Best book and distro to use?

I need to get Linux+ certified by the end of December. I've been in the IT field for about 8 years and have experience with Microsoft and some Cisco products. As far as Linux, i've done installations of fedora core, red hat, and played around with Auditor distro just a few times. Overall experience would be very minimal.

What is the best book suggested to study for Linux+?

What is the best distro or OS to use as far as Linux+ test questions?

Any other tips or suggestions would help greatly! Thank you!

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fayo79

Ok after reading a few more posts...it seems like the general consensus is Fedora. Sorry for posting such a redundant topic.

If anyone can share information on what book to use, that would be great! Any other info or pointers are always welcome of course!

Thanks again.

KGhaleon

I can't help you, though if you want to jump right in you could always try Knoppix, which allows you to boot directly into a Linux distro. It might be good if you don't have disk space. Otherwise, I've enjoyed using Ubuntu and Mandrake. A lot of people start with Redhat.

KG

sprkymrk

There are tech notes and some recommended books here in case you haven't checked them out yet:

http://www.techexams.net/co_linuxplus.shtml

As you study and move toward certification we'd appreciate it if you could post your own reviews of training material you used to help out others like yourself persuing Linux+ but with minimal Linux experience. One thing I can recommend is Thompson Course Technology LabSim for Linux+:

http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?category=Operating%20Systems&subcategory=Linux&isbn=1-4188-3525-0

And though I have never seen the Linux+ CBT's specifically, I do have several other CBTNuggets and they are all pretty good:

http://www.cbtnuggets.com/webapp/product?id=44

marc1234

I have not taken the Linux+ test but have been using Linux for quite a while. I Would highly recomend Centos, It's basicly an open source verison of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux, very stable and fully conforms to any RPM, Red had system.

It is also binary identical to RHEL so all exampls will work if you were studing for the the Red hat tests.

Slowhand

If you have little experience with Linux, I'd say get yourself the Linux+ TestOut course. It did wonders for me, and I'd had minimal Linux experience. I got put through my paces at work, being handed every damn Linux/Unix project they had, once I began learning, so that helped, but the TestOut was a lifesaver. It comes with sims, videos, in-depth demonstrations, and quizzes. (Not to mention handy study sheets you can print out, that cover all the topics they talked about, and a few they didn't.)

Aside from that, I also read up using the Sybex Linux+ book, and I did LOTS of little projects using Fedora Core 5 and Virtual PC. Fedora can be a little quirky, so just install it and run it in command-line mode, and you'll be fine. (Not a bad way to practice installs, by the way, figuring out how to install and run in INIT 3, and make sure it all works under Virtual PC.)

fayo79

Nice, alot of good info! Thank you!

sharptech

Slowhand wrote:

If you have little experience with Linux, I'd say get yourself the Linux+ TestOut course.

Would this book posted http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?category=Operating%20Systems&subcategory=Linux&isbn=1-4188-3525-0

be a good way to study as well. Testout CD is $500. A little pricey right now. Thanks.

Robhogg

It might also be worth having some practice with one of the Debian-based distros as well (perhaps Ubuntu), as there are some questions about .deb-package management.

Rob

Slowhand

Robhogg wrote:

It might also be worth having some practice with one of the Debian-based distros as well (perhaps Ubuntu), as there are some questions about .deb-package management.

Rob

If you're studying for Linux+, steer clear of the "modified" distros, and stick with the three they focus on. Red Hat is one, Debian is another, and Slackware is the third. This is also true for the LPI exams, where they talk about RPMs versus the Debian package manager (as Robhogg mentioned), and installing from source on Slackware. Given, they do discuss SuSE a little bit, since it's one of the predominant RPM-based distros, aside from Red Hat, but it's the basic three they really ask you about.

sprkymrk

sharptech wrote:

Slowhand wrote:

If you have little experience with Linux, I'd say get yourself the Linux+ TestOut course.

Would this book posted http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?category=Operating%20Systems&subcategory=Linux&isbn=1-4188-3525-0

be a good way to study as well. Testout CD is $500. A little pricey right now. Thanks.

Sorry I didn't see your post earlier sharptech, but yes, that LabSim is real good for beginners, especially for the price. I only have the CD with the videos/sims, and the guy teaching is pretty good. He makes a few comments about Windows OS that tells me he hasn't used it much since the W98 days, but other than that I recommend the product as good intro material at a great price.