Product: 1118531744

The thing to do today with Linux+ books apparently is to develop ones that aren’t complete. Robb Tracy’s book and this book are both missing a good deal of information for the cert. Robb Tracy’s book however is missing a LOT MORE; also a good amount of information in Tracy’s book is just plain wrong (capabilities of a command, options, etc..). Since I read both of the popular cert guides, I’ll give my opinion on them both.

If you’re shopping for a book and you’re completely new to Linux I would start with Tracy’s book (yes even though it has a few things wrong). Tracy’s book seems catered to the beginner. Just be sure to do a man page of every command he gives which you should do with any book because you cannot rely on what they tell you for options to do know for a command; in Tracy’s case though you’re doing it because it might be one of the ones he got wrong.

If you’re not new to linux and have at least some experience, I would just buy this book and ignore Tracy’s book. I really want to say ignore Tracy’s book altogether but Roderick’s book is so dry, dull, and man page like that if you lack at least some introductory knowledge this book might kill you. I didn’t subtract any stars for that because, personally, I like that. I always see complaints about cert guides not being great for beginners because it didn’t explain things for well or something of the sort. Well waaaa. A cert guide is not a Dummies guide, they’re a guide to a certification.

The tests that come with this book are a joke. They don’t do anything for you except reinforce that you memorized what he said, not that you understand it enough it to take a real test; which again, is only an issue if you’re new. Don’t rely on this tests, go to LPICs website, they have links to other sites that have practice tests. Be warned that a lot of tests out there aren’t real, they aren’t actually material for this exam; which is why you shouldn’t go outside the resources at LPIC’s site. A lot of the websites, apps, and tests for purchase aren’t actually Linux+/LPIC-1. They are OLD LPIC-1 or current LPIC-2. One such test floating around that is labeled as Linux+/LPIC-1 has a ton of technical questions of Samba configuration; Samba isn’t on this exam.

The only reason I docked a star is because this book is missing information; not enough that you can’t still pass without a problem, but enough that you might be annoyed.

As a side note because I just remembered; Tracy’s book absolutely blows for LX0-102 (the second test), it is missing a ridiculous amount of information about the second test; enough so that if Tracy’s guide was your only book (and you’re somewhat new) you would fail the second test miserably.

If you care the digital content for this book includes the assessment test from the beginning of the book (to gauge if you’re already ready), a hundred or so flashcards, each end of chapter test, and around a 50 question test for both LX0-101 and LX0-102.
Rating: 4
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