Linux Pro and the lessons of history
Posted by TestOut Staff on
You may have heard the expression, "It's good to be the king," which notably appeared in, but probably did not originate from, the 1981 Mel Brooks comedy History of the World, Part I. For the most part, across many centuries, the lot of kings and other rulers has generally been quite enviable, certainly when compared to the lifestyle of the average slave, peasant, subject, citizen, or what have you. As a rule, royal prerogatives tend to be a pretty sweet deal.
On the other hand, history's various monarchs have occasionally been subjected to some fairly shabby treatment as a result of this or that twist of fate. (Woe to the king whose enemies captured him on the field of battle.) If there's snow on the ground where you live, then you can probably empathize at least a little with the quandary of the German ruler King Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor from 1056 to 1105, who famously denounced the Roman Catholic Pope Gregory VII for what Henry deemed undue papal interference in the ancient ritual of investiture. Gregory responded by stripping the king of both his divine right and church membership.
In 1077, fearful for the legitimacy of his rule, Henry crossed the Alps barefoot and wearing a coarse and scratchy hair-shirt to beg for Gregory's forgiveness and absolution. Following a late January arrival at the castle in the Italian city of Canossa where Gregory had temporarily taken up residence, Henry rather literally found himself cooling his heels, left to stand in the snow for three days before being admitted to an audience with the by then inarguably ascendant religious leader.
The tale of Henry's being outmaneuvered and humiliated eventually became its own expression, with "going to Canossa" being taken up describe any situation where a supposed peer is publicly put to shame and called into line by someone in a position of leverage. A famous example in IT circles erupted in June 2007, when CEO Francois Bancilhon of Linux developer Mandriva furiously rejected what he saw as being a ridiculously one-sided software patent deal with Microsoft. Bancilhon boldly declared on the company's official blog that, "We will not go to Canossa."
What does any of this have to do with TestOut Continuing Education? Mandriva ultimately slid into bankruptcy and was liquidated in 2015, but Linux, of course, having never been tied to the fate of any single company, continues to thrive. There's a strong demand for trained Linux professionals in today's IT industry, and you can build a solid foundation for a long Linux career with our comprehensive Linux Pro training.
As noted in this blog's previous installment, TestOut's Linux Pro training recently got a major stamp of approval by being certified CompTIA Approved Quality Content. (That's right, our certification training is certified, baby.) Essentially, that's an independent, third-party guarantee that Linux Pro training provides all of the knowledge you need to attain CompTIA's Linux+ credential. And unlike Henry IV, you don't need to seek out anyone's permission to continue on your chosen path. Get trained, get certified, and take control of your IT future.