I have been researching and researching on what schools are the best for training in ethical hacking or pentesting  and have still came up empty. I mean which one is better to have i know some parts are the same but then you have offensive security with their version of pentesting with back track. Any info on this would help especially if you have completed some of these certs

I am just looking to expand my areas I have a degree in networking and currently work in that field just trying to get some ideas on what next i heard that the OffSec was tough i do have some knowledge of linux not as much as i would like to

I have been using Ubuntu/Mint Linux as my primary OS(es) for almost 2 years but don't feel like I truly know Linux since most of what I use is accessed through the graphical interface.  What commands and skills would you suggest I look into?  I was thinking of getting some books for the Comptia Linux+ cert, since that gets 3 certs for the price of one.  do you think that would help me learn best?

I'm not that familiar with the Linux+ certification, but I can tell you that Linux is really pretty easy to learn once you get your hands dirty a bit. My advice would be to stop relying on the GUI for day-to-day maintenance of your destkop. If you need to update some software, don't use the graphical aptitude repositories, see what you can do on the command line. It may take longer, but you'll get more comfortable with the command line over time, and eventually it becomes faster to use the command line for a lot of things.

Another thing you can do, turn off automatic log rotation and write your own script to do this. This is on a junior sysadmin level of task, so its definitely doable. In fact, google will likely spoonfeed you pretty much whatever you need. But, this is a great exercise to teach yourself shell scripting. You will be amazed at how quickly you'll be able to string a bunch of commands together to accomplish a single task once you become somewhat proficient at shell scripting, because that's basically all you're doing with a shell script.

Another idea to learn command line. Build a VM without installing Gnome or KDE. Then set up an LAMP server on it. You don't have to actually do anything in depth with html/mysql/php. Just get a very rudimentary website setup. You'll learn a lot about the command line doing this.

Feel free to PM me if you need anything.

I am getting a new computer (to me anyway) soon so I will have an opportunity to do these things,  since my old computer is an ancient beast and can barely handle one OS, much less virtual machines. 

Thanks to those who have replied to my Linux questions and I hope more people add their opinions and advice.

I agree if the user is a new linux user, but the reply was more at Pookie.  He said he had been using Ubuntu for over 2 years, but feels like he still doesn't know linux that well because of the GUI. Walking through the Gentoo install guide is not daunting at all, it walks you through the entire process telling you every command to type. If you find that overwhelming then I think the Linux+ might not be for you.

<sarcasm>
Awwww....come on....DamnSmallLinux is where its at for building Desktops!
</sarcasm>

Linux is Linux...If you learn one, you can easily learn another...

oops, I started a distro fight...  Sorry 

I really do appreciate the input, I will likely set up a virtual machine on my new lappy with some minimal install (the Gentoo solution sounds interesting, and I have another target vm to practice on when I am done).  I also found some stuff at http://training.linuxfoundation.org/ to look into.

I have been branching over to the terminal for stuff (changing permissions, wget, iwconfig, and I think mtr is awesomely neat)  vi keeps throwing me off though but practice brings familiarity.