Customer Reviews

Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Press)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I gave this book four stars, but that rating definitely needs to be explained. If I were to rate the test on how well it prepares you for the Linux+ exam, I'd have to give it a 3 (not bad not great). There is a lot simply not covered in this book, and a few topics that aren't covered deeply enough. That being said, I read about 7 books relating to Linux/Unix over the past year (not all pertaining to this exam), and none of them covered EVERYTHING in the Linux+ exam to a satisfactory degree. In fact, even if I were to pick any two books, I doubt I'd find a combination that covered everything in the exam objectives to the fullest extent.

So why did I give this book 4 stars? It covers an important niche and does it well - it teaches the reader Linux from scratch, and lays a proper foundation so that they can actually understand what is actually happening inside the operating system. This is probably the best book on the market for those who are very new to Linux, but want to pursue the certification anyway. The first half of the book is a very basic introduction to the OS, and moves at the proper pace for a true beginner. If you are not a novice though, large portions of the book may be unbearably slow to you. That being said, this is a horrible book for "brushing up".

As you might guess, while this is a very good instructional book, it severely lacks detail and information in some of the more complex areas. The configuration of services was pretty weak. It really felt like the parts that needed the most attention were the most neglected. Really, nothing more than a brief overview was given for Samba, NIS, CUPS, BIND,LPR, Xinet.d, Inet.d, etc. It really isn't sufficient to truly understand the topics fully.

Completely missing was a comprehensive list of log files and how to audit them. This can fall under the security objectives, and can potentially add up to a lot of questions in the exam question pool. It really needed to be covered better.

So what other reading and material is out there? The only other book in the Linux+ department that I read was the Sybex book by Smith. The book was overall, very similar, but seemed to go a little more detail into some areas and spent a little less time on the basic stuff. I also read Smith's LPIC book (also a Sybex book), but sadly this was 95% the exact same content as the Sybex Linux+ book. Overall these two books (which are essentially the same) were probably better for test preparation if you meet the Linux+ objectives suggested experience of 6-12 months. If you have no experience, I'd definitely start with the book currently being reviewed.

While I didn't read any more Linux+ books, I did happen to find a much better alternative than the books previously mentioned. The LPIC Exam Cram book from Ross Brunson is hands down the best preparation for this test (assuming you do have some experience with Linux). Let's face it, the test is almost all command line knowledge, and doesn't test your conceptual understanding much at all. The exam cram format fit perfectly, and Brunson's writing was both concise and extremely lucid. In a very simple pattern, the book went over all the commands, what they do and how to manipulate them. It did a great job as not reading like a bunch of rehashed man pages, and did an amazing job of clarifying everything in very little page space. The scope of the book also came the closest to covering the entire objectives, although it was lacking in a few parts here and there. IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY ONE BOOK, GO WITH THE BRUNSON LPIC EXAM CRAM.

Other honorable mentions included "the Linux Administration Handbook", and the Testout Linux+ computer based training CD's. The Linux Administration handbook is a great reference to have and takes a more practical approach (not exam oriented). The Testout cbt courses do not actually cover a lot, but they are the best instructional video's I've seen (CBT nuggets was way too short and not in depth). The Testout material is more geared to learning linux than passing the test though.

ABOUT THE TEST:

Without violating the NDA, I'll try to do my best to describe the experience and what you need to do to pass. I scored an 855 out of 900, but I have close to 2 years hands on experience and have done extensive reading on the topic (part of the reason is I just wanted to become more Linux proficient, most of it wasn't for the exam or even within the objectives).

First let me say, the test is very straight forward (not necessarily easy though). It maps to the objectives perfectly, and almost all of the questions I received were clearly written (unlike the Server+ test). One gripe I had with the test is that if you DO NOT use the BASH shell and you use the Csh or equivalent, you will be picking the wrong answers. I think in the objectives it states that you are to know the BASH shell, and the questions are written with this assumption. However, if you use a csh and they ask a question that has a valid response for the csh, you may be instinctively picking the wrong answer (even though it may be right for the csh).

My biggest gripe with the test though was that the suggested experience is severely misleading. I don't think 6 to 12 months experience is nearly enough to know what is needed for this test. I think if we were to say 6-12 months, we'd have to assume that you are actively using the OS 8 hours a day for a whole 6 months. From my experience however, Linux is often used in a server environment where its configuration is changed infrequently. I know a lot of Apache, MySql administrators who don't really do much until there is a problem or they need to make changes (which may not be often).

A lot of people who are bonafide administrators with a good amount of experience who don't intensively study for this test may be disappointed with the results. The material covered doesn't go far enough to test real proficiency in areas that some administrators work in (if you're an Apache, DNS or NIS expert, you really won't get extra points). The test is also likely to go beyond what some are normally used to. It's a very "old school" type test. If you look at the objectives, there is no material about getting wireless networking to work, running Wine, or what GUI tool does what. The test is complete command line system's administration, which goes deeper than many of us newcomers are used to (let's face it, we can use GUI tools for a lot of stuff nowadays). Do not underestimate it.

That being said, here are some helpful tips to pass:

Learn the following things, in order of importance
1) Know the location and purpose of every major config file.
2) Know all the major command-line tools and what they do (you may need to reference a few books to get full coverage here).
3) Know the more common switches for command line operations (don't beat yourself up about knowing the more obscure ones)
4) Know the major settings in the listed config files. You won't have to build a config file from scratch (remember, its multiple choice), but you should know what does what inside that config file.

If you are just learning Linux, and/or do not have any other IT experience or certifications... take a step back. Knowing your hardware and networking is a must and covers about 15% of the objectives. This is one of the more difficult tests to "fudge" your way through. Its simply too much to memorize, so you are going to have to actually spend time doing some of the things in the XK0-002 objectives. As mentioned, Testout is a great video instructional tool if you don't learn well from reading.

Use more than one source!!!! Reading a single book will not allow you to pass the test like with some other certifications. In fact, reading alone won't do it. You are probably going to have to set up VMware and do quite a bit of practicing on an actual command line. (I recommend using fedora core or SuSe).


Remember to actually READ the objectives (free download from comptia.org). You won't know what you haven't covered and how important each topic is without the objectives. Knowing what you need to know and how heavily weighted the area is makes a BIG difference.

Invest in practice test questions, or testing simulators. This is where you will find out what you really know and what you don't know. The questions at the end of the chapter's in your books help, but they are very poor preparation. After a practice test or so I realized I simply didn't understand the X windows configuration (I thought I did before hand though). Testing your knowledge is the best way to find out what you are weak in, and you don't want to find this out when you take the actual exam.

Good luck, I hope this helps!

This book is a fairly good introduction to the principles of Linux system administration. Someone with little or no Linux experience should be able to use this book and learn quite a lot on the subject. There are numerous examples, and the practical labs included are good as well.

However, here are two serious caveats:

1. This book did not prepare me adequately for the actual CompTIA Linux+ certification exam. When I took the exam, I found questions on the exam covering concepts that were either not covered in this book, or were covered very briefly. The test is much more detailed and in-depth than this book goes, so I do not recommend that someone taking the Linux+ test rely solely on this book as a study aid for the test.

2. The book is filled with errors. They are mainly typographical errors, but there are a few errors where the author has simply misstated some of the information. I sent a 3-page errata sheet to the publisher. Hopefully they will publish an errata page for this book -- if so, it will be on the following Web page: http://www.mhprofessional.com/?page=/mhp/categories/computing/content/errata.html. You should check the site from time to time to see if they have published an errata sheet for this volume. Absent the errata sheet, keep your eyes open for numerous errors (file names spelled wrong, commands misprinted, etc.), especially in the self-test sections.

Overall, it is a book worth reading to learn about Linux, but due to the errors and due to the fact that it does not adequately meet its stated purpose as a Linux+ certification test prep guide, I gave it only 3 stars.

The book is very well written. Bravo! Makes complex topics look simple. Clarity is genius. I thought DNS, DHCP and NIS was going to be tough to describe in a job interview. Whew.. luckily I read this book and nailed it. I'm not even sure which chapters sticks out the best because they're all written and laid out nicely. The boot process was written better than any that I've read. Broke it down into 3 phases with a nice flow diagram. RAID was explained so simply I wonder why other books didn't describe it like this. Sudo section.. light bulb turned on. Love this book!

I bought this book, expecting that it would teach me for the cert. It does more that that. It teaches me the essentials of linux and things that you might have learnt over experience. Event small pieces of skills put together forms a mountain. In the same way, the author has put things together in such a way that you would not have your heart filled with a feeling that you learnt for yet another certification exam, but you would have the real feeling of learning and playing with linux. The thing about knowledge and skills is to go to the foundational level, the higher your knowledge level the deeper you go into foundations. This book will help you do that in linux and if you feel that this review is bad, please feel free to contact me at shyaam (at) gmail (dot) com.

Bought this book because it had a high content (1000+ pgs), practice exams, and a test CD. Halfway through the book and I am already purchasing another Linux+ study guide because this one is flawed. Several practice exam questions do not match the given answers, there are *many* typos, alot of focus on general knowledge and not enough in depth review on probable exam topics per chapter.

I went with this book because it was the latest Linux+ study guide published, however I am going to purchase the Linux+ Study guide from Sybex as I had previously with my A+/Network+/Inet+ exams.

Do not let the large volume of this book fool you, alot of it is composed of basic knowledge which prepares you for the exam content. This book seems to be more orientated to the Beginner level user, one who has never touched Linux. If you are a intermediate-experienced Linux user, this book is not for you. If you are a beginner, I would definitely recommend getting a supplementary study guide to this book.

I've gone through 3 chapters of this book, and will be switching to a different one. There are enough errors both in the text and in the practice questions that I find it hard to trust what I read.

I have taken this book out of my library while waiting for a new Linux+ study guide, which is not the same person who wrote this one.

I read the first chapter and I have worked with Linux and Unix for many years and are familiar with both. It was interesting some of the topics that were mentioned but at issues were the chapter questions that I noticed had some errors and asked some information that was not discussed in the chapter. For example...

1) The first question asked which of the following are applications out of five choices (pick two). I noticed there was three choices and two for operating systems. There answer is that there are two OS and the rest of applications which was not the question asked.

2) There a command talked about listing processes called top. I have never used this command and the common way to do this is with the ps command with some flags. I tried the command top and it is hard to scroll down and look at of the processes running. I believe this is a not a standard command and do not know why he talked about this command.

3) There was a question asked what happens if during an install you need to download a driver or something and what can you do. The issue was that this was in very minor detailed talked in the chapter not as install but on using terminal. The answer was all of the above where one answer was not mentioned in this first chapeter.

After reading the first chapter, I was having bad feelings of this book and feel that it really needed a couple of more reviews to correct errors and missing information before releasing to the public. I also do not really like how the material is presented and that could be because of my experience with Linux...

I have read a few more chapters and some of the material is just review for me and some is also new. One thing I have been noticing is that he focuses on a few Linux versions and not the one I use (Ubuntu) and I am not sure if the test is based on the either SUSE or Fedora Linux or just general concepts since the Linux versions are different.

I have been noticing more errors in his questions and also asking questions about things he briefly mentioned in the chapter but the questions are more specific and were covered necessarily in the chapter. Some I reasoned out correctly since I have a Linux background and some is based on interpretation. In his treatment of the Vi editor, some of his statements are contrary to things that I have seen using Vi.

I think there are other books that this one which I do not recommend... I am just waiting for my Amazon order to be shipped since it is a new book. The other books that are already out there are not so good. I looked at the Passport edition and it was so small that it seemed like it only prepared you for the test without the basics (I believe this is a no no)...

I passed the certification exam a few weeks ago. The book was my main tool, it would have been impossible with out it. I installed 4 different server services several times: FTP, Web, Firewall and DNS directly from command line.For my practices I used Ubuntu Server 8.04 but that was a mistake, I should have used Fedora or Suse since both, author and Comptia, seem to prefer mature distributions. Do not make my mistake using Ubuntu. We all love it in desktop environments but it is not as well known as a server, go directly to Fedora , Suse or Debian.

Remember: this certification aims to administrators not final users, if you are a Linux guy with no experience in server services, command line or Unix/Linux architecture, you will have to make a good effort. This is the ideal book if you want a place to start. You will go from boot process to intrusion detection. Perfect and amazing. I would do it again.

This book covers a lot about Linux and has some great information to help someone study for the Linux+ exam. As others have noticed, I too have found a few typos. The book clearly wants to cover a lot of critical information about Linux and the exam, so certain sections are definitely lighter than others. I have not viewed the included CD yet, so cannot comment on its quality. If someone is looking to learn about Linux and is looking for a study guide for the Linux+ exam, this is a good start. I would caution readers who are also looking to use this book as a Linux reference book.

I usually buy Sybex books, but they didn't have one when I bought this. My mistake, and today it cost me the price of this book plus the $230 exam fee. Ugh. I knew while I was reading it that it wasn't very well written, and told my peers the same. Still, I thought the material would be close enough for me to pass (it wasn't). Bad omen - check out the wording and answer on the very first self-study test question at the end of the very first chapter. I found many spots in the book that were just not accurate.

This book includes a CD with practice study questions too, and an offer to download more from the web. I did, and used all of them to study. After all that, I was sure that I knew the material well enough to at least pass. I'm a 4-yr college grad, work as a SysAdmin (including Linux), I'm a good test-taker, and have passed my MCSE and Network+ exams. Nope - I could tell as I took the test that I was not prepared, and I'm just sick about it (I hate to fail).

Robb Tracy, if you read this, you should send me a refund. I'm either going to go for the LPI certification, or switch to the Sybex book to continue study for Linux+.