Introduction

For someone starting out in IT - or for someone considering a change of career - a career using open source software is a great idea. This chapter covers the major areas of interest for someone considering open source as a career option:

• Why open source?
• Education & training
• Training providers
• Certification
• Gaining experience
• News sources

As you will see, not only is open source an expanding careers market, it is also easy - and cheap / free - to get experience and training in the technology, which is in stark contrast to proprietary software. The trend is for open source to dominate most areas of computing in the coming years, so there is no better time to start off your career as an open source expert.