Quoting Shachar Shemesh, from the post of Thu, 07 Sep: > > > > what has it got to do with software licences exactly? > Nothing, nor did Oron suggest otherwise.
he was talking about "the FOSS world", and that (to me) interprets as the developper community and its product. this has no direct relations to conditions of employment. In fact, if I was to attend a job interview where my certificates of lack therof had more weight to consider my employment than my professional experiance, I can safely say it's probably not the kind of place I'd want to work for anyway. OTOH, When I was working on salary, my bosses considered sending me to such a course to get a certificate so THEY can market their company better to their clients. it's the standard thing since Novell invented that system, and M$/Sun/Oracle/Cisco and the rest joined in. I don't mind taking an exam payed for by my boss, it's HIS marketing decision and investment. > Certificates are a vicious cycle designed to keep the under-talented > employed in exchange for money. It is vicious because it places the > talented at a disadvantage. talented people are rarely in a disadvantage with smart employers. let the stupid employer keep his untalented work force... He deserves nothing less. > teacher to address the students, and then went on for five minutes about > how these certificates are crap, but it makes your CV more attractive to > potential employers, himself included. his manager should give him a bonus for excellent marketing... > Maybe, but the FOSS world is, currently, relatively free of such > nonsenses, and I would sure want to see it remain so. Unfortunately, I > am not optimistic that this will remain the case. As more money is put > at stake, so will more people want to participate, and the certificates > will take a bigger and bigger role. it's what happens when you enter the corporate world. I have a friend who is VERY talented in all things MS. he has a long list of very warm recommendations. one of the three big banks came to him with an excellent offer, but they demanded he has a BAGRUT. that's their standard. he already passed a polygraph and Pilat and stuff, but if he want take a bagrut exam in TANACH and literature, he can't get the job. I told him to tell them to go suck an egg. other people will think differently perhaps. > The only positive aspect is that these certifications lower the > standards for the quality of people who deal with FOSS, and so the > average salary will decrease and the claims that Linux is more expensive > to maintain. The bottom line is that a wide spread use can only be > achieved when some of the people doing the maintenance are less skilled > but cheaper. that's the case with every market. it's a simple set of rules of demand and supply. If all of us FOSS consultants want to be payed for our work, we need FOSS to spread and the customers to want it, but for that to happen it also has to be cheap, because clients look at that. OTOH we don't want to have it TOO cheap, but that's the way the ball is rolling and it's hard to stop it. to get out of the niche and into the mass market you have to compromise. > I don't have much against taking a course in order to know more. I'm > only against taking a course for certification sake only. and yet you went to the Technion instead of reading the books at home, and a good friend of ours is getting a Masters' degree to get a visa to another country... there is always a give-and-take. in some cases you would be more willing to give than in others, but that's life. -- Not the mama Ira Abramov http://ira.abramov.org/email/ ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
