I am taking a db classes toward oracle 10g. I am taking unix as well . I need to know what is the best option for os . should I use linux fedora. or get a sun box and start learning from there. Thanks

It depends on your needs, as server FreeBSB is prefarable (NOTE: my very subjective opinion), for workstation - Fedora Core/SuSE

For learning purposes I have a definite preference for a non-gnu system. The simple fact is that there are a lot of extensions in gnu version of commands which are not present in a lot of other system.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the GNU commands, but rather it is best to learn the more restricted version of commands such as awk, sed, grep, tar and so on so that you do not come to depend on extra "non-standard" features. You can always learn the extra features of commands later when you have mastered the basic ones. This will make you skillset more portable and robust if you move to a different Unix or Unixlike environment.

thanks for the reply. I was told in class that freebsd is loosing the battle. it sure had its glorry in market. but is no longer supported ( berkley will not give any money to keep it a live) .. so I think I will go w/ linux and hopefuly will see. I heard that AIX is also powerfull. it is very intersting to get away from windows for once and enter the world unix/ linux . I am realy enjoying the experience so far . I hope I will pick this os commands and structure ... Thanks again

Making Things works bit by a bit

Hm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD says that FreeBSD is under active development:

FreeBSD 6.1 was released on May 8, 2006, and 7.0-CURRENT is under active development. These versions continue the work on SMP and threading optimization, as well as additional work in the area of advanced 802.11 functionality, and TrustedBSD security event auditing. The primary release accomplishments of this release include the removal of the Giant lock from VFS, replacement of the libthr library with a better performing implementation of 1:1 threading, and the addition of a BSM audit implementation, called OpenBSM, created by the TrustedBSD Project which is heavily based upon the BSM implementation found in Apple's Open Source Darwin which has been released under a BSD-style license.

isnt it openbsd that has no more funding? freebsd is still going strong. obviously...

Thanks for the clarification.. am i be wrong ...but that is the only way to learn is been wrong and learn for it ... so Thank you all for your input..

'Making things work better; bit by bit.'