Linux+ Study Guide: Exam XK0-002

I found this book to be, overall, very good preparation material. It did manage to cover material on all levels and went into sufficient detail for most areas. Smith's writing was pretty clear in most areas, although I found some explanations to be a little too terse though (they lacked the needed detail). While it covered a vast majority of the subject relatively well, there were areas where it did not adequately prepare for the test. 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 absolutely everything in the exam objectives to the fullest extent. I also happened to read Robb Tracy's Linux+ book in addition to this one. I'd say that this Sybex book is less geared to novices than Robb Tracy's book. I think it is assumed that you already know a bit more about the operating system. Even so, this is still at heart only a slightly more advanced "intro to Linux" book. It spends a lot of time with background explanations and conceptual understanding - something I don't really feel you need for this test. You need to know how to operate commands and tools. Not to mention, you should already have some knowledge of the how and why before even starting to study. Either way, it still does a reasonably good job of giving you the information you need to know for the exam. 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. This is just what you need for the Linux+ exam. The scope of this 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. I think if you were to pair the exam cram book with Smith's Sybex book it would give you an excellent chance of passing. 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

I am fully satisfied with the book. It fully fill up my expectations. Hence I recommend to study also another sources such as The Linux Documentation Project, Distributions sites and so on. It is impossible to include knowledge for CompTia Linux+ exam only to one simple book.

Sybex is one of the most requested and relied on publishers when it comes to certification exams. This book covers XK0-002, the most recent Linux+ xam. One word of warning, do not rely on just one book to pass the exam. Study well, combine this study guide with more books covering systems administration on Linux and you will be good to go. The book covers such topics as: Installation, commands, user management, disk management, package and process management, security, networking, hardware and documentation. Again, this is a study guide. If you need to review some topics in detail, supplement this material with live OS exercises and reference books. Kudos to Roderick W. Smith on this solid study guide!

Last April I bought this book along with Linux+ 2005 by Jason Eckert to pass the Linux+ exam. I read both books twice over a 4 month period and passed the exam the first time. I am an MCSE and CCNA with minimal Unix/Linux experience, and I was pleased with the background the books provided for the test questions. For me, both books were worth the money and I keep them handy as reference material.

Currently I'm on the sixth chapter of this book and so far so good. For those who are pursuing CompTIA's Linux+ certification I believe, according to CompTIA, that this book will provide all the help and resources that you need to pass the exam. One qualm though, grammatical errors and a few incorrect verbage.It would have been best that they were omitted. The author uses,"however," and, "though," so much and incorrectly that it makes reading difficult and not very enjoyable. So far I believe his, "however," means, "for example," you can try that and see if it helps, I have not figured out, "though" as yet. "However," if you can get around these quirks, then you'll be rewarded to know that this book is complete for the Linux+ certification and very informative, "though."