Ubuntu certification from LPI

[Posted April 4, 2006 by corbet]

From:		Scott Lamberton <scottl-AT-lpi.org>
To:		lpi-announce-AT-lpi.org
Subject:		[LPI] [LPI-News] Linux Professional Institute and Canonical Announce Ubuntu Professional Certification
Date:		Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:32:40 -0400
Cc:		media-AT-lpi.org


Linux Professional Institute and Canonical Announce Ubuntu Professional
Certification

(Boston, USA: April 4, 2006)  The Linux Professional Institute (LPI),
(http://www.lpi.org), the world's premier Linux certification
organization, and Canonical Ltd. (http://www.canonical.com), sponsor of
the award-winning Ubuntu operating system, jointly announced the
development of a certification exam for the Ubuntu distribution.  This
certification exam will enable qualified candidates to demonstrate
specific expertise in the professional use of the Ubuntu
(http://www.ubuntu.com).  The certification exam will be launched at
Johannesburg, South Africa, May 16 - 19, 2006.

We have long considered LPIC-1 to be the entry-level professional
certification for all Linux distributions.  This collaborative
initiative with Ubuntu clearly demonstrates how Linux software
developers can leverage our existing distribution-neutral program to
create professional certification programs for their own software
packages, said Jim Lacey, President and CEO of the Linux Professional
Institute.  Mr. Lacey added that they were open to similar approaches
from other distributions.

Jane Silber, a spokesperson for Canonical Ltd., the company which is the
overall sponsor of Ubuntu, said that the certification was in response
to extensive demand from both individuals and enterprises. She also
recognized that LPI was a natural partner in the development of Ubuntu's
certification program: Ubuntu use in the enterprise is increasing,
leading to an increasing demand from engineers and managers for a
certification which proves an individual's Ubuntu skills.  LPI's
entry-level LPIC-1 program is the right basis for our own professional
certification, and their global delivery structure will ensure the
availability of our program to candidates around the world.

The Ubuntu certification will consist of a single exam on top of LPI's
existing 101 and 102 exams.  This will give candidates the advantage of
an existing global standard,  LPIC-1, plus the Ubuntu Certified
Professional status.  The exam is being developed by LPI's product
development team and Ubuntu community members from around the globe.
The exam is expected to be completed in early May with the first paper
exams being available in mid-May to qualified LPIC-1 candidates who are
attending LinuxWorld Johannesburg.  The computer-based testing version
will be made available later in June through Thomson Prometric and
Pearson VUE testing centres around the world.  Initial exam price has
been set at $100 US.

About Linux Professional Institute:

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) develops professional
certification for the Linux operating system, independent of software
vendors or training providers. Established as an international
non-profit organization in 1999 by the Linux community, LPI develops
accessible, internationally-recognized certification programs which have
earned the respect of vendors, employers and administrators. LPI's
activities involve hundreds of volunteers and professionals throughout
the world in many different capacities, and the group encourages active
public involvement through mailing lists and its website at www.lpi.org.
LPI's multi-level program of exams is administered globally through
Pearson VUE and Prometric testing centers. LPI's major financial
sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine,
Novell, SGI, and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors, Hewlett-Packard
and IDG.

About Canonical Limited:

Canonical Ltd is committed to the development, distribution and
promotion of open source software, and to the provision of commercial
tools and support services on a global basis. Canonical's award-winning
Ubuntu operating environment has been adopted as the preferred desktop
solution in governments, schools and businesses around the world. The
company employs developers and support engineers across 15 countries and
is headquartered in the Isle of Man. For more information, please check
www.ubuntu.com and www.canonical.com.

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 4, 2006 16:35 UTC (Tue) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link]

This is nice.

I've been quite impressed with Ubuntu, both in direction and the distribution. We pondered doing something like this for UserLinux, but just as with the distribution, Ubuntu and Canonical are getting things done.

-Brock Frazier

seems like a good idea

Posted Apr 4, 2006 16:59 UTC (Tue) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link]

you can debate the vaue of certifications, but if this helps canonical make a buck and continue to fund ubuntu, its a good.

i'm very impressed with ubuntu so far. with kubuntu, nubuntu and the others, it is almosst become a de facto base for distro development, which i am also hugely in favor of.

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 5:44 UTC (Wed) by Switched (guest, #2475) [Link] (1 responses)

Canonical should concentrate on getting major applications certified on
Ubuntu, like Oracle, WebSphere, etc. Until then, I doubt any enterprises
will be demanding a UPC.

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 6, 2006 2:27 UTC (Thu) by FraserCampbell (guest, #33142) [Link]

I would think a RHEL or SLES exam from LPI would be more applicable. Companies that care about certification generally care about certification of their apps as well as their people (as you mention). LPI SLES and LPI RHEL would give admins an option versus the RHCE and SuSE whatever.

Regarding certification of apps on Ubuntu, maybe they are working on it - after all they are certified for IBM's DB2 database already (see http://www.ubuntu.com/news/db2cert).

Opening up the closed shop that is the LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 5:59 UTC (Wed) by nicku (guest, #777) [Link] (4 responses)

I took the LPI 102 exam last December and found a number of serious problems with the exam, including one question that reflected misconceptions by the person setting the question: all answers provided were undeniably completely wrong. Although this was an older version of the exam, the quality was embarrassingly poor in many other respects.

If LPI opened up its exam development, the quality of the exams could improve dramatically. There is no reason why the community could not contribute large numbers of good quality questions that are open to peer review by large numbers of people. The LPI exams could select worthwhile candidate questions from this large pool. Having a large number of questions will solve various other problems, such as companies taking "brain dumps" from people who have sat the exam, and selling them, as well as raising the standard from this unprofessional situation.

LPI could become a much more vibrant member of the community that welcomes participation from people, rather than being a moribund closed shop. Perhaps this involvment with Canonical is a good first step in such a direction.

Opening up the closed shop that is the LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 7:41 UTC (Wed) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link] (3 responses)

At the Linux conference in Australia last year there was a session by one of the people involved in the process who explained how it worked and what the problems were. Things like not being able to publish the lists of questions for review because then people would study only that an nothing else. That would make it difficult to produce a truly open system.

That said, they were very receptive to feedback. If you have suggestions for improvement I'm sure they'll take them up.

Opening up the closed shop that is the LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 21:07 UTC (Wed) by nicku (guest, #777) [Link]

If there were thousands of higher quality questions (a quest for which I would happily contribute towards), then so what if someone learns all ten thousand? Perhaps such a dedicated person may learn something real in the process! Is this worse than the current situation where some people pay for "inside information" about those "secret" questions of dubious quality?

Opening up the closed shop that is the LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 21:32 UTC (Wed) by nicku (guest, #777) [Link] (1 responses)

That said, they were very receptive to feedback. If you have suggestions for improvement I'm sure they'll take them up.

I hope so. I have given detailed feedback, though the response was not very specific.

I really believe that opening the process could bring about a wonderful change to the LPI. The very open process that has made Linux and much free software of high quality can help rather than hinder the LPI. They have no need to use publicly reviewed questions before they have a target number of questions. In any event, building such a pool of reviewed questions, rated by the community, would be a very useful resource for people who are learning about and teaching Linux system administration, even during the period before the number has reached the required target.

Opening up the closed shop that is the LPI

Posted Apr 14, 2006 15:34 UTC (Fri) by scottlamb (guest, #37154) [Link]

LPI has always prided itself on having a "community" development model for its certification programs which is as open as possible without sacrificing exam integrity or security. I invite you to become involved in the process--your comments and input are welcome. Please contact me directly at scottl_at_lpi.org. Many thanks for your interest!

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 8:39 UTC (Wed) by pcampe (guest, #28223) [Link] (2 responses)

There is a reason because RHCE is a de facto standard in the Linux certification market, and SuSE-Novell-whichever the name is today :) not.

A certification must be as coupled as possible to a specific technology/system/application, which requires that the vendor/manufacturer must control and develop the certification, without any 3rd parties involved.

Being vendor neutral, LPI is irrilevant in the market (how many people do you have hired because they have LPI? And RHCE?) and a certification track like this will not give Canonical money neither will do mass.

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 5, 2006 21:14 UTC (Wed) by nicku (guest, #777) [Link]

A certification must be as coupled as possible to a specific technology/system/application, which requires that the vendor/manufacturer must control and develop the certification, without any 3rd parties involved.
Being vendor neutral, LPI is irrilevant in the market

I'm sorry, but I don't understand your argument; you don't seem to support it. Being vendor neutral is the only asset LPIC has, as I understand it.

Ubuntu certification from LPI

Posted Apr 14, 2006 15:47 UTC (Fri) by scottlamb (guest, #37154) [Link]

What qualifies as the "de facto" standard in the Linux Certification market is a matter of informed opinion. However, I invite you to examine some independent research on this subject. For example the salary survey in Certification Magazine: http://www.certmag.com/images/CM1205_Figure1.htm. In that study LPI rated tops amongst all the Linux certifications.

In addition your contention that the vendor-neutral approach is irrelevant is not consistent with our own experience around the world. I regularly speak with 10+ year senior and experienced IT professionals from Fortune 100 enterprises. Again and again they maintain that the LPI certification is highly valued by clients precisely because it is vendor-neutral. Clients and employers have confidence that the advice they are receiving from LPI-certified solution providers because they are not "locked-in" to one particular vendor or solution. We are also regularly told of our merits because of the global acceptance of the LPI certification. Some Linux certifications enjoy greater popularity in some regions over others but only one Linux certification enjoys a global reputation and the numbers to demonstrate it as an industry standard.

scottl_at_lpi.org