On teaching sudo
A few weeks ago I was in Lille, France for Pass the SALT, a conference focused on open-source software and security, and gave a training on sudo. Ever since the conference, I’ve been approached by people asking if I could give sudo training(s) for or through their organization. Instead of writing a short answer to everyone in private, here is more detailed public response.
The short answer: it depends :-)
The long answer is a bit more complicated, but it’s well summarized in the short answer. Why?
First of all: I am not a trainer. Yes, I taught various subjects at university level, both as a graduate and as a PhD student. Along the way, I also provided introductory Linux training for banks and various certificate preparations. However, it was a long time ago in the galaxy. Yes, I can teach, but it is not my primary focus.
I am an open-source contributor, evangelist, and product guy. Sharing knowledge, training, teaching, name it whatever you want, is just a small part of my job and my interests. Both as an evangelist and product guy, learning from my audience equally important. Visitors of the Pass the SALT conference are very open to discussions, both during the training and in the hallway. Many of the sudo 1.9 features were born from discussions at this conference. Unfortunately, a traditional teacher-student setup, especially if it is in a virtual classroom, makes this two way communication and learning impossible. I am more of a product guy than a teacher, so I’m not that interested in simply teaching. You can find my article on the evangelist mindset at: https://opensource.com/article/21/1/open-source-evangelist
Secondly: I am not a sudo expert. Yes, I know some of the most advanced sudo features. I helped in designing, testing and issue reporting some of them. However, I’m not a practicing sysadmin anymore. I know the basics of sudo, and some of the most advanced or most recent features, but not much in-between. Over 90% of the people at my sudo talks and training have never heard about the advanced features I talk about, and most of them go home planning to test at least some of them in their environments. On the other hand, unlike me, they have some solid sudo foundations. They are interested in the advanced stuff.
TL;DR: I am very happy to go to conferences in real life, where I have a chance to have a two way communication with the audience. Where I do not have to teach the basics, and it is not just teaching, but also a discussion with active sudo users.
If you still think that I can be of any help for you, you can contact me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Mastodon. You can find more details in the upper right corner of my blog.
PS: if you are a BSD guy, come to my training session at the EuroBSD conference: https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2024/talk/FLCHU3/
