[ale] Linux Certifications/Training (was ANN: Linux Training Class, Atlanta, GA, 13-15 Oct.

[Crawford Rainwater]

On Mon, 2003-09-22 at 16:12, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
>    5. Re: ANN: Linux Training Class, Atlanta, GA, 13-15 Oct.
>       (Jeff Hubbs)
>
> Message: 5
> Date: 22 Sep 2003 16:06:44 -0400
> From: Jeff Hubbs <hbbs at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [ale] ANN: Linux Training Class, Atlanta, GA, 13-15 Oct.
> Sometimes the best jokes are the ones that people can't tell are jokes.
> 

I can, even "southern humor" since I hail from Pensacola, FL originally
myself and have spent time in the southeast before moving out to
Colorado (have a slight addiction to skiing and climbing; on the latter,
yes, I have climbed in the SE too ;-)).  However, most folks tend to
label my humor as "dry", close to a Brit even. 


> I can't say I'm happy to see things like this.  It smacks of the
> Microsoftization of Linux:
> 
> 1.  New product gains wide acceptance
> 2.  Training companies promote their training classes as a gateway
>     to high-paying IT jobs
> 3.  Flood of nearly experienceless graduates flood the job market, 
>     depressing the prevailing wage for all
> 4.  Quality of work suffers; companies staff IT departments with 
>     morons
> 
> Part of the reason I gravitated away form the MS world and to the Linux
> world was that the barriers for entry with Linux were really only the
> ones that were self-imposed; if you want to learn it, it's there and
> readily available to be learned, and the people who know it share their
> knowledge.  
> 
> By the way, one of my former employers - a self-styled "premier" IT
> education company - was going to start teaching Linux classes and when
> they had me look at the training materials, they were a joke - full of
> things like how to use the Red Hat GUI for adding user accounts.  I
> couldn't find anything about the Linux directory tree, history,
> structure, compiling, disk partitions...basically, nothing you'd need to
> fundamentally understand the first thing you were doing was there.
> 
> - Jeff

Jeff,

I have to totally agree with you on the "Microsoftization" of the
training community.  I come from the OS/2 realm before I got my hands
into Linux, however employers and headhunters had only the M$ schema to
go by (do you want to know how many times I was asked about having an
OS/2 Certification when there was none?!?).

I do praise the Linux certification realm (at present) though, in
particular RedHat's since the RHCT is 100% hands on and the RHCE is 70%
hands on.  The LPI exams have "fill in the blank" which mimic command
line usage, so sorry, no "point and click and wing it" allowed here.  I
cannot see the typical "paper tiger" from the M$ certification realm
using that strategy to pass any of the Linux certification exams, since
he/she will ultimately fail the exams multiple times IMHO.

If you are looking for specific Linux training, feel free to browse
through the PDF files of ITEC's individual training courses.  If you do
not find what you are looking for you (or your former employer), ITEC
has and does customize our courses for larger groups to fit their
individual needs.  I think most of the courseware out there is lacking
in some form or fashion to an individual person's desires, but in
general, those that have fit the criteria for LPI's LATM (Linux Approved
Training Material) as well as RedHat's (though personally I have a few
issues with their's) do meet most people's training needs in the Linux
community.

FWIW. 

Sincerely,

Crawford Rainwater
CEO and President
Linux+, LCP, LPIC-1, RHCT

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