It suprises me knowing Douglas Adams politics that this is a woman saying this, but boy does it fit. There is no winning in some situations, and this would be one of them.
I have taken a vacation from this, and I miss the writing, so I will pick it up again. Anyone who might have actually been following me, watch out.
Here is a list, and of course my opinion of each item of what makes a linux guru.
1. Knowledgeable in all major Linux distrobutions.
I pretty much agree with this one. If someone doesn't care to know what is happening within the community, then they don't qualify as a guru.
2. Configures Samba, DNS, Sendmail and Apache with no Googling.
Basic Samba maybe qualifies, but I am a UX guy, and it doesn't need Samba to do any magic for me. I can configure Samba without much thought, but only because I have had to set up more than a few file servers for Windows based networks in my early career.
Now as for DNS, well if you don't know how to configure BIND in your sleep to do basic name resolution, and to ask a caching server, then you don't know enough about networking to be a UX guru of any kind.
Sendmail is a nasty beast. No one knows how to make it sing without Googling, unless that is all they do, or they are a Sendmail developer. You do need to be able to tame the beast, and that should be able to be done without any help. A real Linux guru doesn't use Sendmail anymore, Postfix is the modern general purpose SMTP server.
I agree that any Linux admin that doesn't know Apache well enough to configure it in fairly complex ways without assistance is hardly a guru. I say this because Apache is critical to so many web apps, but it should be noted that Apache is hardly Linux. This is softwar not operating system.
3. Helps others solve their problems with Linux.
To be a guru, you have to like to share your knowledge, its kind of in the job description.
4. Blogs or writes about personal experiences with Linux.
This is pretty much the same as above. To be a guru, you have to share your knowledge.
5. Donates time and resources to at least one Linux project.
It is likely that a guru would do this. It is the type of work that would encourage someone to be a guru. I don't believe it is a requirement to be a guru. I place this in the category of common characteristic, not a defining one.
6. Uses Linux on a variety of computing hardware.
Yes, if you don't use Linux in diverse ways, then you aren't a guru.
7. Hacks Linux-based devices for fun and/or profit.
I would place this in the same category as number 5. This is a common characteristic, but not a defining one. It is unlikely that you are a guru if you don't enjoy hacking things to put Linux on them or change the Linux already installed.
8. Finds innovative ways to use Linux at work.
Again, I believe this to be a common characteristic, but not a defining one.
9. Is a Linux Evangelist.
Again, common, but not defining.
10. Has a collection of very early (Kernel 1.x or older) Linux CDs.
This one is silly to me. Everyone knows that kernel.org does this for us. Why would I need the old distro, if I can just compile the kernel and do the rest from scratch.
Happy Hunting
