Re: Certification
On Tue, 8 Jul 1997, Greg Vence wrote:
> Most of the time, certification is a great way for the vendor to make an
> extra buck. I've found in the M$ world that scores on a multiple-guess
> test that has been heavly coached is a _poor_ indicator real-world
> results. It seems that the portfolio of recient projects usually
> out-weighs the certification. Its the same reason that fresh grads have
> fewing fun options. Most advertisments are looking for experiance and
> really want results.
Based on my current paradigm (17 year old student willing to
became an enginner, working as a sysadmin and coding as a hobby), i
figured a certification, by an (free) organization, _really_ puts a lot of
imparciality into the test's reputation. Remember the NIST POSIX's
Compliance Testing? The Plum Hall Validation suite? (i'm not home, i
really haven't opened any books before writing this. :])
there's another point: free software can be made to compete
against commercial software, not just via performance and cost, but using
all the available solutions. I'm almost sure a few of us can build a
sofisticated (uucp+smtp+byhands) sendmail setup with little or no trouble,
at an awesome price. But face this against a Win95 user? he could easily
choose WinNT, put a reasonable mail server, configure with a few clicks. A
lot faster, if have lots of money. A certified professional could easily
help convince the unix option, by (weakly, i admit) proving he really
played with it before.
Given the 'hacker' nature of free software, a debian/gnu/fsoftware
certified professional could add a new behaviour to the environment, by
tweaking by itself all the free code available, saving a lot of money too.
You know, if you have a hammer, all the troubles you see are nails. <-
Apply this to a CNE, like i saw two months ago. He was heavily interested
in building an ISP by using Novell Netware.
> However, maybe the commercial software world should consider a POSIX
> certification instead. The reasoning I'd provide for this instead of
> more specific is that those specifics are fairly easly found by
> individuals with enough initiative to RTFM (my def: Read The _Fine_
> Manual). Even if there is only enough initiative to ask the group on a
> Linux or Debian list, there is usually sufficient quick turn-around to
> support a 'flavor novice.'
POSIX seems a good option, at least for me. :]
> Just my view from Atlanta.
replied from brazil. :]
done. Aldrin Leal <aldrin@amazonline.com.br>
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