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Rating: 
Summary: Effective, understandable, and enjoyable!
Review: I am not an avid reader, even for certifications. I hardly read books, usually skim them over briefly, and do practice tests. This is the first book I have read cover to cover. The problem with most certification books is a) length, b) boring. Michael appears to have taken both of these into account, making the book around 300 pages, and very easy to read. I was able to sit down and read 50-60 pages at a time with ease. None of the chapters were too confusing, or too long. They all fit perfectly. The book flowed amazingly well, especially for a book covering a topic such as Linux. Even the practice test questions were easy to understand, and fit perfectly with the material. The explanations were also very easy to read, and fully explained how to solve the problem correctly. Michael did a great job making a book that is easy to read, enjoyable, and overall very effective. I was able to pass the test with ease, with only a week of real studying.
Rating: 
Summary: Ok reference, except for the typos and mistakes
Review: I have 5 years of Unix experience, and several years of Linux experience. I bought this book...on sale. It's not worth the full price...Reading the book was pretty easy. Most examples are clear, the book is small and easy to read on the train. However, the downside to this book is the number of errors. Simple typos are forgivable, but there were problems with practice test questions, diagrams that contained errors, etc. What's even more frustrating is that Informit/Coriolis doesn't provide any Errata on their website, so I can't find a good explanation for some of their test questions.
Rating:
Summary: This book is perfect if you have some Linux experience!
Review: I've used Exam Cram books to study for a handful of certifications before so I knew what to expect but I'm afraid this book falls short. I took the Linux+ exam today and passed by a good amount but I'm not exactly sure how much of it was due to this book. If I had to quantify it, I would say this book helped me out on 10% of the exam. The other 90% came from my experience. Certainly I didn't expect this book to cover everything on the exam, it's just a "refresher" of sorts, but even then it was marginal at best. Experience should always be the most important part of the certification preparation process but for this book to provide so little help on top of that is disappointing. I wish I could get my money back. The review questions are very misleading and can give a person false confidence; expect considerably harder ones on the exam. There were several errors throughout but there always seems to be with Coriolis books. As of today, there are no "errata" listings on the publisher's website. I don't think I can responsibly recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Missed A LOT of exam areas
Review: If you're a Linux guru, then this test WILL give you the "feel" of the exam -- which is all I wanted. With over 7 years of heavy, product Linux integration, I was able to pull an 850/900 after studying for only 4 hours with this book. The book has gross inadequacies in many areas -- e.g., NIS/NFS -- and the exam is dead wrong on answers in areas (I bet I missed a couple because of this book's errata -- although knowing the format probably saved me on others). If you're not Linux experienced, don't attempt the Cram book. Get another which will probably be more complete -- again, this one is lacking in areas. If you're half-way UNIX/Linux knowledgable, the current passing score is 655 (2002 June). That's low enough if you read and understand this book cover to cover, and use some basic test taking elimination techniques, you should pass or come close. Again, some topics won't be covered though -- especially stuff like NIS/NFS that most Linux people who've only done Apache/Samba never touch. It's not good to skip such details where many newer Linux admins are more "weak."
Rating:
Summary: Not Quite What I Expected
Review: Sample Question: Linux+ & The Exam Cram Book Are: a) beneficial in the real world-- organizations DO typically use old payroll dept. PC's for creating a significant linux infrastructure.
b) a perfect combination because the book goes into great detail about old-school hardware, especially troubleshooting SCSI 1 hardware, which is VITAL in the real world after becoming a CompTIA(R) Certified Linux Professional.
c) all you need, since a few pages with typos in sample questions and key chapters outweighs months of exposure to a COMMAND LINE ONLY environment.
d) great, because in an organization that requires the use of linux workstations and servers, there exists a dependcy on setting up critical hardware such as dial-up modems over pulse (not tone) phone lines.
e) OK, only if you have SIGNIFICANT experience (more than 6 months) in a COMMAND LINE ONLY environment, have set up key services like APACHE, BIND, etc., have NOT relied upon GUI tools from certain distributions, somehow know all about old hardware such as the original SCSI specifications, and ... oh yeah ... don't care to/ won't try to swing for a REAL linux certification exam. [Correct Answer: E] All that is to say I passed on the first try, although it had next to nothing to do with this book, which does cover some non-critical (non-exam) items quite well (but only if you're a beginner).
Rating:
Summary: good book to read just before the test
Review: The purpose of these types of books (Exam Crams and Passports) are to provide a means for a quick review before taking a cert test. That said, this book accomplishes the goal. I read this book a week out before taking my Linux+ test which further provided me more example questions to go through. However, they are still not quite indicative of the questons found on the Linux+ exam. However, they better than the ones typically provided with other Linux+ study books. The cram sheet is always useful to look over just before entering the test room. Use this book in addition to other resources.
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