From: Evan Leibovitch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > If the goal is to create an elite (for the purposes of > artificially limiting the number of officially-endorsed > experts), then Red Hat is on the right track.
If you mean via the 400 level programs, RHCSS more recent RHCDS or the flagship RHCA, agreed. I think Red Hat only more recently crossed 100 people obtaining the RHCA.** And despite popular rumor, I think far less than half work for Red Hat. If you mean via the RHCE program, I would disagree. Especially with the existence of the 400 level programs. The more 300 level RHCEs, the more that are open to 400 level. Red Hat certifies a great number of RHCT/RHCEs, at least in North America. While I like and prefer many aspects of LPI's program, I don't see this argument on the RHCE program itself. It's more the role of the RHCA. > Even the higher pricing and limited-exam-location > models suit such objectives. But this is a philosophy > borne out of maximizing one vendor's product sales, > and I would imagine that most Linux people don't want > to limit their careers to Red Hat shops. Having > said this, such tactics -- using certification as an > indirect component of vendor lock-in -- have been > successful for Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, and of course > Novell which pretty-well invented the tactic. Doesn't work well for Linux. E.g., Red Hat certifications work well for Oracle and even CentOS. Red Hat has given its "RHCE of the Year" award to shops that have some CentOS in use as well. They also cover many general technologies. While I won't disagree that it's very difficult to pass the RHCE if you do not have exposure to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (not just Fedora, although it helps, CentOS or Oracle is more sufficient), and that, in itself, tells people it is a "Red Hat test," you can't really compare it to Oracle, Microsoft or Novell, and it's even still more "generic" on Linux than Cisco is on networking. But that's why I recommend LPI. But I don't have to recommend LPI "against" Red Hat. If you do CentOS, RHEL or Unbreakable, I recommend _both_. > It is reasonable that if you are going the be RH certified > then you must be able to use the "Red Hat Way" to solve > problems, even if (as is almost always the case with Unix > and Linux) many alternative ways exist. Considering the "Red Hat Way" is often a common way, it's not too far fetched to say some of the RHCE talents are applicable. Remember, Red Hat often also "Gets Its Way" outside of certification because it puts a lot of coders on GPL software. The same could be said about Novell. > Rather than using certification to artificially create a > scarcity of experts, Again, I would argue, strongly, that isn't Red Hat's goal. Their goal _is_ to push product, but artificially limiting candidates, I don't see it. At least not on the RHCT/RHCE. The argument is the opposite on the RHCA. Although Red Hat recently introduced the RHCDS to try to get people "half-way" to the RHCA.** -- Bryan "my views are my own" **NOTE: For those unfamiliar ... Red Hat Certified Security Specialist (RHCSS) Two (2) level 300 exams (RHCE + Security) + Two (2) level 400 exams Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist (RHCDS) One (1) level 300 exam (RHCE) + Three (3) level 400 exams Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA): Two (2) level 300 exams (RHCE + Security) + Four (4) level 400 exams _______________________________________________ lpi-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-discuss
