Sun's Response after exam

[Prakash Dwivedi]

Hello,
Recently one of my friend passed MCSE exam and he recieved MSDN Library CD from the MicroSoft. Does Sun also provides such kind of incentives to the developers who clears Sun's Certification Exam?

[Billy Tsai]

NO

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Hi Prakash,
It seems a bit odd you asking this question when you have two Java certificates already.
As you should already know, when you get certified, you receive a certification pack which includes a certificate, a certification card, a lapel badge, and a document to sign if you want to use the official logo in your resume / business card.
Basically there is no need for Sun to provide something like the MSDN CDs - they already provide everything on their website so that anyone can download it at any time.
Regards, Andrew

[Jeroen Wenting]

Plus if you take the Sun training for the exam you will get the SunOne starterkit for free.
From the course description of SL-275:
"This course includes the Sun ONE Starter Kit, which is a CD-ROM package containing the Java development and runtime environments for the J2SE and J2EE platforms, as well as the associated APIs and documentation. It also contains reference books, sample code and technical articles."
This is effectively the Sun equivalent to the MSDN library CD (I don't think people that pass MCSE get the complete MSDN CD set which contains all language versions of all current Microsoft software, a set of some hundred CD ROMs, but I could be mistaken).

[Vishwa Kumba]

Originally posted by Prakash Dwivedi:
Recently one of my friend passed MCSE exam and he recieved MSDN Library CD from the MicroSoft. Does Sun also provides such kind of incentives to the developers who clears Sun's Certification Exam?

Microsoft gives its beta software and license keys to people who only pass their Microsoft exams. SUN has all working software kept on their web site with no license keys(but with the license agreement) for anyone interested to download. Hence there is no need to supply CDs to its favourites.
Well....you are still keen on CDs, then you can make them urself...
The fundamental difference is.............
SUN lives in an open world while Microsoft lives in a closed world.
SUN's heart is bigger than Microsoft's

[Prakash Dwivedi]

It seems a bit odd you asking this question when you have two Java certificates already
Actually i did my first certificatioon in 2002 and second just a weak ago. So while waiting for my certificate i was just wondering if i'll get something new apart from the things you have mentioned.
Basically there is no need for Sun to provide something like the MSDN CDs - they already provide everything on their website so that anyone can download it at any time.
Its true that Sun provides everything on there website, and this is good. But there should be atleast some extra facilities provide to the person passing the Exam. Sending CD of Java API's isn't a bad idea, even if it is available free to download. It has two benefits one, not everyone visits Sun's site regularly, Second you have all the java related stuff in one CD which you can use.
Also SUN do provide free CD pack. When J2SE 1.4 was released they distibuted thousands of CD packs in the confrences all around the world. Each CD pack contained 7 CDs. And that CD pack contains lots of tutorials articals and S/W which were very useful. You can ofcourse download these stuff from Sun's site, but having them in a CD is always better.
So my point is when Sun can distribute Sun-One CD pack freely all over the world, why it can not send a copy to Sun Certified people?

[Ken Boyd]

make sense to me because not everybody can download large file size using dial up connection. We paid $150 for each exam so at least software in CD won't cost lot of money..

[Jeroen Wenting]

Read what I posted
You already get it as part of the Sun training course, can download it for free from the web, or order it for a (decent) fee from Sun directly.
I don't know how much the MCSE exam costs, but I think it's a bit more than $150...
You're comparing apples and oranges basically.

[Prakash Dwivedi]

You already get it as part of the Sun training course, can download it for free from the web, or order it for a (decent) fee from Sun directly.
This is exactly what i am saying. Either we have to pay or download. Having it on CD free of cost is obviously far better than the two options available.

I don't know how much the MCSE exam costs, but I think it's a bit more than $150...
Well $150 is not an issue. when Sun can distribute Sun-One CD pack freely all over the world, why it can not send a copy to Sun Certified people?

You're comparing apples and oranges basically.
Sun and Microsoft are competing each other in J2EE and related technologies. Its quite common to compare quality of S/W provided by these Software giants. So comparing types of facilities these companies provides to the developers working on their technologies is natural. I don't know why it looks strange to you.