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And grab yourself a copy of the Rute User's Guide http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/

If you want to pass your exam and learn about linux I would suggest you take a look at RUTE. You can get your dead tree version here

If you want to pass your exam and learn about linux I would suggest you take a look at RUTE. You can get your dead tree version here

Install at home, and download the Rute User's Guide.

I took some courses from the O'Reilley Learning Lab and consider it a very large waste of the money. I was disappointed in the course material, which was often contradictory, outdated, and sometimes just plain wrong. The certificate I got wasn't even worth framing. I suppose if you are starting from zero it might be useful, but there are far better (and free) lessons and tutorials, and plenty of forums and newsgroups for newbies if you need help, not to mention your local Linux user's group.

A Knoppix CD

This is the original live CD. Pop it into any reasonably modern PC and reboot to experience Linux without installation hassles. It's horribly slow but does give you a decent start.

The Linux Professional Institute lpi-101 Objectives.

This is what you have to learn to just start out on Linux admin. Skip the hardware stuff and start out at Objective 103. Go back to the hardware lessons after you are more confident.

The RUTE book

This is by far the best book for the root user. It's in serious need of a second edition, but it's 600 pages of good solid stuff

Gentoo

Once you have got a bit of experience with Linux this is the distribution to go for.
The install manual is a lesson all of its own!

Don't waste your employers money on courses which are simply not necessary provided you can read and understand English, and have sufficient self disipline to do the reading. The money would be much better spent getting a small laptop, and giving it to you once you have an LPI certificate or two.

Personally I got started out with Linux by getting Linux: The Complete Reference 4th ed[1] (it has since been updated). Lots of useful info, explained clearly, without talking down at you.

I also found Essential System Administration (Frisch pub:O'Reilly) to be great for learning how to do stuff, and to use as a general reference

RUTE is also worth a read, and is available online. and there is always the man pages and tldp

LINUX: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition

From the Introduction:
This book covers GNU/LINUX system administration, for popular distributions like RedHat and Debian, as a tutorial for new users and a reference for advanced administrators. It aims to give concise, thorough explanations and practical examples of each aspect of a UNIX system. Anyone who wants a comprehensive text on (what is commercially called) ``LINUX'' need look no further--there is little that is not covered here.

What is this then?

Here are some good places for newbies to start with Linux...

Hope this helps!