In the middle of the other stuff I've promised here, lemme get two things off my chest: my experiences with the Mike Meyers "Passport" series study guide to the CompTIA Security+ certification exam, and a late experience with Fedora 12.
The Meyers series Security+ guide that I picked up used for about 3$ was worth a little more than that, considering that it came with a CD that had two practice exams (Windows-only reader, though). But although it knocked out the cobwebs regarding a few familiarity issues with me, my impression was that the questions (and perhaps the direction of the exam itself, which I've not yet taken) were so obvious that (on a test based solely on the book) one could get 75% without reading the book at all. I've switched to the Greg White book from McGraw-Hill for the current test (201); I'll give an impression of that one when possible.
The other issue I need to note: when downloading Fedora 13, I realized that I'd been doing it on a box with no burner. So I USB2'd an outboard Iomega and chose Brasero and then... stopped in my tracks about 5 minutes later. What's the matter with this picture? No reboot. No requests to install stuff. No error messages. Brasero didn't balk. NOTHING WENT WRONG. I burned the F13 install DVD while doing two other things and not paying attention. PLUS I used the full-install version of the DVD (not the live DVD or CD) to upgrade without disk wipe and there were no problems there, either. Not like a few years back when I trashed at least two installs that way.
People, Fedora is starting to work like a Mac. I'm sure many of you already experienced this or simply wonder what I'm behind about, but my job forces me to use... other stuff from You-Know-Who. So I've never had a lot of time to do testing. Way back when, many OS maintainers on the Linux side were criticized for having an attitude toward users that slammed those who wanted things to work and set up easier. Well, they seem to be getting the point at the Fedora Project, or were never in need of the point in the first place. My compliments to all concerned.
Back to the Eric Raymond book as soon as I get time.