This Hardcover Book item from McGraw-Hill Osborne Media was reviewed on 7-Nov-2008.
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1) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 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.
¤ 2) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 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!
¤ 3) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 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.¤ 4) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 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.¤ 5) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 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.¤ 6) Hardcover Book Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides) by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. The most exam-focused CompTIA Linux+ study guide available This fully integrated study system delivers trusted and up-to-date coverage of the newly revised CompTIA Linux+ certification exam. Featuring more than 200 review questions, step-by-step exercises, and in-depth explanations, this is the only study guide to include platform-independent practice exams. The CD-ROM contains sample questions, video training, and more. ¤Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 5-Dec-2008, 007148874X9780071488747, 4X0-150-430-300-880-9X0-871-8 
Linux+ Certification Study Guide (Certification Study Guides), Book, Image © McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
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