Linux Certification

by Ed Sawicki
Accelerated Learning Center

Vendor certification programs have gotten a bad name over the past 14 years and for good reasons. Many people who have Novell and Microsoft certifications don't have enough knowledge and experience to do the job that employers expect from certified people. Many (not all) Novell and Microsoft certification-oriented training courses focus on how to pass the test instead of how to do the job. When I took Novell's tests, it was an exercize in choosing the best wrong answer or an answer that was obvious to you only if you went through Novell's training courses.

I never took Microsoft's certification tests so I can't comment on these. However, people who have say they're similar to the Novell tests.

Linux certification is different because of the fundamental difference between open source software and vendor proprietary software. The Linux certification tests were developed in concert with the open source community who ensure that the technical details are correct and that, to a large degree, the tests are free from the politics of the marketplace. With Linux certification, learning how to pass the tests is the same as learning how to do the job - for the most part.

There are four Linux certification programs out there:

Red Hat

The Red Hat certification is a vendor certification program that is focused on Red Hat Linux. Some of us are hoping that this doesn't become the "standard" certification because we don't want any single vendor dominating the Linux world and creating another Microsoft-like monopoly. This, of course, does not reflect on the quality of their certification program, which I hear is good.

One problem with this certification is change. The Red Hat Linux distribution is a moving target. Whenever Red Hat releases a new distribution there are significant changes - far more than with other distributions. If you become certified on Red Hat Linux today, this does not mean that you'll be up to date on the (then) current version of Red Hat Linux next year.

Sair/GNU

The Sair/GNU certification is another vendor certification but is not focused at any particular Linux distribution. The GNU folks have endorsed this certification and have contributed to the question/answer pool. This results in numerous questions that are "religious". You're expected to know which people and organizations gave birth to the free (open source) software movement (Richard Stallmand and GNU) and other things that are not necessary to know to do the job. It's nice to know these things but you shouldn't be tested on it.

The Sair folks seem to be following the model that Novell made famous in the mid-1980s. This is no surprise since the Sair/GNU program is offered by the former Wave Technologies run by an ex-Novell vice- president. That model is to create a certification program, convince employers that their networks simply can't be managed properly without certified people who have to go through "authorized" training programs, and supply training centers with "authorized" training materials which they earn a healthy profit on. Training centers that don't use their (Novell's) materials come under fire as low life opportunists that offer low quality training. (Novell once took out a half page ad in a Sydney newspaper to convince people that the training courses that my company offered in Australia were inferior.)

In the end, Sair/GNU is a vendor certification program and some people are nervous about vendors being in control of an industry certification program - especially after their Novell and Microsoft experiences.

LPI

The LPI (Linux Professional Institute) certification is not a vendor certification. It's been created by the Linux and open source community. It's distribution-neutral and the tests have almost no religious component. They do not supply materials to training centers for a profit and there are no "LPI-authorized" training centers. This creates a fair and level playing field for all training companies which is healthy for the industry.

IBM has announced that they would reimburse their partner companies for employees who become Linux certified. However, IBM only recognizes the Red Hat and LPI certification programs - not Sair/GNU. Could IBM's clout hurt the Sair/GNU certification? Probably.

Over the long term, the LPI certification may be the best bet but this is by no means certain. If you spent your money becoming Red Hat certified, you shouldn't have to re-certify (and spend more money) just because another certification program becomes more popular. Employers should regard all three Linux certifications as equivalent. But will they?

Linux+

I was asked by a publisher to become Linux certified by taking the Comptia Linux+ test. I'm already LPIC certified. Since they offered to pay, I accepted. There are two companies that do Comptia testing: Vue and Thomson Prometric. I called Vue and signed up but, at the end, they asked me for my promotion code. When I said that I didn't have one, they suggested that I ask my Human Resources department. Since I am the HR department and I don't have a Vue promotion code, I couldn't register for the test. I hung up and made a mental note to never call them again.

Signing up with Thomson Prometric was easier - no promotion code requirements; no turning away paying customers. My kind of company.

The test was supposed to take 2 hours and 45 minutes. This included two hours for the test and 45 minutes for the tutorial at the beginning and survey at the end. I skipped the tutorial and rushed through the survey. I did it all in 55 minutes.

The Comptia Linux+ test does not only test you on your Linux knowledge - it also tests you on general PC Knowledge (hardware and BIOS primarily). It seems the Linux+ test is a stripped down A+ test with Linux-related questions added. It's silly to do this. There are people who run Linux on non-PCs. You might run Linux on your mainframe or Macintosh and not know anything about PCs.

The test was frustrating to take. It was reminiscent of taking the Novell CNE test in the early days with ambiguous questions and answers. For example, one question asked what part of a computer is bad if you have to change your BIOS settings every time you power on your PC even though the battery is OK. There were two answers that were candidates for being correct:

system memory
motherboard

I guess you have to go through Comptia training to know which is correct. Do they consider the memory that BIOS settings are stored in to be system memory or not? The motherboard is certainly where the BIOS memory is soldered to, so I chose that answer. Of course, I have no idea if I selected correctly. You don't see detailed test results. However, I was asked to review basic PC hardware on the test results form. Yeah, like I don't know basic PC hardware after 21 years.

Several Linux-related questions were annoying. Comptia seems to think that the terms "program" and "command" are exact synonyms. One question asked how I would set the permissions on the grep command - an odd concept. I give myself permission to type commands. I must use the chmod program to change the permissions of a program.

Another question asked how I would change the scheduling priority (they didn't call it scheduling priority; they used simpler language) of an already running program. Renice was not one of the answers! Instead, their correct answer was to kill the program and run it again but this time using the nice program. Morons. Linux users don't choose the hardest way possible to do things - they choose the simplest. Besides, why kill a process when you don't have to - Linux isn't Windows.

Test scoring is almost identical to the LPI test. The highest score possible is 900. The passing score is 655. I got 815, which ticked me off because I knew all the topics on the test. I was penalized by their silly questions and answers.

Although the LPI test has its problems, it's light years ahead of Linux+.

Only Certified People Need Apply

The one problem that I do have with all of these certification programs (LPI included) is that they seem to be preaching the gospel of employers only hiring certified people. There are plenty of highly-qualified people with years of Unix and/or Linux experience that should not have to bother with certification to get a job. Yet the Linux certification community seems to ignore this in their eagerness to promote their certification programs.

On the other hand, if you have the knowledge and experience couldn't you just take the tests without taking training courses? Yes, of course you can. In the case of LPI, it will cost you $200 and a few hours out of your life. When I took the LPI tests, I did not prepare in advance. I passed the tests even though my score wasn't particularly high. Fortunately, there are no degrees of certification depending on your score. You're either certified or you're not.

I didn't score highly on the test because the test is testing your knowledge and memory of things that you may use frequently or never. A good example with the LPI test is the Debian package manager. I had to guess at these answers because I don't use the Debian package manager. I usually install software from source code because I'm security-conscious. When I do install a package, I use the Red Hat package manager (RPM). The LPI test wants you to know both package managers although few people would ever use both.

Another example is cron. The questions on the test that relate to cron are about crontab entries. If you've ever seen a crontab entry, you know that committing the format to memory is something most people don't do. I usually create my cron jobs when I install the system and seldom afterwards. I usually have to refer to the man page for a refresher. That's what man pages are for. When you take the test, you have no man pages. So, you're being tested on knowledge that most experienced people don't keep in their memory. If you do remember this minutia, you need to get out more.

HR Hell

Employers are all too eager to embrace Linux certification because it makes their job of hiring people easier. They can reduce the number of people they have to interview by rejecting those that are not certified. Their assumption is that people who are not certified are not qualified. They either don't realize or don't care that there are experienced people who are qualified but not certified. It seems that hiring managers care about experience but Human Resources departments don't.

If you're looking for a new or first job, bypassing the Human Resources department in a company and dealing directly with the hiring manager is a good thing to do - if you can. One way to increase your chances is to join a local user group where you'll have an opportunity to mingle with people who could hire you in the future. If you're in Portland or vicinity, check out PANUG and BizNix. These two user groups allow students to join for substantial discounts.

Employers should be smart enough to evaluate people on their merits where certification is only one of many criteria. Unfortunately, they often turn away good people in favor of lesser skilled people who happen to be certified. Depending on where you are in your career and life, this may be an important concern to you or not.

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