With programming jobs on the up-and-up, it’s little wonder that more people are beginning to seek out training courses to help them find success in the software world.

The Linux Foundation has offered its free Introduction to Linux course for the past six years, providing individuals with no prior experience of the platform a working knowledge of Linux and its major distributions. The organization has now heralded the passing of a significant milestone, after announcing that more than one million students had enrolled in its class to date.

SEE: Linux commands for user management (TechRepublic Premium)

“To have introduced over a million individuals to Linux is a tremendous milestone,” said Linux Foundation executive director, Jim Zemlin.

“One of our primary goals is to bring more talent into the open-source community, and offering free, high-quality training that is accessible to anyone who wants it is essential to achieving that goal.”

While Linux hasn’t cracked mainstream adoption amongst general consumers (though recent reports suggest the tide could be beginning to turn ), it remains a core component of enterprise IT architecture. For starters, Linux powers all of the world’s 500 top supercomputers, not to mention the estimated 2.5 billion Android devices circulating in the world today.

According to a Dice survey in late 2019, a good knowledge of Linux can help you land a lucrative career in the tech industry: figures from the company revealed that employers were typically willing to pay upwards of $100,000 Linux systems engineer and DevOps engineer roles.

The Linux Foundation’s Introduction to Linux course, which is delivered via the massive open online course (MOOC) edX platform, promises to help put aspiring IT pros on this path, equipping them with knowledge from both a graphical and command-line perspective. Upon completion of the course, students can apply for a verified certificate of completion for $199.

The free course has helped a number of professionals launch their IT careers. Among it’s success stories, the course lists Jules Bashizi Irenge who completed the course, before going on to take the Essentials of System Administration training. After receiving a Linux Foundation Certified SysAdmin (LFCS) certification, Irenge went on to contribute over 200 patches to the Linux kernel and is now a PhD candidate.

SEE: Top 5 programming languages for systems admins to learn (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Introduction to Linux remains open for new enrollments. Anant Agarwal, edX Founder and CEO, said: “The Linux Foundation has been an incredible partner of edX for the past six years, bringing dozens of courses in high-tech and in-demand fields to our platform of 34 million learners.

“Introduction to Linux, their very first offering, has been a true blockbuster – it’s one of our top 10 most popular courses of all time. We’re thrilled to congratulate Linux Foundation on reaching 1 million enrollments and look forward to bringing accessible high-tech education to countless more learners, together.”

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