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<title>Creating a Linux Certification Program, Part 5 LG #40</title>
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<h4>"Linux Gazette...<i>making Linux just a little more fun!</i>"
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</h4>
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<p align="center"><!--===================================================================--> </p>
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<h1 align="center"><font color="#800000">Creating A Linux
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Certification Program, Part 5</font></h1>
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<h4 align="center">By <a href="mailto:dyork@lodestar2.com">Dan
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York</a></h4>
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<hr>
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<p>Over the past two months, the community effort to build a
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Linux certification program, called the Linux Professional
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Institute (LPI), has made some very strong progress. We had very
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successful and positive discussions with members of the Linux
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community at both LinuxWorld in San Jose, CA, and also at CeBIT
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in Hannover, Germany. Now, we're poised to make our program a
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reality over the next few months. (See my<a
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href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue33/york.html">October</a>,
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<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue34/york.html">November</a>,
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<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue35/york.html">December</a>
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, and <a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue37/york.html">February</a>
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Linux Gazette articles for a history of the process.) This
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month's article will address: </p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#New Web Site">New web site</a> ----- <a
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href="http://www.lpi.org/">http://www.lpi.org/</a>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#analysis">Job Analysis Survey</a></li>
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<li><a href="#SAGE">Liaison with SAGE</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Linuxcare">Linuxcare offers more support to LPI</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ac">Advisory Council</a></li>
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<li><a href="#How You Can Help"><strong>How you can help</strong></a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="New Web Site">New Web Site</a></h2>
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<p>In an effort to make the Linux Professional Institute web site
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easier to remember, we have taken out the domain lpi.org and our
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pages can now be found at:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><a href="http://www.lpi.org/">http://www.lpi.org/</a> </p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>They also continue to be available at:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><a href="http://www.linuxinstitute.org/">http://www.linuxinstitute.org/</a>
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>Please visit the web pages, read about the program we are
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proposing, and jump on board to help us out!</p>
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<p>Credit for the site is due to <a
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href="mailto:evan@starnix.com">Evan Leibovitch</a> who
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established the domain name and maintains the site.</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="analysis">Job Analysis Survey</a></h2>
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<p>As part of our effort to ensure that our certification program
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is grounded on solid statistical data about the actual tasks that
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people are doing as they administer Linux systems, we have
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undertaken a job analysis survey. A couple of our volunteers,
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including Scott Murray (the chair of our exam development
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committee), have degrees in psychometrics and have worked to
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develop a method of validating both our program and the questions
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themselves. Scott and Tom Peters (chair of our program committee)
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put together a pre-survey where we collected lists of tasks
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performed by Linux system administrators. This pre-survey ran for
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a week, after which Tom and Scott cleaned the information up and
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now have the actual survey available on the web.</p>
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<p>We invite anyone with an interest in Unix and Linux system
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administration to visit the website we put up to collect data for
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the job analysis. You will be asked to answer a few questions
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about a random selection from the many tasks a system
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administrator might need to perform; this will take 15 to 30
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minutes of your time. We also need to collect some data of a
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personal nature, for reasons that are explained in the on-line
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instructions; these may be entered anonymously if you wish.</p>
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<p>The survey will run until Friday the 9th of April. This is
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your opportunity to help shape the future of professional Linux
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certification, so please offer your input at:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><a href="http://www.lpi.org/cgi-bin/jass.py">http://www.lpi.org/cgi-bin/jass.py</a>
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>Please help us out by visiting now!</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="SAGE">Liaison with SAGE</a></h2>
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<p>For the past several years, the <a
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href="http://www.usenix.org/sage/">System Administrator's Guild
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(SAGE)</a>, a Special Technical Group of <a
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href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>, has been trying to
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develop a generic UNIX system administration certification. This
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effort has not been easy, as many within SAGE have been against
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the entire concept of certification. The challenge faced by SAGE
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is also far greater than that of LPI. The differences between
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Linux distributions are minor when compared with the wide
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differences between various versions of UNIX.</p>
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<p>Still, SAGE has slowly moved forward and has a <a
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href="http://www.usenix.org/sage/cert/certification.html">web
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site describing their efforts</a>. They are about to begin a job
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analysis project similar to what we are doing, only utilizing a
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research firm that specializes in performing such surveys. Expect
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to see notices in UNIX mailing lists and possible focus groups at
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upcoming conferences.</p>
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<p>Since we both share similar goals, we have agreed to stay in
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close communication. The SAGE certification committee invited me
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to join their group (I have), and we will shortly be inviting one
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of their members to be a member of our Advisory Council. Several
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of our list members, including John Sechrest and Jim Dennis, are
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also members of SAGE and have been posting LPI information to
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SAGE lists (and also strongly defending the concept of
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certification!).</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="Linuxcare">Linuxcare offers more support to LPI</a></h2>
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<p><a href="http://www.linuxcare.com/">Linuxcare</a>, a
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organization offering 24x7 support for all distributions of
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Linux, has been a supporter of LPI efforts since the very
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beginning of our work last fall. Dave Sifry offered to create
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mailing lists and that has been our dominant form of
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communication. They took their support one step further in
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February, when they hired me to work full time as their
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representative to the LPI certification program. I will also have
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other duties within Linuxcare, but the bulk of my time in at
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least the short term will be spent on the LPI program. We within
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LPI appreciate their vote of confidence in our work and thank
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Linuxcare for their continued support.</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="ac">Advisory Council</a></h2>
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<p>To ensure that our program meets both the needs of the Linux
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community as well as the organizations that will employ those
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people who successfully complete our certification program, we
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have been building an Advisory Council of individuals and
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organizations who can provide us with the feedback we require.
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Members of our Advisory Council will be part of a private mailing
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list to which questions will occasionally be posted and feedback
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solicited. Their assistance will be sought in helping guide the
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overall direction of the LPI program, as well as in helping to
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solve questions that may arise from time to time within the
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linux-cert lists where a wider industry perspective may be
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useful. As a consultative body, the Advisory Council will provide
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input to the LPI Steering Committee as that committee makes
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decisions related to LPI.</p>
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<p>Based on the very successful meetings we have had, both at
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trade shows such as LinuxWorld and CeBIT, and also separately
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with individual people and companies, we will soon be announcing
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a large council including representatives from several
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distributions, Linux International, the Linux Journal, UniForum,
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publishers, information technology companies and other
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organizations who believe in the need for Linux certification. We
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appreciate their support and are looking forward to their
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assistance in making our program a reality. Watch for our
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announcement soon!</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="How You Can Help">How You Can Help</a></h2>
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<p>We need you! We want this certification effort to be far
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better than those for other operating systems. We need your
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assistance with our <a href="http://www.lpi.org/cgi-bin/jass.py">job
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analysis survey</a> and also with our continuing efforts on our
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mailing lists.</p>
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<p>To help out, you can join one or more of our <a
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href="http://www.linuxinstitute.org/tli/involved.html">mailing
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lists</a>. Before you decide how you can help, please read
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about our proposed <a
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href="http://www.linuxinstitute.org/tli/program.html">program</a>
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(which has been arrived at over the past six months of
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discussions) and the <a
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href="http://www.linuxinstitute.org/tli/structure.html">structure</a>
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we are building to move the whole process forward. I would
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suggest you also browse the<a
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href="http://linux.codemeta.com/archives/linuxcert_archive/">
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archive</a> of our linux-cert mailing list to understand the
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discussions we've had to date.</p>
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<p>After reading our information, please plunge on in, join a
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list (or lists) and help us out!</p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Final Thoughts</h2>
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<p>The next few months will be a time of high energy within our
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program. The job analysis survey will be completed and by the end
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of this month, we should have exam objectives online for all of
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our Level 1 exams. The development of the exams themselves will
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be underway, and we will be working hard to bring Level 1 to
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completion by the middle of the year. There will be a lot of work
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- and a lot of opportunties for people wanting to help make this
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program a reality.</p>
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<p>Will a Linux certification program evolve out of the
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community? Or will it be specified by a vendor or
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distributor? <em>We believe it should come from the
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community and we hope you will join us in that effort!</em></p>
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<p>Please take our survey, join us on the list(s) and let's make
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this happen!</p>
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<hr>
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<h4 align="center">Previous ``Linux Certification'' Columns</h4>
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<p><a href="../issue33/york.html">Linux Certification Part #1,
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October 1998</a><br>
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<a href="../issue34/york.html">Linux Certification Part #2,
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November 1998</a><br>
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<a href="../issue35/york.html">Linux Certification Part #3,
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December 1998</a> <br>
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<a href="../issue37/york.html">Linux Certification Part #4,
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February 1999</a>
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<!--===================================================================--> </p>
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<hr>
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<h5 align="center">Copyright © 1999, Dan York <br>
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Published in Issue 40 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, Mid-April 1999</h5>
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