[Linux-aus] Ubuntu Certification (was: lca2005 CD)

[Steve Walsh]

<Quoteth="Martin Pool">

>Gentoo (for one) write excellent documentation of other kinds.

I agree fully, and that was the reason I moved from PreeBSD back to *nix.
I've been using Gentoo for nigh on 18 months now, Nerdvana Hosting (my
Company) is in the process of becoming an endorsed server provider, thanks
to the documentation available to help me do so.

> I  don't see anything essential about certification tests that means
>they can only be written by company-backed distributions.

My comments were more the time expenditure required. You can't hand some
paper to a entry level developer and say "write a test" as they might not
know enough to make it a good test of knowledge. Whereas a mid level dev
might not have the time, and a Lead Dev will probably just laugh at you (tho
this may not always be the case).

>I don't know if just giving the test material to LPI would be enough  for
them to start using it.

True.

>Perhaps the cause is this: employers who care about certification  also
tend to like company-backed distributions?

Yes and No. I have one client offering to put me through a RHCE in return
for a guaranteed 3 year contract migrating their current .NET AD to
linux/Samba4/squirrelmail/CUPS solution, as they have chosen RHEL and
RHEL(AS) for their Linux Distro.

I have another who wants to know that there is a certification there so that
should I happen to step in front of a number 36 bus, they can look for a new
organisation or person with the right letters after their name.