[linuxjobs] RHCE query.

[Alex Butcher]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Paul Tansom wrote:

> [O]n a personal basis I don't rate the qualifications at all. Two reasons
> behind this:
>
> 1. I avoid Red Hat as a distribution if at all possible. This probably
> reflects my customer base, which doesn't look for large scale corporate
> support and recognition and sees Red Hat as a more expensive option than
> Windows (which it is since Windows is a one off cost and can run with
> updates until Microsoft ends support, and beyond if they really want to,
> whereas Red Hat is useless without he subscription).

Note that there are Free rebuilds (CentOS, Scientific Linux, WhiteBox) of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux than can be used and updated with no payments
necessary until RH themselves discontinue update support for their products.
Studying the RHCE syllabus could be helpful for (potential) administrators
of such systems in helping them to get the best out of them, and do so in a
*maintainable* way (e.g. no hacking init scripts when there are knobs that
can be tweaked under /etc/sysconfig to achieve the same effect).

> 2. I have a very poor view of qualifications having done a couple of
> Microsoft ones and met a few Microsoft qualified people. The course
> exams were passable by people who had only done the course and had no
> real world experience (I probably should add that these were not MCSE or
> etc. ones) and those with official MS qualified people who had no
> interest in IT and were merely collecting qualifications in order to get
> promotion to management - their IT ability and common sense were very
> poor.

The RHCE syllabus is better than many in that it includes a day-long lab
exam which is a pre-requisite for passing. Essentially, it's a variation on
'this box is broken in multiple ways; fix it without re-installing'.

> Of course this is all based on Windows courses and is some years out of
> date, but it is another view point - and I'm getting very, very grumpy
> in my old age :)

Entirely understandable! :-)

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>