Linux Professional Institute Launches Early Bird Incentive Program

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) has announced an incentive program called 'Early Bird' to reward its initial participants. Under this program, the first 300 people who take LPI Linux certification exams will be eligible to receive a free book, software package or other Linux-related item from a selection of products donated by LPI sponsors. The response to the initial release has been fantastic and the Early Bird program is expected to make the exams even more attractive to people looking to become certified in Linux skills. LPI recently started delivering its first exam, test 1a, through more than 1,700 VUE testing centers worldwide.

The second LPI exam, test 1b, is expected to become available during March 2000. The rewards provided by the sponsors include supplies of each item and will be limited. People who take LPI exams will be able to choose any one of the remaining rewards. Selection of rewards and their shipment to LPI participants will be co-ordinated by LPI and LinuxMall.com.

People who have already taken LPI exams are also eligible to claim rewards from the program. The Linux Professional Institute is a community project to develop professional certification for the Linux operating system. Established as a nonprofit organization focused on defining distribution-neutral and vendor-neutral certification standards, LPI involves a unique blend of hundreds of volunteers and professionals in many different capacities and encourages public involvement through mailing lists and its website of www.lpi.org. LPI's multi-level program of exams is administered globally through test centers operated by Virtual University Enterprises (VUE), a division of NCS (Nasdaq:NLCS). Major financial sponsors of LPI include Caldera Systems, IBM (NYSE:IBM), Linuxcare, SGI (NYSE:SGI), SuSE Linux AG and TurboLinux as well as the Gold Sponsor Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) and Wave Technologies (Nasdaq:WAVT). More information can be obtained at www.lpi.org. The 'Early Bird' program is a direct benefit of LPI's being a community organization and its sponsors have been extremely generous in their donations of rewards. The success of LPI's industry standard and vendor neutral standardized certification is crucial to help bring Linux into the computing mainstream.