LPI and Canonical Announce World's First Ubuntu Professionals

MEDIA RELEASE

LPI and Canonical Announce World's First Ubuntu Professionals

(London, UK and New York City, USA: June 27, 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 world's first Ubuntu Certified
Professionals: Fred Strauss and Khayeni Ndlovu of Johannesburg, South
Africa.  Mr. Strauss and Mr. Ndlovu were amongst a group of people who
wrote paper versions of the Ubuntu certification exam at LinuxWorld
Johannesburg on May 18, 2006.  The Ubuntu Certified Professional exam is
now available worldwide at over 7,000 Thomson Prometric and Pearson VUE
testing centres.

Jane Silber, a spokesperson for Canonical Ltd., the company which is the
overall sponsor of Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com), extended her
congratulations to Mr. Strauss and Mr. Ndlovu on their achievement:
"Canonical is proud to welcome these first Ubuntu Certified
Professionals into the world-wide Ubuntu community.  Their achievement
reinforces the increasing demand we have noted  from engineers and
managers for an IT certification which proves an individual's Ubuntu
skills--particularly within the enterprise environment," said Ms.
Silber.  The Ubuntu Certified Professional program consists of a single
exam on top of LPI's existing 101 and 102 exams providing candidates
with the dual advantage of a recognized existing global IT certification
standard, LPIC-1, plus the “Ubuntu Certified Professional” status.
LPI's product development team and Ubuntu community members created the
Ubuntu exam which has been priced at $100 US.

Khayeni Ndlovu, an IT specialist with the University of Witwatersrand in
South Africa was pleased to be amongst the world's first Ubuntu
Certified Professionals and noted the importance of the designation in
his work: “The Ubuntu Certified Professional designation establishes me
as a systems administrator with bona fide credentials. The University of
Witwatersrand Bioinformatics and Computer Science departments use Ubuntu
as their Linux distribution of choice.  My LPIC and Ubuntu
certifications demonstrate my skills knowledge, and confidence to
support postgraduates and academics in their use of Open Source
Software.” said Mr. Ndlovu.

To schedule an Ubuntu Certified Professional exam at a test location
nearest you please look for the Ubuntu exam listing amongst the
available LPI certification exams at either http://www.prometric.com or
http://www.pearsonvue.com.

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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 Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is a Linux-based operating environment consisting of free and
open source software for laptops, desktops, and servers. Since its
launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly
regarded Linux distributions, with millions distributed and in use
around the world. Ubuntu will always be free, and will not have
restrictive licenses associated with it. With these goals in mind at all
times, Ubuntu aims at being the most widely used of all Linux systems,
and is the centre of a global open source software ecosystem. For more
information, please check www.ubuntu.com.

About Canonical Ltd.:

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 solution
in governments, schools and businesses around the world. With a global
organization headquartered in Europe, Canonical has employees throughout
Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. For
more information, please check http://www.canonical.com.

Media contacts:

Scott Lamberton
Director of Communications
Linux Professional Institute
Telephone: +1-416-666-1574
Email: scottl@lpi.org
Web: http://www.lpi.org

Jane Silber
Canonical Limited
Telephone: +44 20 7052 9843
Email: jane.silber@canonical.com
Web: http://www.ubuntu.com, http://www.canonical.com
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