were close together are considered an equal rankingbecause if the total number of jobs (sample size)were to be expanded by even aslight amount, they are too close together to estimate which one would have thehigherranking.Veryfew(8%)fallintothiscategory.

Whenall threesetsof results inTable1arecombined,elevenof the fifteenresults(73%)hadthesamerankingfortheweightedandtheunweightedresults.Itcanthusbereasonedthatiftheweightedapproachwasnotused,theresultingrankingwouldbereasonablyaccurate.Howeverthereweresomeanomalies(27%)whereinmanyof these cases the unweighted results were so close together that they could beconsideredequal.Howeverwhentheweightingswereappliedtherewasareasonabledifferencebetweenthem.Theweightedanalysisappearstoprovideamoreaccurateranking. Thus just the weighted results are used to determine the ranking of thetechnologiesinTable2.M(211)representsMicrosoftwithaweightedtotalof211.Theranking is determined by the highest weighted number e.g.: M(340), CS(148)-U(146), L(97), CTX(74),N(32). Thiswould placeMicrosoft in first place, Cisco andUnix in second, Linux in third,Citrix in fourthandNovell in fifth. There is no sixthplaceinthisinstance.

Table2.Technologiesrankedforeachiterationandsubclasswithweightedtotals

From Table 2, the number of times each technology was found in each place was

calculatedandpresentedinTable3andgraphedinFigure1.

Table3.Summaryofplacevaluesforeachtechnology

Figure1.GraphofplacevaluesinTable3

AcursoryglanceatTable3/figure1would suggest the following ranking:Microsoft(100%),Unix(80%),Linux(67%),Cisco(40%),Citrix(53%),Novell:(60%).Thisisbased on the highest percentage in each place. However this would not be veryaccurate,forexampleinthecaseofCiscothathassignificantandsomewhatsimilarfiguresinseveralplaces(2,3,and4).SoitwouldnotbeaccuratetogiveCiscofourthplace based on the fact that this iswhere it has the highest value. Several of thetechnologieshavesomepresenceinseveralplaces.Calculatingthemeanplacegivesamoremeaningfulresult.TakingtheUnixfiguresasanexample;80%ofthetimeitwasinsecondplace,7%inthirdplace,13%infourthplaceanditwasneverfoundinfirst, fifth or sixth place. Therefore the overall place forUnix can be calculated as:(0×1) + (0.8×2) + (0.07×3) + (0.13×4) + (0×5) + (0×6) = 2.33. This can beroundedtosecondplaceforUnix.Thiscalculationisdoneforthealltechnologiesandthe final ranking is:Microsoft (1.00),Unix 2.33, Cisco (3.07) - Linux (3.44), Citrix(4.32),Novell(5.53).ItcanbenotedthatCiscoandLinuxtieatthirdplaceandthereisnosixthplace.

Table4.Rankingcomparison

Theoverallrankingdiscoveredinthispaper issimilarto,butslightlydifferentfrom,that obtained in the earlier conference paper (refer Table 4), showing that thedemand forCisco iscloser to thatofLinuxrather thanUnix.HoweverbothsupporttheviewasindicatedintheliteraturethatthedemandforLinuxissignificant(thirdplace)underthatofMicrosoftandUnix.Theresultsinthispaperareconsideredtobemoreaccurateasittakesthefiguresoverthecourseoftheoneyearasopposedtoononeday.

TrendsObservedDuringtheYear

Microsoft is always (100%)on the top (first place) of ranking andNovell is always(100%) on the bottom (fifth or sixth place) of the ranking. Figure 2 graphs theaveragepercentageoftotaladvertisements inwhicheachtechnology is found,overthethreeiterations.Thisrevealswhatemployersarelookingfor:

Linuxskills/knowledgeisfoundtohaveconsistentlyincreased(by8%)overtheyear.Unixskills/knowledgeisfoundtohaveconsistentlyincreased(by6%)overtheyear.Citrixskills/knowledgeisfoundtohaveslightlyincreased(by4%)overtheyear.Microsoft,NovellorCiscoskills/knowledgeseemedfairlyconsistent(within3%ofthehighestandlowestfiguresforall)throughouttheyearandnonewasnotedtodecreaseindemand.

Thuswecanconclude thatLinuxhad thegreatest increase indemand(in termsofaverage percentage) by NZ networking employers over the year followed by Unix.Thisconclusionisrelevanttothisresearchandindicativeofthegrowthmentionedintheliterature.Howeverfuturetrendscannotbepredicted.

Figure2.Averagepercentageoverthreeiterations

LinuxNetworkingTaughtinNZITPS

Togainperspectiveon theLinuxnetworkingservices taught in ITPsaroundNZ,anemailsurveywassentduring2007andearly2008totheeighteeninstitutesontheITPNZ website (ITPNZ, 2008). Sixteen (89%) institutes responded. This is asignificant number of the institutes, giving somemeaningful conclusions. There arenineteeninstitutesonthewebsitebutoneofthemdoesnothaveacomputing-relateddepartment/course,soithasnotbeenincluded.

SurveyMethodologyandResults

Thesurveylistednetworkingservices(Table5)andaskedwhetherornottheservicewas taught using Linux. If Linux was used, the respondent included the subjectarea(s) in which it was taught. The subject areas suggested in the survey were:networking,operatingsystems,webdevelopment, systemadministration,electroniccommerce,softwaredevelopment,multimediaandprogramming. If theservicewastaughtinanentirelydifferentsubject,thentherespondentcouldmakeanoteofthisaswell.

Respondentswere also able to note downany other Linux networking service theyteachthatwasnotonthe listandwereaskedwhichservicestheyconsideredtobemost importantoverall.The levelofcomplexitytowhicheachservice is taughtwasnotsurveyed.However if the respondent indicated that theservicewasonlybrieflymentioned then it was not included in the results. Table 5 displays these collatedresults.

Table5.PercentagesofsurveyedinstitutesthatteachparticularnetworkservicesusingLinuxacrossdifferentsubjectareas

SurveyAnalysis

Theresultsshowthatseven(44%)of the respondents teachmore thanhalfof thetwelvenetworking services surveyedusingLinux. Inotherwordsmore thanhalf oftherespondents(56%)teach less thanorequal tohalfof theservicesusingLinux,thisisquiteasignificantnumber.38%teachaquarterorlessoftheservicesandatwo(12.5%)donotteachanyoftheservices.

All the services surveyed were taught to some extent. We can observe that theTelnet/SSH(81%)andSambaShare(75%)servicesarethemostcommonlytaught.DNS(63%)andDHCP(63%)servicesarealsowidelytaught.ItwasdiscoveredthattheIMAPandNmapservicesweretaughttoaverysmallextentandtheyweretheleasttaughtofalltheservices.

Services were taught in a variety of subject areas across the country. Many weretaught inseveralsubjectareas.MostoftheLinuxservicesaretaught innetworking(44%) with many also being taught in operating system (24%) and systemadministration(21%)subjects.Theyweretaughttheleastinprogramming,softwaredevelopment and database subjects and were not taught in multimedia and e-commerce by any of the respondents. There were no additional subject areasmentionedbyanyoftherespondents.

Linuxnetworkingservicesotherthanthosesurveyedweresaidtobetaughtsuchas;FTP, VoIP, SNMP, email protocols etc. However the only two services that had asignificantnumberof respondentswereNetwork/PortaddressTranslation(NAT/PAT)(25%) and the SQUID proxy server (25%). These figures can be compared to the‘percentageinanysubject’columninTable5andwecanseethattheyarebeneaththehigher scoring servicesmentionedabove.Two institutes (12.5%)also indicatedthat they used Linux for teaching virtualisation. The services that respondentsconsideredmostimportantareDHCP(38%)andDNS(33%).

AsasignificantnumberofinstitutesinNZrespondedtothesurvey,theresultsareagood indicationofwhat isbeingtaughtacrossthecountryandmaybeuseful toallinstitutes. For those that teachminimal orno Linuxnetworking servicesandwouldliketoincludemore,theresultsindicatewhichservicesarecommonlytaughtandthesubjectareas inwhichtheyaretaught.Those institutesthatteachanumberofthe

servicescanseeiftheyareteachingcommonservicesincommonsubjectareas.

Conclusions

Theliteraturecontinuesto indicatethatMicrosoftandUnixare leaders intheglobalserveroperatingsystemsmarketandLinuxisconsideredthethirdmajorplayerwithobserved and forecasted growth. The weighted analysis of the website jobadvertisements is similar yet gives a number of differences from the earlierconference paper. Firstly a slightly different ranking was found between theunweightedandweightedrankings ina few(27%)caseswhichwerenotpreviouslyapparent.Theweightedrankingwasfoundtobemoreaccurate.Thefinalrankingisalso slightly different: Microsoft, Unix, Cisco-Linux, Citrix and Novell. This isconsidered to bemore accurate as data has been gathered and analysed over theperiodofoneyearasopposedtooneday.However it furthersupportstheview,asindicatedintheliteratureandtheearlierconferencepaper,thatthedemandforLinuxissignificant(thirdplace)underthatofMicrosoftandUnixandisincreasing.

Technology trendswerealsoobserved in the jobadvertisementsover theyear.Theaverage percentage of total advertisements in which each technology is found,showedthatemployerslookingforLinuxskills/knowledgeincreasedthemostduringtheyear(8%)comparedtotheothertechnologies,followedbyUnix.Alltechnologieswereseentoeitherincreaseindemandorstayconsistent.

The first two sections highlight that Linux has a significant presence in the globalserveroperatingsystemmarketand inNZnetworkingjobs.ItwouldthusbeusefulforITPstoincludeLinuxnetworkingservicesintheirteachingalongsideMicrosoftandUnixtechnologies.

The last part of the paper showed that Linux networking services are taught tovaryingdegreesinNZITPs.Asignificantnumberoftheinstitutes(89%)respondedtothesurveyover theyeargivingagood indicationofwhichLinuxservicesarebeingtaughtacrossthecountry.Itwasfoundthatmorethanhalfoftherespondents(56%)teach50%orlessoftheservicessurveyedusingLinuxandthereweresome(12.5%)thatdidnot teachany.Telnet/SSHandSambaShareareconfirmed tobe themostcommonly taught of the services surveyed, and overall, serviceswere found to bemostlytaughtinthenetworkingsubjectarea.

TheresultsandanalysisrelatingtotheLinuxservicesprovidedirectionforthosewhomay wish to include more Linux networking services in their teaching and alsoenablesacomparisonwithwhatiscurrentlytaught.

AcronymList

CUPSCommonUnixPrintingServices

DNSDomainNameServer

DHCPDynamicHostConfigurationProtocol

FTPFileTransferProtocol

IMAPInternetMessageAccessProtocol

ITPNZInstitutesofTechnologyandPolytechnicsofNewZealand

LANLocalAreaNetwork,

LDAPLightweightDirectoryAccessProtocol

SNMPSimpleNetworkManagementProtocol

SSHSecureShell

VoIPVoiceoverInternetProtocol

VPNVirtualPrivateNetwork

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