christiaan wrote:
Many lessons can be drawn from the LPI but is developing the business
plan of BSD certifcation along similar lines as the LPI really
feasible for the BSD?
Very good question, and I agree that this kind of thing needs a higher
priority than codes of ethics. In fact, I think that the outline in the
roadmap that indicates that the business plan be done in parallel with
the certification plan is a mistake. IMO at least some of the biz plan
needs to be done before the cert plan is started because (like it or
not) the business models chosen *will* affect the cert plan.
FWIW, we didn't know when we started LPI that it would have any
commercial demand. It was started on mutual agreement that something was
a Really Good Idea and could at leasts sustain itself IFF there was
significant community (read: volunteer or cheaper than market rates)
support.
There was also a financial incentive for many of the early sponsors that
wasn't sheer philanthropy. I recall that just about every Unix vendor
did their own expensive and money-losing exams. To this day there is no
Unix certification but there is one for Solaris, one for AIX, one for
HP-UX, one for OpenServer, etc. Their individual numbers have never
themselves justified the cost but they exist because:
1) They help to sell training (which *is* a big moneymaker)
2) They add credibility and stability to the products
It is notable that HP and IBM, two big Unix players, decided to join
SuSE and Caldera in supporting LPI when making their corporate
commitments to Linux in the late 90s (rather than making their own Linux
certifications). It was FAR cheaper for them to join the LPI community
than to each repeat the Unix mistake in rolling their own certs (though
they could have easily done that). Now both HP and IBM (as well as many
others) do well with their own LPI-targeted training initiatives.
Having said that, not everyone in Linux space believes in the community
model (ie., Red Hat).
Obviously at least some of the LPI model can't apply to the BSD effort.
It would be nice if companies like Apple or others who make money from
use of BSD could see the corporate advantage of supporting this cert
effort for the same reasons that IBM and HP did with LPI. IMO, if Apple
wants to legitimately get into server space or crack the business
market, it too will need a training/certification strategy.
- Evan
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