What the heck. Since I'm bound to be in the minority, and therefore be out-shouted, I'll just come out on the "for" side here.
Sort of. I have to admit, that if these were to be the requirements, well, I'd be inspired to start actively participating in the project in some way, but I honestly don't know if I'd have the time. That's always an issue. But it *does* raise the question and, considering the "Free" in "FreeBSD", I think there's a valid point: This is a *volunteer* army, and can/should that be represented in the certification? It would be so cool if that could happen. Setting aside for a moment the question of pragmatism and/or verification, it would be really impressive to have the cert not only represent a level of knowledge but also a degree of involvement. With a commercial product it is assumed, to a degree, that the involvement is provided de facto by corporate initiative. Sun supports Java and, boy, howdy, do they want to talk to you!: Books, sites, testing centers, user groups, university courses and involvement, corporate sponsorship of events, more books, lists, and forums ... and all of it waving a shiny corporate icon. It's pretty easy for suity types to get comfortable with all of that cushy assurance that their aggregate backsides are covered. Community is never really an issue in that instance. It's just assumed that the community is provided. Why? Because the company says so, that's why. But with BSD, at least part of certification is proselytization, because A), that's partly what it is for everyone else, too, and B), marketing resources and presence aren't at the same level as large corporate alternatives. Okay, I know, I know, *TONS* of companies/schools/code ninjas use BSD, modify it, embed it, etc: cat preach.txt > /dev/choir But this is a community in a very different sense and with a different feel (IMHO) than, say, Microsoft has. So if the cert -- especially the *associate* level cert -- could reflect involvement, which also implies placement within some kind of human network, with access to contacts, knowledge, and mentors/gurus, as well as a personal investment, then that would, to my mind, make it a pretty interesting and unusually demanding cert. Also, man, it really brings an old school sense back to the word "associate", in that not only is there a minimal personal investment defined for that level of certification, which is cool, but that there is an "association" required from the certification holder with others in the BSD hierarchy. Not only do you "know", you also "belong". Take that Microsoft. Anyone can "buy" their way into your promiscuous fraternity. Gross. With BSD, you must be acknowledged as well. Oh, yeah. For a higher level of certification there could be mandatory tattoos or branding of, say, dragons on the forearms. This way we could recognize each other on the street, begin to control mail servers everywhere in a global domination of electronic messaging powered by BSD!!! Mwahahaha!! Anyone ever read "The Crying of Lot 49"? You won't regret it if you do. Well, that's my .02. Peace, Greg _______________________________________________ BSDCert mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/bsdcert
