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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

This, to me, is terrible news. I am a big fan of Lynda.com. They've always had a great library (both for tech' stuff but are also one of few sites that offer non-tech video training (business courses, photography, etc) and their prices were always very reasonable.

LinkedIn can only make the site worse as far as I am concerned, and I already avoid LinkedIn due to the fact that they've essentially become spammers who work to allow other spammers to spam you. That's all they are, a giant spam platform at this point.

So too bad about Lynda. It will be greatly missed (by me).

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My first reaction was also "oh no!".

That being said, it could be interesting if Lynda course completions could be linked to a linkedin profile or something similar. Gives some power to self-learners.

I've used lynda.com for a while and about 6 months ago they started asking me to share that I had completed a course in my linkedin profile. There is no exam or anything just something that said I'd "completed" (watched) the course. They call them certificates of completion. I've never shared them because I don't think sitting through 4hrs of video means anything other than I have an interest to learn about that subject. I love Lynda.com and always recommend it to people. I always say their tutorials are really good at getting you to a point where you understand enough to read documentation. Atleast when it comes to programming languages. I too am a little worried by this news.

:) Thats true, however, that can be applied to almost everything. College, other certificates, etc. I'm sure you have run into folks with CS degrees that didn't know how to code and all they did was talk jargon.

I understand that there is an aspect of labeling theory that goes on with this, however, as with all things, it shows that people are willing to pay $$ to learn.

Just offering a counter point. :)

Totally agree. I simply cannot see Lynda.com's current (amazing) setup blending well with LinkedIn. Lynda.com is going the way of the History Channel.

I think it's less about changing Lynda.com and more about driving people towards it as a revenue stream for LinkedIn. "LinkedIn Trained and Certified with <X>". Promote those profiles and stick a fat enough badge on them and people will pay. Some money and a few hours to sit through some videos and maybe a test will be seen as a small price to pay for someone looking for an edge.

Wait until you start seeing neverending Lynda.com spam now. "Your LinkedIn contact checked out a new course", or something similar

Lynda will miss us all. I deleted my LinkedIn account because it's not useful for computer science fields (I think). I didn't want spam anymore. I won't continue for long with them.

I completely agree. I may delete mine as well. There is so much spam lately!

I've been meaning to delete mine, I'll get around to doing that today. LinkedIn, more than any large online service I know, is due for replacement.

> I deleted my LinkedIn account because it's not useful for computer science fields (I think). I didn't want spam anymore.

I've never had a LinkedIn account, it has not stopped them spamming me regularly.

They seem to harvest contact details from people who install their apps, and then "invite" all those people. They then proceed to send dozens of reminders hoping the recipient will cave in to make it stop.

LinkedIn is a company I would like to see burned to the ground. They are parasites with no redeeming qualities and do not provide any value.

Every time an announcement like this is made, there is premature mourning. I understand skepticism, but what's the point in saying goodbye before anything has even changed?

It's because they were bought by linkedin, not many people's favorite. They're known for doing some borderline shady practices.

This. The free Lynda membership I get through my University has been incredibly helpful in understanding things I'm studying as well as diving into new topics. I really, really don't want to see it changed/ruined by LinkedIn :(

Well, there's always Safari. They also have videos and stuff now, although I prefer the cheaper, book-only subscription.

Safari is good, but wouldn't something like Pluralsight be closer to Lynda?

I don't really think either Safari or Pluralsight is a good replacement for Lynda. They're both focused on very IT/technical topics (which I enjoy, but that isn't ONLY what I enjoy).

Lynda actually wasn't as good as Pluralsight purely on technical topics, but what they did very well was "everything else." Their niche (if they even had one) was that they did other topics.

For design software and design-related topics, there is skillshare.com. SkillShare has really grown in popularity over the past year. The quality can vary, as you'd expect. But then I've found that to be the case with Lynda.com too. It's inevitable given the huge number of courses.

I'm a subscriber to Skillshare and think it's good value (just $9.99 a month, or $8 a month if you subscribe yearly).

Other sites that cover similar design topics and design software are: digitaltutors.com and tutsplus.com (I've not used either of these though).

Linkedin is sort of a social network for recruiters and brokers who are looking for new talent.

Sure they spam potential clients with job offers. Sure they set up groups and make posts on it and they flood your email.

Your Linkedin profile is supposed to be your resume or CV, people endorse you for skills that worked with you.

Buying out Lynda is going to give Linkedin an option to sell classes for certification to be added to your Linkedin profile. It will make you more valuable to the people looking for new employees and clients. It is not a perfect system, but at least they'll know you took a class on the subject they are looking for.

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