A little less than a year ago, the Linux Foundation launched a program to provide a variety of training opportunities for Linux professionals. Just a few months later, the Foundation moved the program online, offering web-based sessions of select courses to reach a wider audience. On Tuesday, they took it one step further, announcing the free — as in beer — Linux Training Webinar Series.

The idea behind the Linux Foundation Training Program was to offer job training that would help fill the continuing demand for Linux professionals. The courses would be taught not by professors or lecturers, but by actual Linux developers, including the Foundation's Technical Advisory Board which boasts names like Ted Ts'o, Jonathan Corbet, Alan Cox, and Chris Wright, among others.

The first courses were held on-site at Linux Foundation events, including the inaugural event at the annual Collaboration Summit, as well as independent sessions in various cities and corporate-sponsored training. With the success of the Collaboration Summit sessions, the Foundation branched out, offering the same classes taught by the same faculty, but in a Virtual Classroom setting. The courses — which the Foundation will continue to offer — last from two to five days, and run anywhere from $1,200 (for two days) to $2,750 (for five days).

The new classes, designated the Linux Training Webinar Series, will provide an introduction to the basics of Linux, from tuning and file systems to community interaction. Instructors will continue to include prominent Linux developers, including TAB members. Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin described the program as "connect[ing] developers and users with the rock-stars of Linux...to expand the talent pool for Linux."

A number of courses have already been arranged, beginning with Jon Corbet's How to Work with the Linux community on March 1st. Other sessions will include Linux Performance Tuning with Ted Ts’o, Christoph Hellwig's A Linux Filesystem Overview, James Bottomley presenting An Introduction to Git, and “Btrfs: An Intro and Update from Chris Mason. Registration has already opened for Corbet's course, and those interested in other offerings can sign up to be notified as more information becomes available.

Additionally, the Foundation released its Winter/Spring 2010 course catalog for its Classroom, Virtual Classroom, and On-Site training programs. Developer sessions will include Developing Applications For Linux, Embedded Linux Development, Developing with GIT, Linux Kernel Internals and Debugging, and Developing Linux Device Drivers, with Linux Performance Tuning announced for the administration track.

More information on all of the Linux Foundation's training opportunities is available from training.linuxfoundation.org.