[lpi-discuss] the cost of certification

[Evan Leibovitch]

christiaan wrote:

> I have been interested in studying for Linux examinations for some 
> years but cost is a major factor in in holding me back. Not the cost 
> of the LPI exams but the cost of the study, in time and in the total 
> lack of choice of study kits available.

That isn't totally fair. By my count there are five different _free_ 
courseware projects out there.

1) The IBM online tutorials:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/lpi/

2) The British GPL'd LPI study guides (developed with help from the UN):
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/lpi-manuals/

3) The South African "Learn Linux" project:
http://learnlinux.tsf.org.za/

4) A set of Spanish-language resources:
http://www.lpi.cl/manual-lpi/

5) In (Brazilian) Portuguese, the Foca Linux project:
http://focalinux.cipsga.org.br/

(There may be more...)

Of these, all are free-as-in-beer and all but the first are 
free-as-in-speech. They are community projects that, like open source 
software projects, are no better and no worse than the input and 
contributions they receive.

One of the reasons I co-founded LPI is because I'm a lousy programmer 
(just ask anyone who has seen my code :-) ), yet I wanted to give 
something to the community. People who are not software developers who 
want to help advance the growth of FOSS, can do so by building upon the 
body of documentation and training that must support all that good 
software. LPI, at least as I see it, is a lightning rod. It provides the 
necessary standardized frames of reference for such documentation 
regardless of origin, along with a respected validation program so 
people can prove the material sank in :-) .

Anyone here who doesn't believe that the above projects are good enough 
has the _direct_ ability to make them better rather than just complain 
about the lack of quality. All of the projects -- even the commercial 
one from IBM, I'm sure -- will gladly accept any input designed to 
improve their materials. If you don't want to contribute, then buy the 
commercial stuff. In the world of open source, you have the free option, 
both in the code and the courseware.

> I think that the first Linux Certification scheme to come up with a 
> self-study kit of the quality of the CLP kit for under $50 will have 
> the widest adoption. Quite frankly thats my price point and if the LPI 
> was to make that happen then I would buy it.

As I stated above, there is already a variety of projects selling for 
infinitely less than the CLP kit (or any other commercial product). What 
is left is to bridge the gap between these projects' current state and 
what you would consider "the quality of the CLP". Would you be willing 
to help, either by writing new material or helping to find others who 
would? Could you bring to free courseware those characteristics that you 
like about the CLP materials (without breaking copyright, of course)?

There is no reason that free courseware could not be as commercial grade 
as the best open source software.

- Evan

PS: I'd be remiss If I didn't mention some high-quality material that's 
nonfree but selling for well under christiaan's price point, at least at 
current exchange rates ;-). I've heard very good things about the LATM 
materials from Linup Front (http://www.linupfront.de) which are less 
than $30 commercially, and free of charge to academia. Not completely 
free but not bad either. So much for "total lack of choice"...