LPI at Open Source India (OSI) 2026: Building Linux Skills Across India

Open Source India is one of the country’s longest-running open source conferences. The 23rd edition took place on October 7-8 at the NIMHANS Convention Centre in Bengaluru, with more than 85 speakers and 45 sessions across six tracks, from FOSS for Everyone to DevOps and AI and ML. Linux Professional Institute (LPI) was there with a booth for both days.

What People Asked at the Booth

Jolly Villaviza, Partner Development and Success Manager, and Makoto Ono, Global Sales Director, ran the booth. Over two days, more than 200 people stopped by: students, faculty members, IT managers, trainers and open source practitioners.

The questions repeated. Students wanted to know where to start. Faculty members asked how LPI material fits into a syllabus that is already full. IT managers and trainers asked what a certified hire can do on the first day.

Underlying all these questions was the same thing, and the conference programme made it hard to miss. AI, cloud and DevOps run on Linux and open source. Employers are no longer asking candidates whether they have used Linux. They are asking them to prove it.

Visitors to the booth got a 20% discount on exams during the event, along with certification guides and other materials.

Where to Start, Since Everyone Asked

The honest answer to the students at the booth is that it depends on how much Linux experience they already have, but the ladder itself is short and worth laying out.
Linux Essentials is the entry certificate, and it assumes nothing. It is where someone who has installed a distribution once, or not at all, begins. Alongside it sit three more certificates at the same level: Security Essentials, Web Development Essentials and Open Source Essentials, which cover the ground their names suggest.

After that the professional track starts. LPIC-1 covers administering a real system, LPIC-2 covers running a small network of them, and LPIC-3 splits into specializations: mixed environments, security, virtualization and containerization, and high availability and storage clusters. Next to the LPIC track sit DevOps Tools Engineer and BSD Specialist for people whose work has already pointed them in one of those directions.

None of it is tied to a single vendor or product, which is the reason it travels. A graduate in Bengaluru with LPIC-1 holds the same certification as a graduate in Berlin with LPIC-1. This was the part the faculty at both universities kept returning to.

Where to Train Afterwards

A conversation at a booth is a start, not a plan, and the question that follows is always the same one: where do I actually learn this? Linux Learning Center, an LPI Platinum Training Partner, was also exhibiting at OSI, so people who went from curious to committed in the space of an afternoon could speak to a trainer the same day. LPI sends training enquiries to partners like them rather than delivering courses itself.

Two Universities

Away from the conference floor, the LPI team visited the main campus of Bangalore University and met the head of the AI Department along with faculty members from IT and Computer Science. The conversation was about fit: which LPI material complements what students are already taught, and at what point in a degree it makes sense.
SRM Institute of Science and Technology came to the booth and met the LPI APAC team there. Two institutions, two different directions of travel, the same question about how to send graduates out with something an employer recognizes.

Partners Across India

Jolly and Makoto also met the LPI partners who were available during the visit: Linux Learning Center, Technovalley Software India, edForce, Koenig Solutions and ELS Empowerment (Eureka Learnings). These partners reach learners and organizations in Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi and beyond. This is the practical point for anyone looking to prepare for an LPI certification. A certificate is only useful if there is somewhere to prepare for it, and in most of urban India, there now is.

The visit continued to Delhi, where Makoto Ono and Jolly Villaviza met D Succeed Learners, a Delhi-based company delivering training and certification to organizations and academic institutions across India. That conversation is at an early stage.

What Happens Next

LPI will follow up with the partners and institutions met during the visit on training collaborations, academic integration and certification programmes.
If your organization or institution wants to explore an LPI partnership, get in touch through the LPI website.

Thank you to the Open Source For You team at EFY for hosting OSI 2026, and to everyone who stopped at the booth.