Linux+ Study Guide, Second Edition (XK0-001)

Rating:
Summary: The first Linux+ book to receive five stars from me
Review: I reviewed the first edition of this book and found a few shortcomings, all of which have been fixed in this edition. The prior edition did not cover some hardware items that I saw on the exam; this edition includes it. The prior edition had installation screen shots from the Mandrake distribution, but Redhat is a far more common distribution in the business environment. This edition uses screenshots from RedHat Fedora. The index in the prior edition was not as thorough as I would have liked. This edition includes the items I looked for but was unable to find in the prior one. Even with the shortcomings in the prior version it was still the best certification study
guide that I had reviewed. This edition is an improvement on the best study guide available, making it the new champ.

One of the things I like best about Sybex certification books is that they are one of the few publishers who provide both the information needed to pass the exam and the information needed to actually work in the real world. All the most common networking and administrative tasks, troubleshooting, adding packages, adding hardware, and installation are covered in detail including installation methods and problems, security, file services, and troubleshooting. The author does an excellent job of walking the reader through all the various processes step by step and explaining each item in detail.

Each chapter ends with a chapter summary, a section on exam essentials that summarizes exam critical items, a summary of commands covered in the chapter, a key terms list, and review questions and answers. The book even includes a CD with a test engine, two exam preparation exams, and flashcards. I've taught Linux at the college level both for certification and for practical application purposes and this is the best book available for the new or only minimally experienced Linux user who is planning to take the certification exam. The "Linux+ Study Guide, Second Edition" is the best exam preparation study guide I have seen on the market to date and a highly recommended read for anyone seeking certification.

Rating:
Summary: The first Linux+ book to receive five stars from me
Review: I reviewed the first edition of this book and found a few shortcomings, all of which have been fixed in this edition. The prior edition did not cover some hardware items that I saw on the exam; this edition includes it. The prior edition had installation screen shots from the Mandrake distribution, but Redhat is a far more common distribution in the business environment. This edition uses screenshots from RedHat Fedora. The index in the prior edition was not as thorough as I would have liked. This edition includes the items I looked for but was unable to find in the prior one. Even with the shortcomings in the prior version it was still the best certification study
guide that I had reviewed. This edition is an improvement on the best study guide available, making it the new champ.

One of the things I like best about Sybex certification books is that they are one of the few publishers who provide both the information needed to pass the exam and the information needed to actually work in the real world. All the most common networking and administrative tasks, troubleshooting, adding packages, adding hardware, and installation are covered in detail including installation methods and problems, security, file services, and troubleshooting. The author does an excellent job of walking the reader through all the various processes step by step and explaining each item in detail.

Each chapter ends with a chapter summary, a section on exam essentials that summarizes exam critical items, a summary of commands covered in the chapter, a key terms list, and review questions and answers. The book even includes a CD with a test engine, two exam preparation exams, and flashcards. I've taught Linux at the college level both for certification and for practical application purposes and this is the best book available for the new or only minimally experienced Linux user who is planning to take the certification exam. The "Linux+ Study Guide, Second Edition" is the best exam preparation study guide I have seen on the market to date and a highly recommended read for anyone seeking certification.

Rating:
Summary: Kudos to Roderick Smith!
Review: In my efforts to become a Linux expert, this is about my 12th book on the subject of Linux. My first Linux book was the first edition of this book, and I am getting reacquainted with Linux after a hiatus of about 2 years. (Incidentally, I am an expert on Windows NT/2000 system and network administration and, in addition to my extensive hands-on experience, have probably read at least 5 or 6 dozen books on computer hardware, software, operating systems, system and network administration, etc.)

I should note first that I read certification-oriented books primarily to gain knowledge of the subject matter, and not necessarily to pass the associated certification test. My experience is that if I acquire in-depth knowledge AND experience with the subject matter on which I will be tested, passing the exam proves not to be a problem. I have not taken the Linux+ exam, so this review is not about whether this book will help you pass the exam. However, given the apparent thoroughness with which the exam objectives are addressed in this book, I am confident that this book serves the purpose of helping people prepare for the exam.

More importantly, however, this book provides the in-depth foundational knowledge necessary to acquiring expertise in Linux. This book may well also be the most technically accurate computer-related book I have ever read. Either the author or his editors (or both) have done an excellent job of ensuring technical accuracy. The book is extremely well-written and clear, considering the subject matter. It is packed with useable and relevant information, including references to additional information where appropriate.

In summary, this book provides an excellent foundation for those who are new to Linux (or Unix) and are interested in actually using Linux and becoming knowledgeable about this important alternative to Windows. Thanks, Mr. Smith, for putting your time and effort into this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not linux-compatible
Review: There's something ironic about a linux book that's not compatible with linux. When you want to learn windows, you use windows; when you want to learn linux, apparently, you also use windows, because they never thought that anyone would use anything else.

It says on the back of the book, "Test your knowledge with advanced testing software that runs on Linux and Windows." In theory it can run under linux, in practice it does not. They didn't test it.

Unlike windows, files under linux are case-sensitive, and the html files on the CD are expecting all the wrong names. They aren't even consistent in what case they expect the files on the CD to be, sometimes uppercase, sometimes mixed case, while nearly everything on the cd is pure lowercase. To put it clearly, it's dead-link city. The only way use the testing software(in the form of Shockwave files) under linux is to copy the CD to your hard drive and fix all the HTML capitalization mistakes.

The ebook contained on the CD is also not usable under linux, but this is not the fault of anyone at Sybex. Adobe is presumably working on it.

The content of the book itself is otherwise quite useful, albeit somewhat redhat-centric.

Rating:
Summary: Not linux-compatible
Review: There's something ironic about a linux book that's not compatible with linux. When you want to learn windows, you use windows; when you want to learn linux, apparently, you also use windows, because they never thought that anyone would use anything else.

It says on the back of the book, "Test your knowledge with advanced testing software that runs on Linux and Windows." In theory it can run under linux, in practice it does not. They didn't test it.

Unlike windows, files under linux are case-sensitive, and the html files on the CD are expecting all the wrong names. They aren't even consistent in what case they expect the files on the CD to be, sometimes uppercase, sometimes mixed case, while nearly everything on the cd is pure lowercase. To put it clearly, it's dead-link city. The only way use the testing software(in the form of Shockwave files) under linux is to copy the CD to your hard drive and fix all the HTML capitalization mistakes.

The ebook contained on the CD is also not usable under linux, but this is not the fault of anyone at Sybex. Adobe is presumably working on it.

The content of the book itself is otherwise quite useful, albeit somewhat redhat-centric.

Rating:
Summary: Too verbose for a study guide.
Review: This book says it's a study guide for the Linux+ certification. Well, yes and no. It does explain the concepts of Linux, it does give a brief description of the test and has a CD that contains two sample tests. However, that's where the study guide ends. It's really a beginner's guide to Linux as opposed to a study guide.

This book is very verbose in that it uses a lots of paragraphs as opposed to tables, lists, and definition. It's a good thorough read, but a terrible, terrible reference book. Designed for the absolute beginner, it's not for people who played with Linux and are trying to get certified. The first half of the book is extremely basic where it takes about 10 minutes of reading for anything particular concept to become apparent. The latter half is more advanced and informative, but without simple tables and references, much of the information is lost in the needless rambling.

The worst parts are the review sections. The summaries at the end of the chapter are really lacking. So while concepts are explained well, the details (e.g. where are the system logs, how to alter the init level scripts) are hidden within chapters.

The practice tests are good, but the difficulty between the end of chapter tests and the practice tests are huge.

A study guide needs to be full of facts, easily searchable, concise, and contain a lot of information. This book only fulfills the latter requirement.

Rating:
Summary: Too verbose for a study guide.
Review: This book says it's a study guide for the Linux+ certification. Well, yes and no. It does explain the concepts of Linux, it does give a brief description of the test and has a CD that contains two sample tests. However, that's where the study guide ends. It's really a beginner's guide to Linux as opposed to a study guide.

This book is very verbose in that it uses a lots of paragraphs as opposed to tables, lists, and definition. It's a good thorough read, but a terrible, terrible reference book. Designed for the absolute beginner, it's not for people who played with Linux and are trying to get certified. The first half of the book is extremely basic where it takes about 10 minutes of reading for anything particular concept to become apparent. The latter half is more advanced and informative, but without simple tables and references, much of the information is lost in the needless rambling.

The worst parts are the review sections. The summaries at the end of the chapter are really lacking. So while concepts are explained well, the details (e.g. where are the system logs, how to alter the init level scripts) are hidden within chapters.

The practice tests are good, but the difficulty between the end of chapter tests and the practice tests are huge.

A study guide needs to be full of facts, easily searchable, concise, and contain a lot of information. This book only fulfills the latter requirement.

Rating:
Summary: Good Study Guide --- Get another book just to compare.
Review: This is a very good study preparation book for the Linux+ exam. I found it very informative but it did not go into much detail on any topic. It did cover most of the domains of the test well but it lacked in the chapters concerning kernel modules.
One of the two major problems I found in the book; was the unusual overuse of the word "unusually". This was a constant annoyance making it hard to finish chapters at times. It may seem like a small deal but it made a large impact on the book altogether. The second problem was that the author didn't go into enough details in relevant areas but overcompensated in useless trivia.
On a whole I find this a good study guide.

Rating:
Summary: Get "Running Linux" or "Linux+ In Depth"
Review: When I thumbed thru it at the store, I thought it was great, but as I read thru it I was left wanting. I don't feel confident about taking the linux+ test yet. Having taken two other CompTIA test I have a feel for the level of detail needed to pass - this book doesn't have it.

Few or no tables. Sparse and ineffective examples. Too little detail. Terrible review questions at the end of the chapter. The ones on the CD aren't too much better. I'm very dissatisfied.

I went back to the book store and tried some review questions from the Thompson book "Linux+ In Depth". I used their books for my A+ & Network+ certs and I was ready to take the test shortly after completing the books (though the McGraw Hill - Mike Myers - book on A+ I borrowed from a friend to gather a little more info before the test - it was even better than the Thompson one). I've started reading O'Reilly's "Running Linux" and I it also appears to be an excellent choice.

If you have 3mos experience, buy a different book. If you're just starting out, and not looking for certification, this may be for you.

Bottom line: It's a good book, don't get me wrong, but not one I'd recommend when you're about to spend $175 or so on an exam (particularly if you're paying for it yourself).