3/8/2001 -- ProsoftTraining.com and the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) announced recently that Prosoft has dropped its Linux certification program, the Linux Certified Administrator, and will instead merge the program's graduates into LPI's Linux credential.

According to Prosoft Web site, the decision was made "to help consolidate industry exams and support the LPI program."

The site also said that Prosoft will convert all of its Linux Certified Administrator (LCA) recipients credentials to the LPI certification program, "giving these recipients automatic credit toward the LPI 101 entry-level certification examination."

ProsoftTraining.com will also "immediately retire its Linux Certified Administrator exam and the associated credential, while continuing to develop and courseware preparatory to the LPI exams."

Note that rival Linux certification provider, Sair-GNU, also provides a Linux Certified Administrator (LCA) title; however, Sair's program is not related in any way to the former Prosoft program.

The merger leaves the vendor-neutral Linux certification community (e.g., not specific to any flavor of Linux) slightly less crowded, but not for long. CompTIA will introduce a new vendor-neutral Linux certification, Linux+, later this year. Red Hat's vendor-specific RHCE title rounds out the current crop of leading Linux certifications for IT professionals.

For more information on the demise of the Prosoft certification, click here. For information on the Linux certifications mentioned above, click on the links provided or visit CertCities' Linux certification community homepage. -B.N

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