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I went through an MCSE program in 1998. I must say it did me a lot of good in my current job (managing a service department). Not only can my employees not bullshit me but I am pretty much self-sufficient with the NT network at the office. I run circles around the guys from Home Office that are supposed to be supporting it and have never logged a single call at the Help Desk. I can create shares, map to them, troubleshoot problems, etc.

The only drawback is that everybody at my workplace used to cast shadows in my office doorway all day long with their problems. "I can't print, I can't see the network, my mouse is frozen, etc., etc." It got to the point that I couldn't get my own work done. So I had to start playing dumb and pretending I didn't know how to fix their silly problems.

Anyway, the MCSE training was pretty rigorous. Passing those tests are not easy. I doubt that I will re-certify on Windows 2000 as I have the base knowledge to pick up on it on my own.

I'm mulling over whether to go for the 70-240 by the end of December (when its retired) or work towards CompTIA's Linux+.

The NT5 kernal is great but for the future I just don't see businesses hooking into .Net's propriatary network. I first looked to Novell 5.1 running 2000Pro as a replacement for NT4/98. However, after debugging the numerous cross-platform payloads of CodeRed.C from my system I've essentially washed my hands of MS.

What DEC, IBM and Apple were in the mid-80's MS has become now. It's retreating into it's own propriatary network like the previous did. It's successor will be the same to MS as MS was to those it previously vanquished: cheap, stable, easy to run, with the broadest application base -i.e. Linux. It's the same basic formula MS used, just via a different channel now.