Techies feeling more bullish

CNET News.com is carrying a good story about IT workers feeling more upbeat about the job environment.

Also the average number of unemployed workers "fell from 210,000 in 2003 to 146,000 in 2004, according to U.S. Department of Labor data."

This is good news. For the second year in a row I can personally attest to the pick up in job activity due to the fact that I'm essentially holding down two full time jobs again. Hopefully my situation can hold on for a bit longer so I can get current with a number of things around the house. I know for the past three years I've had to job hop because of the outsourcing problem going through Corporate Americe. I was never out of work for long but I don't think it looks good when I have 4 different jobs in the past 3 years.

It'll be interesting to see where the overall industry will be at by the end of the year

LPI Certification Exams at PHP Quebec Conference

LPI Certification Exams at PHP Quebec Conference It amazes me that LPI has been so active in getting themselves involved with the different communities that are out there. I really wished they would make a trip through the Chicago land area.

LPI Course Docs

Michel Bisson and Alan McKinnon have posted their course material for those who have an interest in Linux. I think I might have posted this site before but this is the first time I've realized who Alan McKinnon is. He is the gentleman who has been instrumental in bringing Linux to S. Africa. His web site has some good information on what is happening in the Linux world in regards to training.

There is some good information here for anyone looking to learn about Linux.

Tectonic -- How Much will it cost you?

Tectonic's Alan McKinnon has a new article out about the cost of Linux training and what you should expect. One of the important topics, which most people fail to check for, is the quality of the Instructor and the institution they are going through.

I've been through alot of different IT courses and some of them have been pure rip offs. One of the factors that determines the quality of the instruction has been the quality of the instructor and their method of instruction.

The best courses I have been through (either in college or at third party firms) have been with those who combined theory and application. There are some instructor's who know their material inside and out and can talk about it all day long with only a minimal amount of hands on training. There are also those who leave the hands on for someone's spare time.

The best instructor's I've had have covered the theory in a fairly fast method and then spent the rest of the time having students apply what they just learned. It is one thing to be able to run throught he motions immediately after an instructor covers the material and it is something completely different to be able to apply those ideas in a work environment where theory doesn't always apply and being able to adjust theory has been more important. Knowing where to look for information when you really need it is important.

Red Hat Offers New Foundational Course

CertMag.com has an article regarding Red Hat's new courses they are offering for those looking to get an initial Linux Certification. These courses are designed for those who are looking to get an initial Linux certification. Some have mentioned that the only thing holding back Linux from the small and medium sized markets have been the lack of inexpensive, skilled Linux technicians.

Red Hat is opening up more avenues for those who are looking to get started in the Linux world with introductory certifications. It will be interesting to see how the vendor-neutral certification firms respond to Red Hat moving into their territory and also how Novell responds to Red Hat trying to keep people on a career track with the red Hat brand of certifications.

Things are starting to heat up in the Linx Certification markets.

CompTIA Linux+ exam went live on March 21st

CompTIA has released their Linux+ exam. CompTIA is looking for this exam to push their movement within the Linux environment in the coming years. This follows on their beta they were offering last year.

The biggests deffeences between the old exam and the new exam "are the additional domains on security and documentation, the expansion of domains on installation and configuration, and a decrease in the emphasis on hardware."

The older version of the exam will still be available unitl July 2005.

Red Hat in the news

CertMag.com
Red Hat has been busy so far this month in offereing up two new products for people to use.

The first is Red Hat's Linux Essentials for Windows Professional RH035. Which is designed as an introductory course for Windows professionals with no Linux experience. CertMag.com has an overview of the new course. CertMag also points out that more and more IT professionals are looking to diversify their skill sets and make them more usable in an integrated environment.

The second bit of news Red Hat has come out with concerns their RHCA exams where they have chosen a multi-exam format to earn the RHCA certification.

InfoWorld: Novell unwraps new version of Linux

InfoWorld: Novell unwraps new version of Linux Novell has used Cebit to unveil their new version of Linux, version 9.3. The new version will come with the 2.611 kernel, OpenOffice 2.0, KDE 3.4, Gnome 2.10, the Firefox browser, improved wifi support and a number of development tools.

This new version should be available in stores and on-line by mid-April.

InfoWorld: Novell unwraps new version of Linux

InfoWorld: Novell unwraps new version of Linux Novell has used Cebit to unveil their new version of Linux, version 9.3. The new version will come with the 2.611 kernel, OpenOffice 2.0, KDE 3.4, Gnome 2.10, the Firefox browser, improved wifi support and a number of development tools.

This new version should be available in stores and on-line by mid-April.

IT Paychecks Rise In 2004 After Three-Year Slide

Linux Pipeline has an article from Foote Partners about IT paychecks. It appears that pay actually rose last year in the IT industry. For certified skills pay rose on average by 4% while noncertified skills pay rose by 1%.

Some of the reasons for the rise in pay were increased competition for IT talent and concerns about staff retention.

I've seen it talked about in other articles and it seems the demand for netowrking skills will increase for some time to come. Remember Linux is a networking OS. Having a mix of networking, Cisco and Linux will help you prepare for some good opportunities in the future.

S. Africa Smashes the Linux Certifications record

Tectonic has a story about how they recently certified 325 individuals in Linux Administration. LI level 1 mostly and a few for the LPI level 2. Alan McKinnon played a significant role in recruiting and training many of the inidividuals who were certified. This was the largest group of individuals certified at one time. the previous record was held in Hong Kong in 2003.

LPI also picks up on the article and adds a few more details.

Congratulations to Alan for all the work he did to prepare the individuals and help bring the event to S. Africa.

LPI and Mandrakesoft Partner to Promote Linux Training Standards

LPI has news of their partnership with Mandrake to promote the adoption of standard, vendor-neutral, Linux certification and training materials. Mandrake has been using LPI's material for their own material and programs.

LPI has been working hard to promote a specific training plan that people and businesses can use to set a path for Linux training.

It has been interesting in how LPI has been garnering support from other organizations outside of Red Hat and Novell. LPI is almost working to have everyone else identify that they are the standard bearers for the Linux community. This shows up in both their stance as a vendor-neutral organization and the fact they are standing by the Linux Standards Base as the core of their material.

I think LPI's stance on the above will take them a long way in the industry in the coming years.

Microsoft hiring Linux developers????

Want to be part of MapPoint product group? [Hint: We're hiring!] Scobleizer has a post about how Microsoft is hiring Linux developers for one of their projects and he refers to Chandu Thota's weblog as evidence of a Linux developer who has been working for microsoft for the past year. He even gives his Top 10 Mappoint Moments of the Year 2004.

All of this follows ontop of Sun's decision to move away from Linux and cut a significant part of their Linux developers. I wonder how much of Sun's decision is based on their agreement last year with Microsoft. Something to think about for a moment or two today.