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BSD Certification Group Releases Roadmap
Jeremy C. Reed writes "The BSD Certification Group announced on Thursday
the release of their certification program roadmap. This publication
introduces the Group's planned BSD system administrator certifications
and the construction of the certification program.
The press release is available, as well as
the certification roadmap."
Just for fun
*BSD died a long fucking time ago!
...for a death certificate ;-)
Really, who really cares????
Lunix is such a piece of shite that only fucktards like you keep using it.
...they want to rename "Donate" button to something more complicated...
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I really do think that this will be a good thing.
I have my LPI-2 certification, and I believe the neutral-vendor type certifications are really the best. It serves as a base from which to work. For the Employer there is a twofold bonus.
1) The Person is willing to prove himself/herself that they are able to use the system (without testing by the employer) to a certain degree.
2) The candidate was willing to study. This I see often where a person does not try to further themselves within their field of expertise, yet expect to walk into another job, and expect the employer to know that they are totally capable. There has to be a starting point - and this is it for the x-BSD's
I would certainly see myself doing this certification.
Keep living in the past, cockgobbler. Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Over time, it slowly shriveled into niche OS, then finally into the dead piece of shit today. Let's put this abortion of an OS to rest.
I understand that this is not the universal trend in the industry, but I want people who can write good code, have the ability to understand things on a system level, and can adapt to new situations rather than certified people who slowly produce poorer quality work and give me blank stares. Give me someone who can write code to make different systems on a network interact, and who will get out network tools and track down complex network problems over someone with multiple network certifications any day of the week. I don't work in a BSD shop and I don't see that happening any time soon, so this doesn't directly concern me, but if I did I would not take this certification as a good thing.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
MSCD,MCSA,MCP,MCSA,MCSE,CCNA,CCNP,MCDBA,CISCO,BLA, BLABLA...
To bad intelligence isn't delivered in a TLA/FLA.
I'm glad I don't live in your space.
and now you can be certified in being dead? or how to handle the dead? hm
The people with certifications are the people that was not needed by their former employer. Generally, the most skilled people are too busy to have time for the certifications.
And the Indian girl proved their worth. If a 12 y.o. can take the certifications, they do not say anything about the person ability to handle a job, or their experience.
From the quickstart summary of the road map:
Project Start - 2006 start date to be determined
Certification Requirements Document - Start+42 days
Educational Guidelines - Start+114 days
Exam Preparation and Testing - Start+114 days
BSD is dead - Start+225 days
does it help them gain more popularity or market share?
I believe if someone is installing BSD on a company infrastructure, he/she would already be knowing enough about it to run it.
The reason why I say this is that BSD is a good OS, but to believe that its a good OS (in the flood of linux), one has to know BSD well enough.
IMHO, hiring ceritified professionals help when someone installs something about which they don't know enough.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
at least until there isn't a catagory on slashdot for it :)
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It
Not flaming here, but asking a simple question. I can see OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD being on the cert, but DragonFly? Is the user base that big that it has to be on the test as well?
I am a BSD user myself, but the question is quite valid, "who cares?". The people who use BSDs tend to be people who care more about actual quality, so why would I care about a piece of paper that proves nothing? If I need to hire a BSD guy, I will see if he is competant, not if he took a stupid test. Do we really need the BSD equivilent of MCSEs?
BSD is dead. Dead I tell you! Now just accept it and move on.
Background: 38yo geek who got his first programming job 22 years ago and has been full time IT for over 15 years. Self-employeed rent-a-geek... er I mean "IT Consultant" (who does quite well thank you)
... But give me some money and all your IT problems will be solved."
So what do I do? I've got more experience and talents than 95% of the punk kids eager to take my customers.. So I go into see Joe business owner and I tell them "Yeah, forget paying MS or other companies for software, I can get you all the software you want free. BTW, You've never heard of me, you don't know penguin from a daemon and I don't have a piece of paper to my name that says I know anything.
(Like it or not) The vast majority of the people hiring IT consultants have never heard of a BSD. They've only heard of Linux because of the dotcom era. I have for many years mocked people who got MCSE's etc. But a business reality is that some people want that piece of paper...
But if I get any BSD certifications -and I probably will- it will be a dual edged sword. The goobers out there want a piece of paper so they sleep well at night knowing they hired an "expert." BUT I won't mention it to people who know what they are talking about because frankly, I mostly agree with you that if I see someone with too many certifications I run like hell figuring they're an idiot.
However there is one thing that definitely makes me fall to one side of the fence...
[Not baiting people but] (Even the most diehard fans of other platforms can probably bring themselves to admit that) the BSD's are the best pure server platform going. But how do I explain that to a lawyer or a CPA or an investment banker?
Like it or not, things like this boost the whole platform. It gives it an air of legitimacy to the unknowing.
So- I'll hold my nose and sign on the dotted line.
There seems to be a real test on real computers for the advanced exams, from what I found in the roadmap. If this is really the case, then the exam could be worth something.
Most of the other exams simply prove that the person to be tested was able to click on the right spot while taking said exam. The multiple choice exams tell nothing about the problem-solving skills of the tested person, IMHO.
I got into a discussion with the trainer while taking a training for a certain test, that very trainer told us all questions that might come up and require a "wrong" answer to pass the test. In that discussion said trainer told me: "I know this is wrong, but you want to pass, don't you?"
In short: I don't see any value in the "click-through" tests.
"I'm too cool for Linux" bandwagon jumpers do these days."
I believe, in the case of *some* BSD users, that should be 'bandwagon jumping off-ers". Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm cvsupping beta3...
... I have been recruited much more often since I got a cert. I am all for self-improvement and always relied on self-learning, but I couldn't get my foot on the door properly until I got that bloody piece of paper.
-- Let's go Viridian.
I've been doing that Cisco thing since 1998. CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, wireless specialization, one exam away from CCIP, one exam away from Call Manager Express specialization - before you make a farting noise with your mouth understand that I'm sitting at home in my underwear at 9:00 AM and I may not get dressed until lunch
My customers have a mix of FBSD 4.11/5.4 and some OpenBSD 3.4 on wireless bridges. My customers are uniformly mid sized shops with need for a serious network engineer but not enough work to justify a full time person. Its very easy to slip BSD into these environments - "Hey, you have an old PC we can use for (X)?" Resistance *is* futile once this process starts.
BSD certification would mean that the big shops in town currently seeking people with Red Hat certifications, because their management can't poor piss out of a Knoppix CD, let alone assess an admin's skill level, will start seeking BSD certified people. This is a good thing for me personally, for BSD as a whole, and the competitive pressure from the BSD source/ports based aerobics instructors is something the Linux distro binary package fatladies desperately need.
Yes, I said fatladies. I've got SuSe 9.2 on the machine I'm using to type this and 9.3 on my lappie. I'm looking into it because I think it might be marketable
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
Actually, from all the sources I have read, OSX consists of a Mach kernel, FreeBSD userland utils and NeXT interface. All of which, very seriously tweaked and hacked. However from the way Apple writes about the FreeBSD portion, it seems that they may have rolled some FreeBSD into the Mach kernel.
From my understanding. UI is OpenStep (API), not to be confused with OPENSTEP(OS) from the same company. Not well known however, is that OpenStep was co-created with Sun Microsystems. OPENSTEP later became Rhapsody, which later became Mac OS X. Also, Darwin OS came from this. You can easily consider Mac OS X an evolution of OPENSTEP. The mass majority of the code is, when comparing it to OS 9 or below. So in short:
OPENSTEP (OS) + OpenStep (API) + Time = Mac OS X.
Of course you mourn the demise of *BSD. It's only natural. Dealing with the death of an operating system close to you can be one of the most traumatic experiences of your life, and you're bound to go through a range of emotions. While you may be able to work through those feelings on your own, it's often helpful to talk to a friend, a family member, or a counselor. You might also seek out a support group for people who are grieving.
Grieving is a process, and it's totally normal to go through feelings of shock, sadness, anger even guilt. The healing process is different for everyone. It might take you six weeks to move on, or it might take you six years. Don't beat yourself up because you're not "over it" yet. It takes time to heal wounds.
So what else can you do to feel better? It might sound corny, but try writing a letter, making a collage, or planting a tree in memory of the operating system you've lost. Remembering and celebrating all the good things *BSD brought to your life might help give you some closure, and having a keepsake to honor *BSD may help you get through some tough times in the future when you'll be missing it.
It's true that life won't be the same without *BSD around. It may seem like you'll never feel better, but eventually you will. Take some comfort in the old saying, "Time heals all wounds," and remember that *BSD will always be with you in your heart.
Suggestions:
1. Try no to bad mouth Linux until you get a real job. Staring at terminals for small companies that don't even want to hire a network engineer isn't one.
2. If it ever ocurred to you that a certification for Red Hat == a certification form ''bsdcertification.org'' you need to start getting dressed before lunch, get out of your room and get a taste of the REAL LIFE.
sure that by 74e
(forgive me, but someone had to make the joke)
One has to learn somewhere/how. Without college a certification can help if there is no experience on the resume. No?
I have also viewed certs as more of a marketing tool to use when selling services to potential customers:
"We have Certified Engineers & Administrators specializing in Cisco, Novell, RedHat and now FreeBSD"
... facts are facts. ;)
FreeBSD:
FreeBSD, Stealth-Growth Open Source Project (Jun 2004)
"FreeBSD has dramatically increased its market penetration over the last year."
Nearly 2.5 Million Active Sites running FreeBSD (Jun 2004)
"[FreeBSD] has secured a strong foothold with the hosting community and continues to grow, gaining over a million hostnames and half a million active sites since July 2003."
What's New in the FreeBSD Network Stack (Sep 2004)
"FreeBSD can now route 1Mpps on a 2.8GHz Xeon whilst Linux can't do much more than 100kpps."
NetBSD:
NetBSD, for When Portability and Stability Matter (Oct 2004)
NetBSD sets Internet2 Land Speed World Record (May 2004)
NetBSD again sets Internet2 Land Speed World Record (Sep 2004)
OpenBSD:
OpenBSD Widens Its Scope (Nov 2004)
Review: OpenBSD 3.6 shows steady improvement (Nov 2004)
OpenSSH (OpenBSD subproject) has become a de facto Internet standard.
*BSD in general:
..and last but not least, we have the cutest mascot as well - undisputedly. ;)
Deep study: The world's safest computing environment (Nov 2004)
"The world's safest and most secure 24/7 online computing environment - operating system plus applications - is proving to be the Open Source platform of BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) and the Mac OS X based on Darwin."
BSD Success Stories (O'Reilly, 2004) (pdf) ~ from Onlamp BSD DevCenter
"The BSDs - FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Darwin, and others - have earned a reputation for stability, security, performance, and ease of administration."
--
Being able to read *other people's* source code is a nice thing, not a 'fundamental freedom'.
How mindlessly stupid are you?
/.
/. Don't you people have enough brain power to come up with something else?
This thing that you call "revealed" is now over 3, count them 3 years old. You or one of your like minded simpletons have now posted this almost 40 times to
The "Free BSD is dying" joke is so old it makes Moses look young. But it has to show up 2 or 3 times per day on
Here's a clue, you don't do "your side" any favors, you just make "your side" look like a bunch of idiots.
Now put down the mouse and go fill those water jugs, you know coach said the junior varsity team gets thirsty.
...what sort of accredation does this organization have which qualifies it to hand out certification? After a quick perusal of the site, I see one FBSD core developer and one DfBSD core developer, but...well, mostly an ad hoc bunch of random guys who really like BSD. Is that really a solid enough foundation to be taken seriously?
-the real Urocyon
Anon only 'cause I'm too lazy to create an account
First, many certs are not easy to get if you don't have an incredible photographic memory. You can study until you are crazed and psychotic and thinking nothing but the subject matter till the moment of the test and blank. Then there's idiots who can memorize rote knowledge but can't use it.
Second, many certs are not germane to the job. No sense in having a BSD cert unless you're in a BSD/System V style shop. Better to have an RHCE even for SuSE than a BSD cert. Closer to the actual matter.
I expect we'll see more HR departments glomming onto this and expecting it as a prereq even for Windows desktop administration.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Now more people who know jackshit about BSD can get a piece of paper saying they do! Hopefully it won't be as bad as MCSE, cisco certifications, or the horrid A+ tests that are put out now.
Great idea to put it all in order. Cant wait ot get certified myself.
What We Can Learn From BSD
By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0
Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.
Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.
These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.
As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.
Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.
The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.
Same old GNU/Linux FUD, that has been disproved countless times..
:)
In short: the MIT research is *11 years old*, and that Rice study on the TCP/IP stack uses FreeBSD *2.2.6*.
(And btw, Eric Raymond advocates BSD license over GPL.)
Taco fucking sucks!
guk is gay