Certification Books

I used this book as one of my study resources for the Network+ certification exam. To be honest, I didn't do much studying from this text, I just read through it to get an overview of the subject matter, before getting into a more rigorous study routine.

Whether you are planning on taking the certification exam or not, this book is a fantastic read with all kinds of useful information on IT and Telecommunications Networking. Because it is intended to be a study guide, it is also laid out very well and gives enough depth to be interesting but is not overbearing.

If you are a home-enthusiast or a network professional, this book servers as a great desktop reference, and also looks pretty sweet wedged between all your other IT books. Trust me on this one.

This book, combined with Network+ 2005 Q&A, was my primary resource for Network+ certification prep. Prior to picking up this book, my knowledge of networking was virtually zero. Upon completion of this book, I was able to passed the Network+ certification exam first time out. This book is not an easy read, but contains all the information you will need to know to achieve certification. I recommend it highly.

This is not only a book but an encyclopedia,everything you need to know about networking is here" it should be called " the network dictionarry"

I am multi-certified and also teach networking technology. This book is a very good introduction to networking and very well organized and reasoned. It does have a few typos, but I have never seen a technical book that did not (and I am a technical editor as well).

This book is good prep for the exam. If you are a very experienced and trained IT pro (with perhaps two or three years under your belt) there are better choices, but if you are trying to enter the field with only home computing skills or desktop skills you cant go wrong with this book.

If you are brand new to the world of network administration this is the book for you. It covers everything IN DEPTH, and will give you enough knowledge to function as a Junior Network Admin. It will give you the answers to questions most other books will not. This book is more of a text book for Network Administration as well as a cert guide. For those who are looking for a more "refresher book" or have been in the field for awhile, I recommend something that gets more down to the necessities of the test. I found this book a long read and since I have been in the Networking field for well over 4 years I switched to the Sybex 4th. edition. I still use this book as a reference book for things I don't understand and for real life issues.

I am about half way through this book, and it is really easy to read and learn the material you need to pass the exam.

I have gone to school for the last two and a half years. This book covers information in such a clear way that I have learned more from it than from the textbooks I have read and the IT classes I have taken.

Recently passed the Net+ exam and using this book alone , i ll have to say this is the one!

I'm a mid-40s, blue-collar type undergoing career change. I'm taking computer classes to prepare for A+, Network+, Server+, and Security+ certification testings. The writing was intended for those with a bachelor degree level of education/comprehension. I have ISBN 0782144314 by Mark Minasi, and his writing is easy to follow (and humorous to break monotony of study/memorize/regurgitate). Others in my Network class who are struggling agree with me that the writing format is for IT intermediate level (or above) students. I ordered ISBN 061921743X by Tamara Dean. Her approach/presentation is easy to follow along. I've shown the book to my instructor and he has agreed to go with this text next semester.

While I agree with the previous reviewer that said there is more information than is needed to pass the exam, I don't see that as a bad thing. The author's stated intention, which he points out serveral times throughout the book, is to help the reader become a proficient network technician, not just pass the exam with the bare minimum understanding of the topics. That is why I gave this book a 5 star review. In addition to that, the writing style is clear and to the point. The explanations are very easy to understand, especially the chapter on IP subnetting. I used to bang my head against the wall trying to figure out the complexities of subnetting, but, in a few short pages in this book, Shimonski has cleared up all of my frustrations with this particular subject. I also very much liked the chapter on wireless technologies and the security issuses surrounding wireless access, after reading it, I had the confidence I needed to set up a secure wireless network, with a firewall, for my home based PC repair business.

I plan on taking my Network+ Cert exam by the end of December, which will give me enough time to re-read this excellent book again from cover to cover. That coupled with my previous A+ certification, should allow me to pass my exam with flying colors.

Thank you to Robert Shimonski for writing this excellent certification guide.

I used this book to study for the exam. The explanations on this book is very good. The only fault on this book is the level of the questions. The questions on this book are very weak compared with the real exam. So, keep in mind that to think to take the exam, you will need to have a score upper than 90% on the test of the book, to have a chance to pass on the real exam. I bought the SelfTest too and there is the same problem with the questions. But, the key is: you need to understand the concepts behind the questions. If you understand that, you will not have problems to pass on the exam.

I had take the test last week and a I pass on the exam with 82% score. To study I use this book and the Self Test Software.

Read this book - took the Beta exam failed by 6 wrong answers. Second attempt passed - thanks now an OCP Certified. The explanations are good. Need more explanation, the new feature and their effectiveness on the 9i with respect to performance tuning. This would have helped use this book for standard reference for performance tuning 9i. I don't like to keep lot of books around. Now I have to get rid of this and get a book for 9i tuning reference purposes.

I used this book to study for the Performance Tuning Exam. This book covers all the objectives of the exam in much more organized way. The chapters reflect the contents of the checklist designed by oracle. Study the chapters carefully before taking the practice exams. Concerning the practices exam itself, it has some mistakes. Some of the answers to the questions are wrong but if you understand the material you will notice those mistakes. Or if you want to clear any doubt you can also check the oracle online manual.
On the exam, expect a lot of questions concerning the views, latch contentions, and some initializations parameters.
My suggestion to you is if you want to maximize your chance you can buy the sybex study guide which is also good. Both books are good for the exam except that I found the Oracle press book more organized. I will definitely recommend them if you are planning to take the performance tuning exam.

My purpose was to pass the exam and I have done it using this book but also the Sybex book by J. Johnson.
Both of them are very good books and are complementary.

Pros:
- very well structured and very clear
- the exam-based questions are representative
- the level of detail for package procedures is good

Cons:
- some answers to exam questions I had can't be found in the book
- there are typing mistakes in capital letters commands

My advice:
- have a good understanding of Oracle views. I had between 10 and 15 questions relating to views.
- use both books to be well prepared. This exam is quite difficult.

I bought the Sybex book. One of my colleagues bought this Oracle Press book. I read both and passed the test with plenty to spare. For the Oracle9i Performance Tuning Exam, I strongly recommend Oracle Press over Sybex. If you are buying just one, get the Oracle Press book. In particular, the Oracle Press sample tests and CD-ROM tests are much closer to the actual exam than Sybex.

Overall the book was a good read and reference even though the exam is now at a 2007 level. The CD in the exam question book had some whopper wrong questions in it. There is 730+ questions in there and I found at least a dozen that the answer was wrong on. There is good study material here for the most part. It helped me pass the test on June 30th 2008.

After reading both the pros and cons about this set of books I pull the trigger to buy it. Two books for about only $25 with free shipping and no tax count me in.

Pros:
It uses the [...] test engine which is cool because you can customize the amount of questions and be able to pick the type of questions you would like and questions you missed too. This comes very handle to work with the 700+ questions they out on the question book.

I also like the fact that each book it came with the CD that has the test measueup software and the both .PDF version of the books too.

Cons:
The question book does lack explanation... that is why the 2nd book comes in very handle. It give you better understand of the terms and all. If you can score 100% on this 700+ question like three time I think you will do fine on the CompTIA Security+ test.

Good Luck!

Practice questions are the most realistic of any that I've seen, however the explanations if you get the questions wrong are absolutely useless. They simply tell you the answer, with no indication why. So don't use the practice questions as a learning tool, just as an pre-exam test.

Book was a thorough source of information that was not covered in the Sybex Security + book that I purchased. I would recommend getting that book as well.

*******review update******* After taking the exam, the questions were nothing like the exam, I wish I could modify my 4 starts to 1 star. The actual exam has now been updated, and this practice exam is based on a different version of this certification. Please don't buy this.

I used this book along with books with from Syngress (Security + Study Guide and DVD Training System), McGraw-Hill (Security+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide), and Sybex (CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-101 (Hardcover))and passed the exam with a score of 780. This book contained 773 practice questions that more close to the actual exam than any other study guide. The bottom line is that the more practice questions you are exposed to, the better off you are going to be.

Firstly, let me state it for anyone who is not familiar with exam cram books, this book is an abridged publication. It will not cut it as a primary learning tool in any respects. This in itself is a weakness, but generally with exam cram books this is expected.

With that in mind, I will try to give a fair rating to this book. I'll break it into two parts 1) Study guide & 2) test booklet

STUDY GUIDE -
A long time ago, I used an exam cram book to help me with the network+ exam. It did the job perfectly. The security+ test, however, is considered a mile wide and an inch deep. This little study guide simply doesn't have enough in it to cover ALL of the material (no book usually does, but the abridged format should've allowed it to), nor does it go enough into detail to sufficiently explain the topics it does cover the information. I know the book is abridged, but the subject matter is abridged to begin with. Instead of a "mile wide and an inch deep", this book is 3/4 of a mile wide and a half inch deep. To me, that doesn't make for a great source for even "cramming". I say this because the test involves actually understanding the materials rather than memorizing facts. I think it comes up short in this respect.

Question Book-
The book full of questions also gave some mixed results. It did a good job of providing unique questions for the entire subject matter of the test. I did not like how it announced what it was specifically asking a question about before it asked it. This happened A LOT. For instance before it started asking questions about "security policy", this is how it read:

4.5.2.1 SECURITY POLICY
Which of the following involves a broad policy set forth by management on how security should be handled?
a) Password policy
b) Security Policy
c) Procedures
d) Guidelines

You know exactly what the answer will be, long before finishing the question. It was even worse when this type of question was the ONLY question for the topic. That doesn't do you any good.

My second gripe was the accuracy of the answers. This was the third set of books I read on the subject, and some answers seemed to clash with what I read in the other books. Some parts did more to confuse me (due to the contradictory nature) than actually help me. Considering the other books I've read were Shon Harris' CISSP book and the security+ book by Greg White, I am going to have to guess that this was the book in error. Now don't get me wrong 90% of it was spot on accurate... so it did a decent job... but 5% was filled with "poor questions" where the questions were ambiguous, poorly worded or had grammar issues that were difficult to work through. An extra 5% were apparently wrong or contradictory to other information.

In conclusion, I'd say the books were moderately helpful in the end, but overall leave a lot to be desired. I would not rely on these books as the primary factor in passing the test. I think as a primary study guide you may want to use Security+ by gregory white, as well as CISSP all in one by Shon Harris (covers more material than needed for this test, but I'd say 80% overlaps with Security+). Whatever one book didn't cover, the other did. They are very accurate and thorough sources of information and are extremely good in helping people understand the material.

ABOUT THE TEST:

While people say that Security+ is an "entry level" security certification, people need to realize this isn't an entry level category. Security+ requires users to have a great deal of experience/knoweledge in the IT field, otherwise you probably will fail. I was very suprised when I started studying for this test. It covers a large spectrum of technology and applications and also goes enough into detail that you have to actually know and understand the technology and procedures involved. I have used this test as a steping stone for the CISSP (there is a LOT of overlapping), and I think it is well worth the effort.

Who needs to take this test? Well I'd reccommend it before taking the MCSE (it gives you credit towards a MCSE/MCSA requirement. It is also a great way to prepare towards a CISSP, the most accepted security certification. Really, it is like a more reasonable form of the CISSP being that it is widely available at testing centers and costs far less to take the test. I think this certification is dragged down because of the "easy" reputation of A+ and Network+, which truly are "entry level" tests. Anyone who wants to show security competence should take this test..

Having just passed the CCDA DESIGN exam 640-861 and CCDP ARCH exam 642-871 within the period of one week, I found this book to be one of the more useful study tools. The ARCH exam is really an extension of the DESIGH exam...in fact the two tests share some of the same knowledge, so it's best to take them consecutively to cut down on your study time. The Flash Cards in this book relate directly to the Quick Reference Sheets and these Sheets are probably the most outstanding feature of this book. They do a great job of summarizing most of what you need to know to pass this exam. The study questions were great, too, at filling in small details that you will see on the exam. I want to stress that this was not the only study tool I used, but this book was outstanding for final test preparation. Highly recommended.

All in all I found this to be a good supplement to my other CCDA study material. It particularly was useful to skim though the cards prior to reading that topic (from another source) and then really quizzing yourself after finishing the chapter.

The quiz engine had a few mistakes but overall I found it quite useful.

However, when I installed the flash cards on my Sony Clie TH-55 it caused a fatal memory error that required a hard reset! It was a painful loss of data! After sending my clie back to Sony, they certified it OK, and when I tried to install the cards (a 2nd and 3rd time) it crashed again! Acckk!! I'm sure this is not common but back up your PDA before installing it!!!

I rate it 3 stars only because I bought it so I could study on the train with my PDA, and sadly cannot do so. (would be a 4 otherwise)

As a CCSI that teaches the DESGN course for the CCDA, I highly recommend this resource. It definitely gives students an edge going into the exam. It is very Exam-centric.

CCDA/CCDP Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack won't teach you the concepts of network design, so it can't be compared to and won't replace a study guide. The only purpose of this book is to help you in finding weak areas and providing a summarization of all exam topics to aid you in your study.

I used it to prepare for the CCDA exam after reading the CCDA Self-Study Guide and Top-Down Network Design book. It served as a great preparation tool, especially the quick reference sheets which provided comprehensive information on all relevant topics. A little buggy but useful nonetheless were the Flash cards, they helped to memorize small but important facts which proved very useful during the exam. Without this book it would have been much harder to pass.

I'm really looking forward to use it throughout my CCDP study!

CCDA/CCDP Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack by Anthony Sequeira and Kevin Wallace (Cisco Press 2004) delivers on what it promises: solid final preparation materials for the CCDA (DESIGN 640-861) and CCDP (ARCH 642-871) exams. If you have studied the basic exam material for these exams you are ready to burn in your knowledge using this book. For the CCDA, preliminary preparations means reading the CCDA Exam Certification Guide and/or the CCDA Self Study book for the DESIGN topics. Both of these are now available from Cisco Press. Unfortunately, there are no corresponding books for the ARCH topics, so you need to take a more creative course, such as perusing the SRND guides on Cisco's website for topics such as storage, wireless, VPN, content, and telephony, while keeping the exam objectives (listed on Cisco's website) in the back of your mind. Overall, I would rate this book a 5 (out of 5), with the strong caveat that it will be difficult to pass the exams unless you do a significant amount of outside research, especially in the case of CCDP ARCH.

In making the design track more relevant to the current networking scene, Cisco replaced (in 2003) the old CCDA course with one that focused much more on cogent design practices, such as identifying the technical and business goals and constraints put forth in Priscilla Oppenheimer's Top Down Network Design. They also dropped old technologies like IPX and AppleTalk and replaced these rarely used protocols with forward-looking material like IP telephony, modern security issues like IP spoofing and DDoS mitigation, and the enterprise composite network model, which further breaks down the familiar access, distribution, and core layers into an enterprise campus (which includes submodules for network management and the server), an enterprise edge (with separate internet connectivity and e-commerce modules, along with a remote access and WAN module), and a service provider edge.

Similarly, the CCDP ARCH course was upgraded (also in 2003), with a deeper focus on all of the above areas, and a much deeper treatment of QoS options for voice and data, specifics on multicast features such as sparse and dense mode operations and shared versus source distribution trees, details on the CiscoWorks network management tools including LAN Management Services and Routed WAN Management System, content caching, routing and switching, and storage essentials including NAS and SAN. In most cases the ARCH course drills deeper than the DESIGN course; in some, such as IP telephony, the DESIGN course seems to deal with the lower level issues (such as tip and ring) while ARCH deals with applications (such as Call Manager configurations including single-site, multisite, and clustering over the WAN).

The examples in CCDA/CCDP Flash Cards and Exam Practice Pack are very easy to understand and the flash cards follow the quick reference sheets quite faithfully. The illustrations are excellent and the practice questions (available on the accompanying CD-ROM) are highly relevant. The authors have delivered exactly what should be expected for this type of book; they are both certified Cisco Systems instructors with KnowledgeNet and clearly know their stuff.

By the time you're acing all the topics in the flash card book (when preparing for CCDP, I went back over CCDA), you're ready to make an educated guess on anything that isn't obvious. There were still a few surprises in the exam but this book definitely helped me muddle through. I would assume the CCDP ARCH will be an easier nut to crack when Cisco Press releases an exam certification guide, currently slated for November 2004.

Once again the CIW Bibles are worth the price! Everything you need to get you through the test and pass.
Thanks a ton

After being unimpressed with some of the stale CIW material
available, I was pleasantly surprised with the CIW E-Commerce
Bible.

The book is well suited to self-study, it treats the material
in depth, and yet weaves in exercises and labs to keep you
interested. The labs give you a reasonably "hands-on" feel
for the material. You're expected to have a Windows 2000
Professional or Windows 98 PC on the net for the labs.

The book comes with a Boson practice exam and a CD
with various packages. My only gripe is that the three were
not as well integrated as I would have liked. The practice
exams weren't great, but after taking and passing the CIW
test, I'd have to say they are as good as the real thing.
It's important to learn the CIW exam way of thinking, which does
not necessarily match the real world.

The packages on the CD did not match what the book expected.
For example, it's not necessary to have Winzip to unzip the
E-business software on the CD, but the book believes it is.
The Apache source code package on the CD won't install,
but you can download it from apache.org. The errata sheet atThe book did the job for me. After a read-through, the labs,
and the practice exams, I passed with 88%.

This book delivered me an 84% pass in the exam through self-paced study.
This was the only resource I used other than the Internet.

An excellent feature of this book is that it is crammed full of real e-commerce applications that allows you to simulate an online business to get the hang of what online commerce is all about.
You will learn about :
Creating online catalogues
Shopping carts
Shipping scenarios
Payment models

These are all essential elements that have to be experienced from the other side to comprehend how a successful online store should be constructed.

The exam question-testing engine included in the CD is the best I have come across.
To guarantee maximum success in passing the exam and or comprehending E-commerce principles make sure you follow the authors "How to use this book section".

This publication will feature in a prominent position on my bookcase as a comprehensive companion "oracle" to all real world E-Commerce matters for some years to come.

First of all let me congratulate you for your efforts in becoming an Certified E-Commerce professional, before writting this review I thought about this book a lot, I have to tell you that I read it from cover to cover and here are my thoughts: This book is extremely long, it talks about issues that you will not get on the exam nor they will be applied in real life, the test engine to my surprise had many, many errors, they were questions that will contradict themselves or sometimes you will find 2 correct answers when the test engine was only asking for one, futhermore, some questions had the wrong answer or were asked with insufficient information, bottom line it made it more confusing. It would mixed terms like EDI, SET and SSL.

Did I pass? yes, some questions in the test were addressed in the book, I also used online examcrams and free tests. You can pass the test with this book, but I think there room for improvement. Unfortunately, I cannot recommed this book, the most important chapter Security was left almost at the end, the explanation for symmetric and asymmetric encryption were very brief and doesn't explain it in a way you can understand it easily, also one of the key subjects for e-commerce today is security, which the book left for the end (when you are tired and your concentration is not at its peak) this makes it a lot more difficult. I wouldn't rely on the test engine at all, rather I will look for a more subject comprehensive and to-the-point text. I hope this comment might help in your search for an e-commerce text book and good luck!

This is the only book I used to study for the E-commerce exam and I passed with an 85 percent. I think it is very adequate for the exam, but perhaps has some extra material (like Actinic Businees and so forth) that you do not need to know.

This book can be a bit confusing, so I recommend that you do all the questions in the book and also all the practice questions on the CD.

Here's what I did: the two nights before the exam, I reviewed every single chapter's pre-test as well as the chapter reviews and the questions at the end of the chapter. I also read all of the exam tips in each chapter (these are life savers for the exam). Make sure you do this!

The night before the exam I took three out of four tests from the CD. I recommend if you have the time and are confused to do all these tests and to go over them an additional time. This process will help you focus on the priorities for the exam. Best of luck on the exam!

I have over 10 years experience as a PC tech, but am not yet certified. I recently purchased A+ cert core exam, and it is clear and concise. The author gets right to the point and covers the information without playing trivia games.

I passed the A+ Core test with a 95. This book was a lot of fun to read. The book answered a lot of question about how and why things are the way they are with computers. There is nothing on Networking. Which is sad. But the book is very solid.

Absolutely the best book out there to ace the A+ exams. I have a collection of six different A+ study guides and I found myself always referring back to the Accelerated A+ study guide for better explanation. After a while this book was all I was reading. Come to find out this book was all I needed to not just pass but ace the A+ certification exam. If you want a book that explains it to you like it is with out putting you to sleep and without skipping over vital info this is the book to get. It starts from the ground up and takes you all the way to the advanced material. Most importantly it does it with out losing you. I felt like an expert after this book. Accelerated A+ Study Guide for both DOS/Windows and Core exam is literally all you need.

Currently I hold an MCSE, MCP+I and MCT. I've been in the industry for about 15 years and for the last 2 years have owned my own small consulting firm. I wanted to take the A+ because I never had and thought I should.

This book was great for getting to the point without bogging you down in the tedium. A little simplistic at points, it made sure that you had the basics that you would need to pass the test. I actually bought the Exam Prep/Exam Cram books for this test. I only read about 4 pages of the Exam Prep before I was completely bored.

I passed this test with a 93% and I attribute it mostly to the organization of this book.

I used this book and also bought the CD-ROM Practice test from Total Seminars. I scored a 95 on the Core Exam after reading the book twice and using the practice test's. I would recommend this book to any one that want's an inexpensive resource to study for the A+ Exam. This book is also a good reference for your book shelf. It explains topics clearly and completely. I will take the Dos/Windows test soon. I am using the companion book to this one to study for it and I am confidient that I will do well. Get these books and the CD-ROM practice test's.The CD-Rom can be ordered from Total Seminars. It is worth the money.

This book follows the authors history of writing solid books about db2. This book gets you about 80% of the way - the other 20% is hands on work and personal determination.

Good work!

This is a great study guide. It's very helpful to the exam. Also, it is a good learning material as well.

I appeared today for my exam and felt like i was hit by storm after carefully reading this book thrice. I certainly agree its a very good resource for understanding concept, but not completely informative to clear the exam. I would rather want to say that the questions i appeared for were not the the typical ones, rather had some tough tone to it. Whichever way, my advise would be carry few other valuable resources and try practicing as much as possible before your actual test.

At first I was using a Study Guide given from the IBM website and was caught off guard with topics I haven't seen before when I took the online test exam. After seeing and purchasing this book... WOW! It had it all. I would not have passed the 730 exam without it. Buy it now if you need to pass the fundamentals exam.

This was the main resource I used to pass the certification. For a technical book it remains quite readable. Because the author was also involved in writing the exam, if you study diligently then you will not be caught with your pants down when taking the actual test. It's worth every penny.

Out of date, old. Good if all you want is a discussion of the certification process. I highly recommend Ian K. Fisher's "How to Start a Career in Information Technology".

Excellent guide for career changers -- detailed, informative and well written.

A career in IT (if you want to be successful) requires a great deal of your personal time to study new technologies, or even a new programming language (or even a new version of programming language). I have worked with a lot of entry level IT individuals and the drop-out rate is far more than any other position in our company (retail/distributor). I think I understand why these people are failing and returning to their old careers. That is because they have dreamt of landing the entry-level Administrator, or web developer role from the get go. In the IT community there is a great deal of Mentor/Student relationships in companies. A lot of entry-level people are not willing to take direction from individuals that may be many years younger than them, or they have no college education. The few entry-level individuals that have survived and thrived came into the company with a willing to learn, take direction, and honesty with their expectations. In addition, they studied when they went home and took a REAL personal interest in the details of their job. After a few years on mentoring they were more than ready for administration.

This book far exceeded my expectations. Clear, concise information on on what you need to know if you are looking for a job in IT. Also, several suggestions for resources (text and on-line) that are very useful.

I picked this book up because I've just started my studies in IT and I was curious to know what careers there were in the field. This book gave me a nice overview, and focused my energies. I'm not saying what aspect of IT interests me most. :)
The book discusses five central aspects of IT careers: programming, networking, support, databases, and Internet-related stuff. Further, the book is detailed and describes the different areas of IT in-depth, and gives extensive resources for further reading. I actually read this book in one day. It was captivating.

Great book, but the CD-ROM didn't come with it for some reason... slightly disapointed but will be able to read the html version online if I really need to.

The only reason I gave this book three stars is that most of this info regards GNU/Linux systems that are running a 2.2 kernel. The book points out in its text that the 2.4 kernel is upcoming. As I write this, the 2.4 kernel has been around for years now, and the 2.6 kernel (non-testing) is on its way. Likewise, some non-kernel material is also *completely outdated* (sound card configuration and NFS spring to mind). This book doesn't even mention kudzu, which is the bread & butter of RedHat, Knoppix, Mandrake, etc. Another way to put this: if kudzu can't autoconfigure your ISA hardware, this book may help.

However, the material in this book which is still relevent is worthwhile. If the author releases an updated edition, I'd be very tempted to buy it.

I've read (not just scanned) about 15 Linux reference books of varying depth and direction. Rute is the best. If you can have only one or simply can't live knowing you don't have the definitive guide then you must grab a copy of RUTE. Check out the TOC and Preface for an idea of why I'm so enthused. Briefly, let me just say that topics covered (many and well) are each treated with respect (at least a paragraph of text, not just usage summaries that parrot the man pages) and obviously were learned in the field, not from other books. There are other reasons, but I leave them for you to discover. ENJOY.

The best Linux book, period.

Theis title was chosen as the textbook for an introductory class on Linux. After several weeks the class concluded it was not a good choice for an introductory text. Although the book contains a wealth of information the book lacks any ordered teaching structure which a student can build on.