An interesting new addition to the GoCertify certification information collection is the OpenOffice certification program available through Sun Microsystems. This program allows candidates to earn a credential on the popular open source alternative to Microsoft Office. There are OpenOffice certifications for the spreadsheet (Calc) component, the word processing (Writer) component, and the presentation component (Impress). These end user certifications face off against the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS). Microsoft obviously has the edge in current market penetration, but with OpenOffice offering a completely free, robust alternative, inroads are ready to be made.

Why would Sun Microsystems offer OpenOffice certification? Because as with most open source software, support for OpenOffice can be difficult to obtain, and Sun contributes to the development of OpenOffice and offers its own version named StarOffice, which comes packaged with some extra extensions and support. Red Hat has certainly been successful with its route to earning revenue from packaging and supporting Linux software, as well as creating a sought after line of related certifications. Now Sun Microsystems seems to be travelling the same road, and it certainly will be interesting to see if they achieve comparable success.