Re: RHEL vs. Fedora for Red Hat Certification Prep

[Roger Hill <unixman@charter.net>]

Nathan,

  If you are just "beginning a career" (per your previous post) in this field, and have chosen Linux Systems as your area of expertise, I would NOT even attempt to take the RHCE, until you have about 2-3 years of hardcore experience admin'ing Linux systems, you will be wasting your money (the exam itself costs around $ 800.00) you will NOT pass without hardcore experience . This exam is NOT beginners, not something you can cram for the night before, and not for the faint of heart. It is all 100% hands on, and not a 'download the brain-dump-multiple-choice-cheat-click-and-pass', like 99% of the Microsoft Exams are. 

  Instead Nathan, try starting out with something like CompTIA's Linux+ or the LPIC Level 1, and work your way up with experience like that. 

    The RHCE is one of the most respected, and sought after certs in the market today, primarily because of it's difficulty, and stringent testing methods. The exam is an entire day, two parts, and if you don't score high enough on part 1, you get to go home early, and don't even get to attempt part 2, you don't get any aid, or help, everything is monitored to the strictest of standards. I  have seen really good Linux engineers walk away and fail miserably. Make no mistake, this test is a BITCH. 

  As for Doc's comment on Redhat / Windows. I'd say Redhat is gaining ground everyday in the enterprise level server market. I worked for AT&T for 3 years as a UNIX consultant. We had about 2,000 Solaris UNIX servers, we were  just starting to roll out about 100 RHEL AS 3.X boxes at that time . And the total of Windows servers  that our group managed ? 4

   The company I work for now, we are probably about 50/50. That is 50% Windows / 50% UNIX + Linux platforms. 

  My strengths are in Redhat Linux and all UNIX platforms (Including AIX), but I can even get my way around a Windows Server as well. I could go into a Windows bashing routine, right about now, but I've found that through-out my career, you are going to end up making yourself that much more valuable , by getting diversified experience. I also know my way around cisco pixes, and load balancers as well. (Many vendors Load balancers are literally nothing more than a Linux box, with a few high speed network cards in them, maybe a fancy java web interface, but once you get on the CLI, they are Linux.) 

  This is truly a field, where 'the more you know, the further you will go' (as cliche' as that may sound.)  Those who can, do. Also, FWIW, some of the best IT people I've ever worked with, were never certified in anything, though, I believe in certifications, and ongoing education. Certifications are not really 'required' for your career, but they will help you get the initial call from the HR rep, who is just doing a keyword search, moreso than someone of the same experience level as you without a cert.

--
#!/usr/bin/rh stop

---- Nathan Nutter <iam@nnutter.com> wrote: 

=============
Hi SILUG,

I'm not really sure what certification path I'll take (Red Hat, LPI,
CompTIA, Ubuntu) but I was wondering about learning RHEL, probably starting
with the technician test. It seems like you have to have a Red Hat Network
account in order to use RHEL. Is Fedora similar enough that I could use that
instead?

Nathan

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