I was a microsoft business partner up to about 10 years ago so had to keep my qualifications up to date at a cost for the exams. But then they moved the goal posts again so I dropped it. But I used to get the developer tools free. No my qualification have all expires and no longer exist.
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Same here. My MS-related qualification focuses on WinNT, Win2K and Win7. Who cares about this nowadays?
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Mine were microsoft Certified professionnel window 3.1and microsoft Certified system developer did it up to NT but lost interest as in a different market. They wanted me to write programme to put in the store, but were offering peanuts on sales. My clients just wanted windows install and fixes.
It is an idea worth exploring.
There are some members who are still professionally active and may be seeking jobs.
It might be particularly relevant to jobs that provide support ⌠do we still have help desks?
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Thankfully yes we do.
I have a email issue at the moment on my server and easyspace help desk are working through it with me. They appear to have different teams on each major subject so its a dedicated email group replying, only trouble is they work as a team so you start with one member but may not return to the same person with your problem as it continues.
Thought about posting here but not a Linux issue more around mail redirection.
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What does qualification mean here in the forum? Iâm fully free with what I write in my profile bio; the amount of hearts I earn or spread around is completely irrelevant. But, most importantly, who decides whether Iâm writing completely rubbish or fundamentally quality answers?
However, I find the idea behind a fellow or mentorship interesting.
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It is sort of by peer review. If a number of replies reject what you write it is probably either incorrect or it irritates people.
How would you see that working?
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Not at all, yet.
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Glad you think so.
But i have no idea how we would work it or even if it would work.
I do NOT want exam based, I do Not want it to be either command line or gui based. Also knowledge in debian against red hât or slackware ⌠I could answer most in one but would stand no chance in another, i could do it in gui but not in command line. As an example.
Length of service, numbers of answers, peer review, paid for membership ⌠Just ideas.
How do we judge answers, correct or incorrect, ideas that take you down different paths not always wrong but open to other things.
So for example have you tried X, no i would try Y, or just reinstall⌠All correct but some better than others.
But then we get into awarding bodies or professionnel institutes.
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The idea that one could buy a set of letters to put after oneâs name is a bit of an old world concept.
We need to find the modern equivalent.
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What about a new flag or badge indicating that a user is willing (and experienced enough) to do some direct mentorship on a specific topic?
In another forum, I was asked for such support via direct message several times. It might be better than flooding the forum with an endless list of questions and replies. It could be done via real-time chat and/or screen sharing. But Iâm afraid itâs against the forumâs goal to keep all the conversation here.
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We can sort of do that with private messaging.
Most of it , at least.
What is wrong with a public help desk within a topic? ⌠do you not want everyone buying in? That is often helpful.
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No, for me itâs fully OK.
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Certainly true - most of us (not all) are in our 60âs or older⌠Iâm 64 but sometimes feel like a relative youngster compared to some of the other regulars 
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Personally just coming up to 69 and a lifetime in computing. My mother said I never worked for a living as she never saw me get my hands dirty, I should have got a proper job !
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@daniel.m.tripp @callpaul.eu Câmon kids. Iâll put my 74. 
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I turned 76 a few months ago. Worked 30 years with mainframe computers and have had a home PC for the past 36 years.
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Me too.
Did you get near mini-computers ⌠like DEC PDP and VAX?
They were sort of in between mainframes and PCâs⌠most of them had terrible operating systems until Unix came along.
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No mini-computers except for Sun but some other interesting equipment.
Xerox 1200 page printer. It took the large printer output pages which would be output to a reel of tape instead of the printer. The tape was than mounted on the Xerox machine and the printed output was now printed on 8 1/2 by 11 pages.
The old CRT dumb terminals that would display information from the mainframe to the customer service people. Also setting up TSO (Time sharing option) for the programmers so they could also use the dump terminals.
The old IBM PC XT, the AT, 386s, 486s with DOS.
STK (StorageTek) 4400 ACS (Automated Cartridge System) was a robotic silo that could mount and dis-mount cartridge tape on a tape drive when the mainframe asked for a tape to be mounted for processing.
Sun Microsystems Unix computer owned by Orcale. I have forgotten the name. It was the start of transferring info from the mainframe and setting up user to access the information. This was my first experience with a Linux like system.
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We had one of those running on a Sun Workstation . Not sure it was same brand. We used it for storing images of wool staples ,⌠thousands of images.
We had problems with drivers .
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