Scott Lamberton wrote:
"Could we get some user referrals from some LPI certified people who can talk about the pros and cons of vendor-neutral certification?"
I'm an advocate of vendor-neutral certification for numerous reasons. The primary reason is monopolies stifling innovation. The Microsoft monopoly has had a stranglehold on the computer industry for over 20 years. These years have been marked by general stagnation of the industry and exploitation of the computer-using public. One example of this is computer viruses. We've had them in various forms for over 20 years. Rather than solve this problem, the industry has exploited the problem to create a revenue stream: anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, etc. Corporations tend to solve problems in ways that maximize their profits. I don't believe this changes just because the vendor is selling open source software like Linux. Vendor-specific certifications encourage people to build social capital in specific brands, thus increasing the likelihood of monopolistic practices. One day we may replace the Microsoft monopoly with an equally exploitive Novell or Red Hat monopoly. We're all better off if certifications are neutral. Ed Sawicki Accelerated Learning Center _______________________________________________ lpi-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-discuss
