"We are pleased to be working along with Mandrakesoft in the promotion of distribution-neutral Linux training and certification," said Evan Leibovitch, President of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), as LPI announced that it has partnered with Mandrakesoft, creators of the Mandrakelinux distribution, to strengthen and promote the adoption of standard, vendor-neutral, Linux certification and training materials.

"LPI has always pushed the adoption of standards-based certification, free of any individual vendor's influence, and has consistently emphasized the value of community-driven standards for professionalism in the Linux community. We look forward to a long and effective partnership with Mandrakesoft," Leibovitch added.

"As Linux gains momentum, the demand for training grows too - users and corporations often ask for vendor-neutral certifications and this is the need we are addressing through the Mandrakesoft/LPI partnership," said François Bancilhon, CEO, Mandrakesoft.

Linux and Open Source software, both community developed and supported, demonstrate the value of open, public, standards. The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) offers Linux certification that is both vendor-independent and distribution-neutral, and approves available training materials that have proved to have been developed to assure successful certification in all versions of Linux, through the LPI certification process.

LPI's Approved Training Materials (LATM) program is a quality assurance process designed to identify training materials that accurately support LPI certifications. Products designated as LATM have passed stringent quality assurance testing to assure all LPI test objectives are covered within the content.

LPI's most recently certified LATM is LynuxTraining. With offices in Geneva, Lausanne, Bienne, Lyon and Paris, LynuxTraining provides the first French-language LPI approved training materials, which Mandrakesoft uses extensively in their training programmes.

Mandrakesoft utilizes LPI approved training materials (LATM) as the basis for most of its Linux training and certification programmes, both off-site for corporations and within its own certified training centers. Globally, LPI's certification program has delivered over 70,000 certification exams since the program's inception in 2000.

LPI supports affiliate networks on five continents, worldwide, including Brazil, Bulgaria, Jamaica, United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Australia, China, France, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

To learn more, contact Linux Professional Institute at http://www.lpi.org

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