Question about certification
 

Simple question: When you get certified for like, Red Hat, does that mean you can only work on that one distro, or all of them?

If its a only-one-distro thing, then how would one get a general certification if they wanted it so they wouldn't be restriced to what they worked on.

No. It means you are recognized by Red Hat, and the industry, as having a skillset enough to pass a very difficult exam.

...ok, I'm one of these people who ask questions when they can think of multiple answers:

So it is an over-all certification, and not just for one distro?

It's (by "it" I am referring to RHCE) a Red Hat Enterprise Linux-specific certification in the sense that it demonstrates your knowledge of their implementation of GNU/Linux. But it's also a general certification in the sense that if you can earn that, you will know a hell of a lot about any distro.

The RHCE exams cover only Red Hat Enterprise Linux, no other distros. Most of the RHCE level folks have experience in other distibutions though. I use suse, debian, gentoo, knoppix-cd, etc..etc.. but my PRIMARY focus is RHEL for work's sake, and Fedora Core at home.
If you're going to sit the RHCE exam, you'd better know how to set up/troubleshoot RHEL4 cold going in.

Agreed. I would also recommend taking at least RH300 (rapid track), even if you believe you're already an expert. Just my opinion. At $750 per test, this is not for the faint of heart.

anomie - also a RHCE

LPI or Linux+ would be a good place to start.
 

To Dralnu: :twocents: Try the LPI. The CompTia folks offer the Linux+, but I opted for the LPI because it was harder and more prestigious. (I heard this thru out the technical venues that I use). There are several free study guides and I used just 2 books. If you work in it, this would be a big time plus.

Both CompTia's Linux+, and LPI have detailed objectives, and both are distro neutral w/the exception of the first LPI test 101 (you'll need to know RedHat {RPM} and Debian package management. Know them both because I just took the LPI and BOTH were on it.
LPI Objectives: http://lpi.org/en/obj_101.html
Linux+ Objectives: http://comptia.org/certification/lin...x_obj_2004.pdf

Good luck and let me know if you need the links for the free Study Guides or have anymore questions.

PS-The LPI is a good prep exam for the RedHat and costing only $150, it's a little easier to swallow (again so I've heard). ;)

I appreciate the info. Thanks all :)

I am preparing for the LPI exam soon. So I will appreciate the link to the free guides.

I have found one myself for anyone interested http://www.happy-monkey.net/LPI/LPI-...tudy-Guide.pdf

thanks for your help

I have included some links to the better guides at:
http://www.penguintutor.com/certification.php

I find the IBM tutorials particularly good (and are the only ones to include 201 / 202). Note that the 101 + 102 are still on the old objectives, although I don't think much has changed apart from X-Windows now refers to X.org as well as XFree86.

A certification, just like a college degree, is really just whatever you make it. The diploma or certificate, if you actually bother to get one, is much less important than the serious study and effort that you (should have) put in to get it.

The study materials that are sold for certificate-preparation are just as valuable, if not more so, imho, than the certificate itself. They're "concentrated food," so to speak.

Every certificate program is, understandably, vendor-centric because you gotta have "a word from our sponsor." And because it's a lot easier and more effective to write for the distro and version that you assume/require the student to have. But you need to be able to extrapolate that knowledge to other distros.

The very best way to learn about Linux is to use it all day every day, and to always have a "spare" machine that you can experiment with. Take it apart and put it back together again, hardware-wise and software-wise. Do "Linux From Scratch." Several times. In any case, have several machines and run several different distros on them.

Then, get a job, any job, that puts you in contact with Linux on a daily basis. My first job consisted of tearing paper off a line-printer and shoving it through the proper slot. I didn't care... I was inside, and I wound up working there for the next ten years. (Linux was about sixteen years in the future.) You learn a lot by "osmosis."

Then .. well .. if you've got $750 burning a hole in your pocket and you're certain that you will get more than that back from spending it that way .. a certificate might look pretty on your cubicle wall. Just make sure that the process that you went through to get there actually consisted of a solid (self-)education.