Customer Reviews

Sair Linux and GNU Certification Level I, Installation and Configuration, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have worked with Linux on and off for a while, so I mostly got this book for review. This was the only book I used for this exam, and I passed with 86% in 10 minutes. So, I have to give it a decent rating on the basis of test preparation. The troubleshooting section is 8 pages long, and gave explicit answers to 4 of the hardest questions I saw on my actual test -- read that part if nothing else. I actually read the Chapters, skimmed the Labs, and skipped the rest of the book (the test is really easy).

As a way to gain knowledge, I was not at all satisfied with this book. Many details are skimmed over and options are often used without explanation. For example, the author says "use 'man -k' to get help on a topic." OK, why the '-k' option? Why no coverage of '-K', or the difference between 'man', 'man -k', and 'man -K'? Overall, not satisfying...

This book does have all of the information. Only problem is, it almost has too much information for the test, and is very dry and boring reading. I also read the Exam Cram book for this test, it was muche easier reading and took about 1/10 the time to read even though it was 100 pages more of reading. I scored a 90% on the test, so it was worth buying the book. If you don't know what your doing, I would recommend it.

If you have experience in Linux this is probably all you need. I passed easily with a 92% after reading this book. However, most of it was review for me but I had to brush up on a few things. The exam will not have any surprises if you use it.

My company purchased this text because a number of us wanted to get Linux certification. We chose SAIR certification because their program best seemed to suit our needs. We purchased several copies of this text, and put together a study group of users with one to four years of Linux experience to become certified. We spent about two hours a week going over the notes in each chapter and working four of the labs in the back of the book.

I took to exam today, and I scored a 92% (Passing is 74%) The book was useful because it taught to the test. Had it not been for the book, I'm not sure I would have passed because most of the material would have been unexpected. In this sense, I suppose the book does the job it was designed to do.

However, there are a number of problems. The first is that the book is, as the other reviewer said, filled with typographical errors. There are also a number of sample questions with answers that are either wrong or misleading. For instance, on page 282, question 11 asks how to create a directory. The answer given on page 294 is 'rm -r proj' Aside from the fact that the typical Linux command for creating a directory is 'mkdir', this command 'rm -r proj' simply does not work. Nor, for that matter, do any of the other answers given.

Such sloppiness is inexcusable in a second edition text.

Finally, the last 200 pages of this 500 page book are nothing more than screenshots of installation of nine different Linux distributions. I would seriously like to know what linux user is going to make use of this.

You can pass the SAIR Linux examination with this book, but there are probably other books that will serve the novice better.

I've ordered a copy of the System Administration Study Guide as well. To SAIR's credit, this second text looks a lot better, but I'll let you know what I think after I take that exam.

I am currently a candidate working towards my LCA and I have found this book to be extremely UNHELPFUL. It is full of gramatical and spelling errors which make the reading impossible. I seriously suggest that if you are going to study for this test, get a better book...

I am about to take this test Monday, I have read the book and seen some errors that I believe that should have been caught by the publisher before it got to the shelves. Besides the errors it is a pretty good book if you have the patience.