Alessandro Selli wrote (quoting Mehdi Amiri):

> In this case, a person who is proficient in the
> "Knowledge of Linux Development and Major Distributions" is expected to
> know about not just Android, Debian and CentOS, but also about RedHat,
> Fedora, SuSE/Novell, Ubuntu, Slackware and Mandriva, and possibly a few
> more.

I think this gets silly very quickly. What do you mean »know about« – must 
MQCs have heard the name and be able to tell that it refers to a Linux 
distribution (rather than, say, a soft drink brand or a gangsta rap artist), 
or more? Do we require MQCs to be able to enumerate three important 
differences between, say, Ubuntu and CentOS? Could you? Could the guy in the 
next cubicle? Between any two distributions from »the List«? Where does the 
List stop? Turbolinux? Arch Linux? Red Flag Linux? Knoppix?
 
> > Topic: 1.2.2
> > The candidates should be also be aware of distributions software support
> > model & the meaning of Long Term Support (LTS) in some Enterprise
> > distribution.

Do we run a Linux exam or a marketing exam?

> > Topic 1.2.5
> > “netstat” command is very difficult to understand for beginners. I think
> > we
> > should add “ping”, “tracepath” and a simple command with “dig”
> > functionality, like “nslookup” or “host” command.
> 
>    A basic use of netstat is both easy and a useful tool to detect, for
> instance, currently established TCP/IP connections.  Even a beginner, IMO,
> should be able to do netstat | grep ftp to see if there are currently open
> FTP sockets.

I'm not happy with this objective at all. It drags in a very large amount of 
theory for something that new Linux users basically don't need to know. The 
way for new users to get a Linux machine on the net these days is by plugging 
in the network cable and letting DHCP do its thing. Home users will have an 
already-working DHCP server in their DSL or cable router, and school or 
enterprise users will have access to one courtesy of their IT department (and 
are usually not encouraged to set up their own machines, anyway). If things 
don't work you call the hotline and/or admin. Manually setting up IP 
addresses, etc., is, in 2011, not introductory stuff and best left in LPI-102 
where it belongs.

Having said that, I can see a certain minimal amount of sense in having 
»ping«, but routing? ifconfig? netstat? resolv.conf (which is incidentally 
misspelled in the wiki)? Give me a break. This is supposed to be an 
*introductory* exam.

Also, do note that nslookup has been officially deprecated for a very long 
time now.

> > Topic 1.3.3
> > We can also add XZ & 7z, 7-zip suite as well. They are very popular these
> > days,
> 
>    I agree, anyway the same I stated above holds here as well: "The
> following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities" means
> that the fact lzma, xz etc. are not listed does not mean they are left out
> of the objective.

I don't think the point of this objective is to cover every compression tool 
under the sun. If you have seen one, you have basically seen them all (or 
ought to be able to figure them out from the man page).

I do think it is important for the introductory exam to not drag in too much 
stuff that is not also in LPIC-1. This happens to a certain extent in Topic 
1.1 (which is unfortunately laden with a lot of blah-type material), but the 
rest of the syllabus should as far as possible be a proper subset of LPIC-1. 

Think of the introductory exam as a »feeder« for LPIC-1 rather than an 
independent exam. Remember that the raison d'être of the introductory exam is 
to give schools something they can cover in reasonable time, with a view on 
getting people interested enough to go on to LPIC-1 later. Lots of 
sidetracking into material that is not also in LPIC-1 is not productive from 
that point of view.

Anselm
-- 
Anselm Lingnau ... Linup Front GmbH ... Linux-, Open-Source- & Netz-Schulungen
[email protected], +49(0)6151-9067-103, Fax -299, www.linupfront.de
Linup Front GmbH, Postfach 100121, 64201 Darmstadt, Germany
Sitz: Weiterstadt (AG Darmstadt, HRB7705), Geschäftsführer: Oliver Michel
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