[nycbug-talk] Re: BSD Success Stories (fwd)

[Isaac Levy]

Wordup George, Dru, All,

On Sep 23, 2004, at 9:41 PM, G.Rosamond wrote:

> But that doesn't make up for the numbers of people who buy books, 
> which is the point of this thread.

Ok- understandable, but the implication of the thread seemed to be 
relating the success of BSD out in the world, to book publishing sales- 
which I don't think is necessarily fair.

If something works, and works well, and works transparently, there 
isn't very much to discuss about it- so book sales are a bad way to 
judge the success of the BSD's.


>>>> or
>>>>
>>>> 2. We're out there but we're not putting our money where our 
>>>> advocacy is.
>>>> [...snip...}
> Of course we want everyone to know the benefits. . .suits and techs 
> both.

For sure, but to be straight, my point was that the eWeek article the 
other day did outright damage to the LSF- insomuch as the market-driven 
hype of the article, mixed with ignorance and just plain bad reporting, 
made the LSF come off pretty bad.

The LSF itself, is a pretty cool project- I've been reading the docs 
lightly since that thread and am happy with what I've read so far- 
(thx. to Sunny for hitting me over the head!)  But do we want the same 
crudola and misinformation, getting out there for the BSD's?  A 
question worthy of debate.

IMO, no- it damages us long-term, though perhaps provides short-term 
gains in market share or presence.


[...snip certs stuff...]
>>>> On a related, it's been a long week, topic, I had lunch with some 
>>>> execs of a fortune 500 company today. (I've had an ongoing contract 
>>>> teaching their employees Linux+.) Of course, BSD always comes up in 
>>>> class. Not just because of yours truly, but because the students 
>>>> are current BSD admins whose company's product line is migrating 
>>>> from FreeBSD 3.x to Redhat 9. Many of the employees requested that 
>>>> the company pay for a FreeBSD course. The execs were willing and 
>>>> wanted to know the name of the BSD certifications that were 
>>>> available. Their training budget is related to certifications: no 
>>>> certification, no training money...
>>>>
>>>
>>> Right. . .I do think it's worth creating a NYCBUG mailing list on 
>>> the topic of a BSD certification.  Certainly BSD Mall is in a good 
>>> position to sponsor, as they have a respected name in the community. 
>>>  We can get a list of necessities for a certification brewed up 
>>> through a dedicated mailing list.
>>
>> If there's interest in this, that's great- but I for one have had to 
>> work with way too many techs with excellent certs, who didn't know a 
>> nic from their ear.
>> I'll leave it at that.
>>
>
> Again, I think you missed the point.  Certs are of course mostly bs.  
> But the manager in Dru's example wouldn't put money towards training 
> without a cert.  I don't think Dru raised the cert issue because she 
> needs initials after her name.

Like I said, If there's interest in this, that's great; and it sounds 
like there's even a call for it, so someone who stands to gain should 
give it a go.
Heck, in the end, I'd likely go for a BSD Cert- especially if it meant 
I'd get to take a class taught by Dru! (and I'm saying that as a small 
business who'd be paying for it out of pocket!)

Rocket,
.ike





--
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