3rd October 2003

For Immediate Release

LinuxIT makes Professional Linux Training freely available to everyone

LinuxIT announces the availability of its training courses leading to Linux Professional Institute (LPI ) Certification under GPL, GNU Free Documentation License.

The released manuals under the GPL license agreement gives everyone free access to professional training material downloadable from mirror sites around the world. This material is suitable as a preparation for the Level I certification program of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI 101 and LPI 102). Independent trainers as well as training companies will benefit by being able to use these professionally developed manuals which are free to download and use.

These manuals will continue to be developed and released using the same paradigm as other Open Source projects. This allows anyone to modify and change the document provided it is released again as a GPL document. The project will be registered at Sourceforge, a CVS version control system is envisaged and any help from the community to suitably configure and enhance the documents which are written in OpenOffice will be welcome.

As much as possible the production of the final product will separate the content generation process from the laying out and editing tasks. The project will be registered at Sourceforge. A CVS version control system is envisaged. Any help to suitably configure the existing documents which are entirely written in OpenOffice will be welcome. The first release is expected to be available early next week. An announcement will be made on Freshmeat.

Peter Dawes-Huish Managing Director of LinuxIT commented, "We have recognised the value of GPL Licensing and we know that by publishing our training manuals under the same arrangement we can work with organizations and individuals worldwide to create top quality materials which are freely available to the community for use by anyone. LPI is fast becoming the number one Linux Certification demanded by our customers and our aim is to make this Certification available to all and supported by the best quality training materials. ".

Andrew Meredith of Independent Training and Support consultancy The Anvil Organisation said "This is a real break for the micro-business and not for profit end of the market. It enables companies like mine to run low cost ad hoc courses without having to invest disproportionately in materials. It puts the training materials on the same footing as the products themselves. You can bet that we will be putting at least as much back in to the quality of these manuals as we get out of them. These are live documents that have been used many times to date, to get delegates through the LPI exams. This move shows that LinuxIT really does understand and believe in the GPL concept. ".

Peter added " We see the development of training course material under GPL as a natural progression of the open source software development paradigm that has proven to be unstoppable in todays market ".

About Linux Professional Institute
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) develops professional certification for the Linux operating system independent of software vendors or training providers. Established as an international non-profit organization in 1999 by the Linux community, LPI develops accessible, internationally-recognized certification programs which have earned the respect of vendors, employers and administrators. LPI's activities involve hundreds of volunteers and professionals throughout the world in many different capacities, and the group encourages active public involvement through mailing lists and its website at www.lpi.org. LPI's multi-level program of exams is administered globally through Pearson VUE and Prometric testing centers. LPI's major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors Caldera International (NASDAQ:CALD), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Linuxcare, Maxspeed, SGI (NYSE:SGI), SuSE Linux AG and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors Novell, Inc. Nasdaq: NOVL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) and Wave Technologies.

About LinuxIT
LinuxIT (a division of Kleesh Consultants Ltd.) is one of the UK's most respected and successful independent providers of IT infrastructure solutions based on Linux and Open Source. LinuxIT's software solutions are created through the integration of commercial grade software with the enterprise of Linux specialists. LinuxIT is a UK powerhouse of Linux expertise and its consultants and support provide the backbone of services of some of the best-known names in IT. In addition to solutions Linux IT offers customers a comprehensive range of consulting, support and certified training services. For more information please visit the LinuxIT website at: www.linuxit.com

About the Anvil Organisation Ltd
The Anvil Organisation Ltd is based in Wiltshire and specialises in the supply of IT advice, support and direct administration services to local small and micro-businesses. Anvil uses Linux heavily as it allows easier and more secure remote access thus cutting costs for the customer. www.anvil.org