Customer Reviews

Linux+ 2005 In Depth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a very helpful and well written study guide for the latest Linux+ exam. I took the test and passed, although I wouldn't make this the only study material unless you are already very proficient at Linux CLI. I have about 2 years of informal Linux experience so I also used a UCertify test kit to help me study beyond this book. Overall, highly recommend as part of your preparation program.

This book is well-written. I did not have a problem reading this book since I had some UNIX (HP-UX and Sun Solaris) background. Topics are clearly explained and easy to understand. Chapter 9 on "Boot Loaders" was a huge help for me. In chapter 9 the author covers well dual booting with windows and Linux.
My only complain about the book is its lack of a comprehensive final exam. The author could have made an effort to provide at least one final exam. To take advantage of this book I do recommend to install a version of Fedora Core or Red Hat AS/EL. Overall I recommend the book and I give 5 stars

Truthfully, I found this book to be a little bit... off... It has good information in it, but many of the review questions were a bit obscure... I would buy this book for the content only. Make sure you have another prep book like the Sybex book to contrast with before you go test...

This is a good book to prepare the Linux+ certification.
There are chapters on hardware and software in which you can find also basic informations those could be useful also for technicians to recall knowledge. If you are a Linux expert you could find too easy, but it gives you all you need to understand the topics of the exam.
I'll use it also as reference in the future.

I took and passed the test in October 2006. I found that many of the questions on the 2005 Exam covered areas not in this book. As other reviewers have posted, I also used Michael Jang's RHCE Prep guide to flesh out the weak areas. The exam itself leans toward RedHat so it is not surprising the exam prep does too, and why Yang's prep guide was so helpful. So my advice is get this book but also get Jang's book also.

Read the book entirely, reviewed, and learned all the information. There was an abundance of questions on the Linux+ exam that were not mentioned in this book. All the questions that were covered in this book I got right in the exam and still didn't pass. One question that came up in the exam was " How do you finish off a while statement" and nowhere in this book gives an example of a while statement. I happen to know now that the answer is "done" thanks to another book. That is only one example of many. Other than that, I do believe this book is well written and has resourceful information.

I think that this might quite possibly be the most poorly edited book I've read in years. I am uncertain if the authors lack experience with the English language, but the constant and ongoing syntax errors and general sense of carelessness exhibited throughout this book would make it appear so. I could deal with the aforementioned problems, but the entire book is written in the literary equivalent of a drone. I would highly recommend spending $26.39 on any other study guide.

Chapter 9 - System Initialization and X Windows
After completing this chapter, you will be able to:
◆ Summarize the major steps necessary to boot a Linux system
◆ Configure the LILO and GRUB boot loaders
◆ Dual boot Linux with the Windows operating system using LILO,
GRUB, and NTLOADER
◆ Understand how the init daemon initializes the system at boot time into different runlevels
◆ Configure the system to start daemons upon system startup
◆ Explain the purpose of the major Linux GUI components: X Windows,Window Manager, and desktop environment
◆ List common Window Managers and desktop environments used in
Linux
◆ Configure X Windows settings using various Linux utilities
------------------------
I believe this chapter on X-Windows is useful.
Please don't discourage people with a bias comment for a chapter you might don't read at glance at all. Be a little bit scientific please.

I've tried to learn Linux a bit over the years, and have never been very successful. This book, however, is really helping me understand the guts and logic of Linux, and how to make effective use of the command line prompt. It's old, but only a little dated as much of the internals have remained the same.

I found this book had alot of useful material and little filler. The book provides useful commands and common examples for using those commands without filling it with a bunch of man pages like some books. It also gives some key tips that will be helpful to any system administrator. I thought there should have been more information on system services like apache or mailsend, but maybe those won't be really covered much on the exam.

The questions at the end of the chapter, as mentioned by other users, aren't very useful, so you'll likely need to test yourself with other resources.

Don't be fooled by some reviewers who try to dispute the book with petty inconsistencies. They often are more interested in sounding like they have been diehard linux users all their life than actually giving any reliable feedback.

Pros: good coverage of cli commands, concise information without filler, useful tips that help you become a system administrator.

Cons: bad end of chapter questions, somewhat disorganized in the way the content is presented.