The exercises are bland, and definitely doesn't even begin to properly cover linux. almost treats linux as a step child. give it a cookie just because its here and i dont want to hear its supporters cry. it also seems to treat the distribution fedora as the alpha and omega of linux. it does vaguely mention there are others, but just barely and easy to miss.

the good points are, its almost idiot proof. i say almost, because, well, most people still couldn't get the ideas given in this book. the subjects are decently explained, and all exercises are incrementally stepped through. how tough is it to follow this?

type dir /s into command prompt to see a listing of the files in your current directory. some how, people manage to mangle that. its literally like, step one leads directly to step two, just type what you see on page, its done. maybe that was the problem it babied them too much, lord help us if we are required to think for ourselves.

Thank goodness my teacher Mr. BOz was there to clear the fuzzy parts of it, and actually understand the in depth workings (mostly in the linux areas). *shameless plug to praise him*

This book is probably better for one grade under. like the class where the teacher slowly says "This is a computer!" *hears ooos and ahhs from crowd* "press this button to turn it on!* *even more ooos and ahhs*.

Still, this is a good book to have for reference, just don't expect to be enthralled to learn.