Do you have any guesstimate of how many people have attempted Linux
certification exams?
DY I don't know how many have attempted the
other programs, but LPI has had about 500 people take our exams
so far since they came out earlier this year (2000).
How is LPI doing? Is it getting appropriate support from community
& corporate sponsors?
DY Things are going *great* for LPI right
now. We're finishing up the Level 1 exams and starting to work
on Level 2. The publicity we're getting has been great and people
are commenting on the quality of what we're doing. The support
from within the Linux community has been VERY strong and quite
inspiring. Likewise the corporate support has been strong, too.
I mean, look, we've got at least 6 different large corporate training
operations developing courseware pointing at our objectives, plus
many more smaller centers. There's over 150 training centers preparing
people for our exams. And there's 4 or 5 books coming out from
major publishers... so all in all, that's a great amount of support
in my opinion.
How does LPI maintain its neutrality in face of its funding from
few corporate sponsors?
DY There's not really much of an issue. The
sponsorship plan is laid out very clearly on our web site. We
have 35 corporate sponsors and 7 individual sponsors. All of them
understood when they were sending in the sponsorship that they
were helping move LPI forward. But with a sponsorship they do
not get to say where we spend the money. They are there to advise
us and help us, but there are still a core of neutral individuals
who are overseeing the program and ensuring that it moves forward
in a completely neutral fashion. I should say, too, that we feel
it is extremely important that LPI be "neutral" in terms of being
independent of both software vendors and also training providers.
How do LPI volunteers make their "ego-bucks" ? After all they
are not churning out cool code!
DY Well, I think those of us who are involved
with LPI are in this because we believe in the need for a Linux
certification program that is independent from any vendors. We
believe in that goal. We want to see it come from Linux professionals
instead of from a company. That's what drives us. So I think the
gratification comes from the support we've received... and from
seeing the program become reality. That's really it. If we get
recognition from others within the community, great. But regardless,
we have built a solid Linux certification program that will stand
the test of time.
What is the status of current and future exams with LPI?
DY The first level exams are basically all
set. 101 has been finished and is in the conversion process so
that within a few weeks people will get their scores at the end
of the exam. In the meantime, we're still scoring them manually.
102 has been out in beta for some time, but we should be ending
that shortly and sending out score reports and finalizing the
exam. So within the next few weeks we should be all set.
We're starting Level 2 development right now. We have to outline
what tasks someone might do as an "advanced Linux system administrator".
It's a bit of a process but those exams should be in development
for the rest of the year.
Simultaneously to all of this, we're also looking at translations.
A group of Japanese companies has funded a Japanese translation
of our exams. Other languages will no doubt come after that. So
it's an exciting time.
Any comments about other certification efforts; SAIR and RHCE
specifically.
DY Well, *all* certification efforts help
grow the pool of people who can support Linux, so all of them
help in the big picture. And given that there is no "Linux, Inc."
to dictate certification terms, anyone is welcome to start up
their own cert program. Red Hat had theirs underway before we
started. Sair developed alongside ours but using a for-profit
model and developing courseware. Different models. But in the
end they all help grow the pool of people who can support and
deploy Linux.
Any advise for our students, who are working hard to get their
LPI certification?
DY Yes, I would encourage them to get as
much hands-on experience with Linux as possible before they take
the exams. I'd suggest that they should install several different
distributions to understand how things are done the same and differently
from distro to distro. If they can find a couple of systems and
set up a little Linux network, that will be ideal. The great thing
is that you can go get some old, basically useless systems and
they can be an excellent tool for learning. Hook the network up
to the Internet. Try using ipchains to do IP masquerading. Add
users. Secure the system. Essentially, just play with it. Learn
it. Take the objectives for the exams that you can find at www.lpi.org
and go through on your system and make sure you can perform the
tasks mentioned. That's the key. I wish them all the best as they
prepare for the exams.
Thank you for your time as well as for your great efforts towards
developing Linux certification.