Book/distribution recommendations

mbeaven

Any recommendations on a good general Linux book? I'll probably end up taking the Linux+ but I'd like to really learn the OS not just exam topics. Also what distrubution would you recommend to work on for the exam? I have Fedora and Mandrake. I had problems with Debian which make me think maybe it's the one I should be working with. Thanks.

timharpur

For any of the certs of I've done I always try to get my hands on a SYBEX study guide. I'm just starting into the LINUX+ study guide by them so I'm not sure yet how well it stands up, but if it's like the others it should be worth reading.

ajs1976

The Sybex study guide is a good book, but not for learning Linux. The topics are not covered in a logical order. For example, grep, less, and I think even cat are covered in the last couple of pages of the last chapter.

I'm using it to prepare for the Linux+, but I had a course on Linux first. for that class, we used a Course Technology book on Linux Administration. For learning Linux, a lot of people suggested Running Linux by O'reilly.

For a distibution, I stayed with Red Hat (now Fedora), because that is what we worked with in class and is used by a lot of people. Others like Mandrake, because it is supposed to be more (new) user friendly. Knoppix is also a good choice, because you can boot from a cd and play with it, without having to repartition a working computer.

mbeaven

Thanks for the input. I picked up Running Linux it seems pretty good thus far.