Finally, You Can Now be a 'Certified' Ubuntu Sys-Admin/Linux User (itsfoss.com) 50
Thursday Ubuntu-maker Canonical "officially launched Canonical Academy, a new certification platform designed to help professionals validate their Linux and Ubuntu skills through practical, hands-on assessments," writes the blog It's FOSS:
Focusing on real-world scenarios, Canonical Academy aims to foster practical skills rather than theoretical knowledge. The end goal? Getting professionals ready for the actual challenges they will face on the job. The learning platform is already live with its first course offering, the System Administrator track (with three certification exams), which is tailored for anyone looking to validate their Linux and Ubuntu expertise.
The exams use cloud-based testing environments that simulate real workplace scenarios. Each assessment is modular, meaning you can progress through individual exams and earn badges for each one. Complete all the exams in this track to earn the full Sysadmin qualification... Canonical is also looking for community members to contribute as beta testers and subject-matter experts (SME). If you are interested in helping shape the platform or want to get started with your certification, you can visit the Canonical Academy website.
The sys-admin track offers exams for Linux Terminal, Ubuntu Desktop 2024, Ubuntu Server 2024, and "managing complex systems," according to an official FAQ. "Each exam provides an in-browser remote desktop interface into a functional Ubuntu Desktop environment running GNOME. From this initial node, you will be expected to troubleshoot, configure, install, and maintain systems, processes, and other general activities associated with managing Linux. The exam is a hybrid format featuring multiple choice, scenario-based, and performance-based questions..."
"Test-takers interested in the types of material covered on each exam can review links to tutorials and documentation on our website."
The FAQ advises test takers to use a Chromium-based browser, as Firefox "is NOT supported at this time... There is a known issue with keyboards and Firefox in the CUE.01 Linux 24.04 preview release at this time, which will be resolved in the CUE.01 Linux 24.10 exam release."
The exams use cloud-based testing environments that simulate real workplace scenarios. Each assessment is modular, meaning you can progress through individual exams and earn badges for each one. Complete all the exams in this track to earn the full Sysadmin qualification... Canonical is also looking for community members to contribute as beta testers and subject-matter experts (SME). If you are interested in helping shape the platform or want to get started with your certification, you can visit the Canonical Academy website.
The sys-admin track offers exams for Linux Terminal, Ubuntu Desktop 2024, Ubuntu Server 2024, and "managing complex systems," according to an official FAQ. "Each exam provides an in-browser remote desktop interface into a functional Ubuntu Desktop environment running GNOME. From this initial node, you will be expected to troubleshoot, configure, install, and maintain systems, processes, and other general activities associated with managing Linux. The exam is a hybrid format featuring multiple choice, scenario-based, and performance-based questions..."
"Test-takers interested in the types of material covered on each exam can review links to tutorials and documentation on our website."
The FAQ advises test takers to use a Chromium-based browser, as Firefox "is NOT supported at this time... There is a known issue with keyboards and Firefox in the CUE.01 Linux 24.04 preview release at this time, which will be resolved in the CUE.01 Linux 24.10 exam release."
User certification? (Score:1)
This is about as useless as an Associates in Data Entry from the Devry Institute of Technology.
Lessons? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've searched all over their academy but can't seem to find lessons specifically written for these exams. Has any one else found them? I'm very interested in performing these courses but being slightly above average in my Linux skills will never do. The overview for the first exam alone, The Linux Terminal, has more than a few skills there I have never attempted.
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Dunno about this, but Cisco has offered a LPI cert prep course via NetAcademy for quite some time, and it uses Ubuntu as its distro (and has a pretty freaking awesome browser based VM that runs a system for doing labs, etc in)
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Not exactly unique - I've seen many lab sessions using Ubuntu. They usually use some form of web-based VNC client running over some websocket-based VPN. WebAssembly is neat in that way.
I've always wondered how they secure the things since it's basically a free for all shell prompt.
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Sounds like a cash-grab (Score:2)
I mean "certified Linux user"? What does that mean? I can log-in?
Re:Sounds like a cash-grab (Score:5, Interesting)
It means if enough people earn the title Certified Linux User, we can finally state it's the Certified Year of the Linux Desktop!
Personally, I'm trying to figure out why a sysadmin-level exam would start at a Gnome login.
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Personally, I'm trying to figure out why a sysadmin-level exam would start at a Gnome login.
Fascinating. I have done Linux since 1995 and I have several servers running for more than a decade, including DNS, mail and Web and I was cluster-admin at University when I got my PhD.
I have never used Gnome at all. Guess I would fail that exam.
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When I was in college they taught classes on how to use microsoft word.
Do they still do that?
OTOH as a windows user I would say an advanced windows user is way more capable of doing stuff on windows than a novice because windows hides the ability to do anything particularly useful and actively fights you when trying to do some other things. Windows 12 will probably make you read a pop-up and press OK whenever you want to use the filemanager (AI will just look up whatever you want bro, you don't need that da
They did that back then.... (Score:2, Interesting)
....because computers were still not commonly owned. The only places students would have exposure to them would be colleges. My uni had a WordPerfect class, and at the end briefly alluded to the existence of an upstart competitor named Word.
However since nowadays people typically use cell CPU based devices and communicate mostly in acronyms, emojis and pics, they don't have exposure to using word processors anymore. It might be a good time to bring that curriculum back. Maybe even paired with a Conversation
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Its true, I haven't used actual word processor software for ages, just google docs.
I think there are lots of people who think word perfect was far superior to word. I never used it but its a nice idea that there was something better out there.
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Yep, I have noticed that about Windows. Whenever you want to do something they do not have on their "approved activities list", it gets very obscure and hard. Even when you need to to it to keep that PoS running. I mean, understanding a sane Linux init system (not systemd) is easier than some things you need to do as a Windows user.
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Yeah it's just like an app nowadays. 20 years back trying red-hat meant log-in was top tier certification !
You had to re-partition disk 5 times, re-install grub a few times and figure out grub cmd line, build and modprobe some kernel modules, get a binary blob for your softmodem, spend a week figuring out your monitor specs to fix x.org configuration files, keep doing ctrl-alt-backspace and looking at the big X on a grey screen, maybe boot into single user mode to reset root password.
While 1 guy was assisti
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I think you have your dates wrong, perhaps you meant 30 years ago?
By 20 years ago installers mostly worked, modems were getting rarer, and there's no such thing as a 64kbps modem (maybe you meant 56k?) The only problems I had 20 years ago were wifi related, by 2005 Redhat had switched to their enterprise editions and you mostly didn't have to fsck with scanlines, there were utilities to do the math for you. The installers did auto-partitioning correctly and there was still no EFI to break things yet
Re: Sounds like a cash-grab (Score:2)
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The average idiot manages that all without a certification. "Attitude" is basically the only thing these people can do well.
So cash-grab, definitely.
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Which has always sounded like a scam to me.
As I see it, they should make taking these certification tests free or very cheap. As it stands, they really only test one's ability to pay to take a stupid test. But, by making them expensive, they can lock people into their ecosystem.
I would support a DoJ investigation into Cisco for anti-competitive behavior with their damn certs.
Get your act together (Score:5, Funny)
>"The FAQ advises test takers to use a Chromium-based browser, as Firefox "is NOT supported at this time... There is a known issue [...] will be resolved in the CUE.01 Linux 24.10 exam release."
Maybe they need to take/pass their own exams? No Firefox = invalid site. There are essentially only two browsers, and they can't handle that extraordinary amount of diversity?
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And they're talking about 24.10 in future tense! When was this written?
Re:Get your act together (Score:4, Informative)
And they're talking about 24.10 in future tense! When was this written?
Yes they are. English needs context and when someone half quotes a sentence critical context to help understand the sentence is missing. If it were quoted with the bold below staying in it would make sense to you.
"[NOTE: There is a known issue with keyboards and Firefox in the CUE.01 Linux 24.04 preview release at this time, which will be resolved in the CUE.01 Linux 24.10 exam release. We recommend using Chrome-based browsers at this time.]"
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There are essentially only two browsers
Two? Essentially there is only one. The sad state of affairs in 2025 is that even if you polled Slashdot and only Slashdot I'm not sure that Firefox would come out with a significant marketshare.
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This is about a linux specialist website, where the 2025 browser market share is: Firefox 55.7%, Chrome/ium 35.8%, Opera 6.4%. https://www.sci-tech-today.com... [sci-tech-today.com] You would expect Canonical is aware which browsers are majority on their platform, and tests for the #1. Or do you, or do they assume the "Certified Ubuntu Sys-Admin/Linux user" are taking the test using another platform?
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You would expect Canonical is aware which browsers are majority on their platform, and tests for the #1.
They are aware, they did test, and they explicitly state it will work on the exam. It's just the preview system that doesn't. Of course it doesn't help that OP only quoted half the sentence.
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That is quite possibly the dumbest thing ever heard. You've either admitted just now that you don't know how the English language works, or you live your life without understanding required from context, or that you half-arse your admin work with incomplete instructions.
Whichever it is I hope you never admin a system I use.
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Also to the point: The statistics you linked shows that on Linux Firefox has a 55% market share. That doesn't mean that the customer base runs a 55% market share. A not insignificant number of people will be doing this exam on Windows and Mac. Just because the exam is hosted by Canonical and is about Linux doesn't mean they run only on Linux. I use a world of tools at work and am certified in a world of things that are just not relevant in my home. And even here I have a mix of Linux and Windows desktops, w
Re:Get your act together (Score:4, Insightful)
There are essentially only two browsers, and they can't handle that extraordinary amount of diversity?
No, there is Google with its snooping and data siphoning and there is Firefox on its deathbed. Websites not supporting Firefox are dooming all of us to mono culture beholden to Google where you do not own your browser and do not own your data. Such future is as detrimental to digital freedoms as say one company taking over cloud services in a monopolistic..., oh wait.
lmao who cares (Score:2, Funny)
check...check...MATE (Score:2)
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Yeah, when they said "GNOME" my eyes rolled. I know exactly nobody that uses a 'modern' GNOME desktop under Linux. Nobody. Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, whatever, but not GNOME. I have no idea why on earth Ubuntu defaults to Gnome.
Really, most people are ditching Ubuntu anyway for Mint. But at least most everything learned in a class or "cert" for Ubuntu will apply to Mint, except for the Snap crap.
I've been certified for a long time (Score:1)
Just ask my wife!
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I think you're confusing "certified" with "certifiable".
Companies that care about certifications (Score:2)
...deserve people who think certifications are meaningful.
OK, so they are meaningful, but not in the way companies think.
Certifications mean that the person is
1) able to take a class
2) able to retain enough to pass a test
That's not nothing, granted. But does it mean that the person actually knows, in this case, how to administer an Ubuntu system? Nope, not even close.
My cousin took one of these classes and got certified. But I would *never* trust him with my computer.
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3) able to pay for taking a test.
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Yes indeed.
A certificate in passes exams (Score:2)
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Funny! (Score:2)
And The Price? (Score:3)
I found a single line saying that exams could be purchased, but no price. Does anyone know the cost?
I have mixed emotions about a single retake per year.
When I read the Slashdot article, I thought that this certification would be easy for me. But, when I read the Exam Content I see many topics that I haven't done, or haven't done for 10 years. I definitely choke on several of these topics.
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https://academy.canonical.com/shop? [canonical.com]:
Are you sure... (Score:1)
Are you sure the word you're looking for isn't "certifiable"?