RHCE for Not Yet Techies 2

If you are more of a beginner or have less experience working with Unix and/or Linux, Red Hat suggests you begin your RHCE with their 3 more basic courses:

• RH033
• RH133
• RH253

After you have successfully completed these courses, then you are ready to take Course RH300. You take the RH302 exam on the final day of that course. If you pass, you are an RHCE.

Each course consists of 4 days of training.

The final RH302 Exam consists of both traditional multiple choice questions and hands on problems with equipment. Red Hat does not want employers to perceive the RHCE as just another "paper" certification.

They want to ensure that everybody who attains the RHCE has actual, practical hands on ability. Of course, this is in the best interests in all RHCE certification holders.

If you plan to make a career in networking with Linux, you should certainly work on getting RHCE certified.

Even if you currently are specializing in Windows or planning to stick with an MCSE program, you should consider the RHCE, if only as career insurance.

Currently, Windows and NetWare are the two primary networking operating systems. No question of that. They have market dominance. Linux is currently installed on only a few PCs in businesses, especially networked.

But Linux is fast gaining popularity among individual users. Some of them will start or currently operate small businesses, or have influential positions in large businesses.

As mentioned before, Linux is much cheaper. It's officially free. The commercial packages such as Red Hat are not free of course, but are still cheaper than Windows 2000. As soon as businesses know they can hire RHCEs as easily as MCSEs, Linux could quickly take over a large segment of the business market.

Let me give you a clue -- in 1999, Dell Computers bought a piece of Red Hat. They support Linux. Of course, they will include Windows on their PCs as long as customers want it. But they have already sold Linux equipped PCs to large businesses.

If the most New Economy-savvy PC seller sees a future in Linux, or at the very least is hedging its bets so that it will have a future under both or either Windows or Linux, it might be wise to hedge your career bets.

Yes, today it's much easier to find a job with an MCSE than a RHCE.

But if a bunch of businesses suddenly jump on the Red Hat Linux bandwagon, RHCE could become a widely sort after certification.

MCSEs are practically a dime a dozen. If Red Hat Linux becomes THE business operating system of choice while there is still a relative dearth of RHCEs, that certification could be worth a large salary in a few years.

A lot of people think Linux is a greater threat to Microsoft than the US Department of Justice. In a way, Linux validates Microsoft's court argument that it is still vulnerable to market pressures and competition from new technologies.

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