[lpi-discuss] LPI, Novell, and SUSE

[ross e. brunson]

As always, I can depend on Evan to be a bridge-builder and reasonable.
His statements are true in every regard.

One other point that was missed so far in this discussion, the NCLP exam
is practicum-based, and examinees are urged to do the tasks in any way
they see fit, they are only examined on the results, not the typographic
methods or GUI vs. CLI, just get the job done and you're a winner.

Ross

On Mon, 2005-07-04 at 09:15 -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Anselm Lingnau wrote:
> 
> [a well-reasoned assessment of the relationship between Novell's Linux 
> certification path and LPI]
> 
> There are a number of additional areas where Novell and LPI are 
> co-operating, and NUI (Novell Users International) has been delivering 
> LPI exam labs during "road show" events in the US and Canada. Many 
> Novell people have taken the LPIC exams.
> 
> I would just add one comment on what Anselm said:
> 
> >(remember that a 
> >certification business does generate a nice wad of cash on the side, and even 
> >more so if you're the only entity that does the certifying, publishing of 
> >official training materials, and so on, and so on. $800 for a self-study kit? 
> >Yes sir!!).
> >  
> >
> A certification program may generate cash, but a good one is also very 
> expensive to operate. Generally, quality IT certifications (ie, those 
> using psychometrics or elaborate hands-on delivery) provide fairly 
> little net revenue. This is especially true for advanced-level programs 
> (such as LPIC-2) which require higher skills to create yet are less 
> popular than lower-level programs.
> 
> Where the real money exists is in support of the certification; training 
> services and publishing of preparation materials. A vendor making their 
> own cert is in control of any official or exclusive materials. A vendor 
> supporting LPI knows there is a competitive field with no "official" 
> materials, only a non-exclusive approval process.
> 
> Another real benefit to a software publisher of making their own 
> certification is an indirect advancement of vendor lock-in. If all 
> you've been trained (and tested) on is vendor-specific tools, it's more 
> difficult later  to switch to another vendor's toolset. GUI admin tools 
> tend to be very distro-specific; the command-line tools tested by LPI 
> are LSB-standard and exist on almost every distro.
> 
> - Evan
> 
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