Linux Academy Is Now An Approved Quality Content Provider For CompTIA Linux+

Anthony James —  May 14, 2014

Linux Academy is proud to announce that we are now an approved CompTIA Quality Content Provider. Our CompTIA Linux+ material has been independently reviewed by CompTIA and ProCert Labs and is now ExamReady certified! This means that our courses have been independently reviewed by ProCert Labs  and meets 100% of the certification objectives. Linux Academy is dedicated to providing you with the highest quality course and exam prep materials at an excellent value.

Now that our Linux+ exam preparation has been Quality Content Approved, this means training centers, instructors and others who are teaching Linux+ are  now able to use the Linux Academy Linux+ exam material for official training!

For more details on the CompTIA Quality Content Partner program check out their page here. You can also take a look at a few of Linux Academy official training partners such as the Linux Professional Institute here.

We’ve been so hard at work adding new content and features that we are sure you’ll find something you’ll like. We now have many Linux courses as well as self-paced hands on labs. Our content also includes a very deep collection of AWS certification courses and AWS self-paced labs!

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS vs. 14.04 LTS: Quick Change Review

Terrence T. Cox —  May 13, 2014

With the recent release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (affectionately known as “Trusty Tahr”), there are a number of people (and organizations) that have been waiting to upgrade from LTS to LTS desktop or server. The question to ask yourself might be whether to upgrade or to re-install? The answer to that question may lie in some of the changes that have taken place between these LTS versions (a little more than two years between them), so let’s take a quick look at some of them.

The Burning Question
Let’s address the big question now, even before we talk about some of the changes between the LTS versions of this OS. Should you upgrade your Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or perform a clean installation of 14.04 LTS. I would like to say “it depends” and site that your specific configuration, customization and third party repositories may help you make your decision.

Unfortunately, my experience with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (going from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) is that you really need to do a full and fresh install. There are a large number of underlying architectural changes to structure, libraries and major components to really insure that your upgrade will complete without major issues. Honestly, if you want a stable system with the latest drivers and utilities that this version has to offer, you need to re-install.

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SteamOS – Installation

Terrence T. Cox —  January 16, 2014

Following up on our first article on SteamOS, we are going to talk about the more manual installation method. The first, larger install image, is completely automated, assuming it likes all the equipment on your system. It seems that the smaller method we are going to talk about today is more flexible on what exactly it will support. It is also more interactive so we will cover what you can expect and what you have to run manually to get things going!

Requirements and Download
Let’s recap quickly our requirements for SteamOS and Download the version we need:

Directly from their site here, the system requirements for a “DIY” Steam box are as follows:

  • Processor: Intel or AMD 64-bit capable processor
  • Memory: 4GB or more RAM
  • Hard Drive: 500GB or larger disk
  • Video Card: NVIDIA graphics card (AMD and Intel graphics support coming soon!)
  • Additional: UEFI boot support
  • USB port for installation

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SteamOS – Introduction

Terrence T. Cox —  December 27, 2013

With the recent announcement and subsequent beta release of SteamOS, we wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the new operating system and what it means to the community. As part of a short series of articles, we are going to introduce the operating system and its requirements, talk about the installation and configuration as it stands today (December 2013) and then where it is supposed to go. Finally, once released in 2014, we will talk both about the Steam Devices that are sold in channel as well as the official SteamOS with game streaming and game controllers. Let’s get started!

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NASA Behind the Scenes: Launch Pad Photography

Tyra Robertson —  November 23, 2013
Launch shot captured by Julian Leek.

Launch shot of the Atlas V and the MAVEN spacecraft captured by Julian Leek.

In the world of modern spaceflight, we are spoiled with close up imagery of rockets launching. Thanks to cameras mounted on the side of rockets we often get to ride along with the rocket watching stage separations in real time. After witnessing my first rocket launch in March of this year, SpaceX CRS-2 mission, I began wondering what type of photography equipment was needed to capture a rocket launch. With all of the long distance transmitting we see with space flight, it’s easy to imagine photographers in a room monitoring and maneuvering their cameras as the launch takes place. That doesn’t even come close to reality.

Before each NASA Kennedy Space Center launch, photographers from around the world gather on the launch pad to set up remotely triggered cameras. Getting the launch pad money shot is risky and involves careful positioning to keep cameras stable and protected from debris shooting from the launch pad flame duct. Before these cameras face earth shaking vibrations from the rocket engines igniting, they are often subjected to harsh coastal winds, rains, and changing temperatures—all of which are a camera’s worst enemy.

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Infographic: Linux and Amazon Web Services Jobs Growth

Anthony James —  November 20, 2013

 

It’s a great time to be working in cloud computing with the Linux operating system and Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform. Take a look below at our info graphic detailing the Linux and Amazon Web Services jobs in demand for the foreseeable future. This hot field is greatly expanding due to new cloud providers and services such as Amazon Web Services and their fast pace innovation on their cloud computing platform.

 

linux-amazon-web-services

If your looking for Amazon Web Services training or certification training you can check out our Linux and Amazon Web Services certification training material at LinuxAcademy.com. Already training but looking for jobs? Check out Linux job site Linux Career for job listing.

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NASA launch on Monday will help pave way to life on Mars

Tyra Robertson —  November 18, 2013

Monday, November 18th, marks the first launch window for NASA’s next mission to Mars. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), is NASA’s tenth Mars orbiter to be launched since 1996. MAVEN is the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mar’s upper atmosphere. This mission has three primary objectives:

  1. Determine the history of the structure and composition of the Martian upper atmosphere.
  2. The cause and rate that gasses escape the atmosphere to space.
  3. Use collected data to measure the prognosis of future atmospheric loss.

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Converting Your AWS EC2 & RDS Instances To Amazon VPC

Anthony James —  October 4, 2013

Amazon VPC has come along way since it was first introduced. For those who are not familiar the Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), it allows us to provision our own section of the cloud. Here we can manage our own routing tables, subnets, internal static IP addresses as well as create VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections to our VPC. Now that Amazon VPC has evolved, it’s good practice to always put our instances inside of a VPC. This can present somewhat of a problem if you already have EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and RDS (Relational Database Service) instances running outside of a VPC. Running our database instance inside of a VPC allows our instance to run on a private network and not open to the internet. Outside of a VPC, your database server is open to the general internet/public, which is a huge security issue.

If you’re looking for a “nitty gritty” detail course on Amazon Web Services and Amazon VPC you can view our AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Level course module over at The Linux Academy. Now, we can get started.

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Introduction to Linux: In The Beginning…

Terrence T. Cox —  September 30, 2013

Like all things in life, a beginning. As we have covered many technical and practical topics in Linux on this site over the past year or so, it occurred to us that perhaps we needed to pause and go back to the beginning. So that is exactly what we have done.

Announcing…
As most of you that are regular visitors to this site know, we not only write about Linux (opinions, tutorials and reviews) but we offer comprehensive training that can take anyone from a complete “Linux newbie” to someone who is prepared for their Linux Professional Institute Certification Exam as well as a career in the industry.

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Ubuntu Linux 13.10 Preview: Docking With Mir

Terrence T. Cox —  September 27, 2013

Ubuntu continues to push the envelope and aggravate the community with each new release. In this newest version, there aren’t any “Unity” type changes to the UI, but one of the more controversial changes in recent memory is just about ready for prime time as they change the underlying Window Manager to “Mir”. Let’s take a quick look at that and some of the other changes from version 13.04 to 13.10.

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