“Jeff Gerhardt CTO of Pinnacle Internet announced today
the first in a series Linux Mentoring Centers for
the Chicago marketplace. Gerhardt stated, “We are very excited to
announce the creation of the first of our Linux Mentoring
Centers. We will be offering a wide range of classes from
the facility that will allow both experienced and new users of
Linux to acquire certification for Linux skills. In addition we
will have in each center a Linux Product Showcase.
Each Mentoring Center & Showcase will allow consumers and
business people to get a hands on experience with Linux products,
while they are at our centers getting training. This first Linux
Mentoring Center & Showcase will be in Naperville IL located
along Interstate 88, the heart of the Midwest’s Silicon Prairie.
Our long term goal is to have 5 of these centers in the Chicago
metro, bringing drive time down to a range of zero to 50 minute to
a population of 7 million people.””
“Gerhardt continued, “we will begin the process of setting up
the Showcase while we are in our present location, and move the
products in to the space as construction is completed. Our new
facilities will be an ideal place for a software or hardware vendor
to locate product for public examination. There will be viewable
rack space to display rack-mounted servers, plenty of places for
literature, desks and tables for desktop and thin client machines;
and hopefully plenty of Linux boxes of mixed variety where we can
install Linux software products for people to try out. Our hope is
that vendors will look upon this space as sort of a satellite sales
facility that they can make use of, and of course free of charge to
both the vendor and the consumer.””
“”To kick off our first center” added Gerhardt, “we are going to
have a special opportunity for attendees of the Linux Business Expo
in Chicago April 18th -20th. We will be at booth L3250 helping
out the GeekCast broadcast. The first 200 people who stop by the
booth and and sign up for a class, we will give them a 25% discount
off of the class. That is a savings of $440.00 of the price of
our classes.””