Solaris

To anyone who disagrees with DukeNuke2 and pupp please take their comments in context. Pupp explained what he meant quite well, but it is a case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do".

Nobody is suggesting that all of the windows knowledge be abandoned, merely that when learning Solaris it is better not to try to compare it to another OS so vastly different in management tools and interfaces as windows. It is much easier to learn Solaris by temporarily suppressing windows knowledge and assuming that everything is new until comfortable.

As pupp said comparison to what you already know can hinder progress, instead of learning the "new way" you simple bemoan the fact that it's not what you already know, and resent having to change. Treat it as something separate so that you are not dealing with change, instead it is all new knowledge and it will be much easier to progress.

Ultimately however the windows knowledge is useful when dealing with mixed environments where NFS/CIFS and AD/Samba are used, which is a large percentage of the total market. Someone who can cross-over between disciplines is extremely valuable.

In the event that you feel that my comment was derisive, please take a moment to re-read my comment. You will notice that it is prefaced (quite clearly) with "I PARTIALLY disagree". The original poster is looking for input from a VARIETY of points of view. While I MOSTLY agree with pupp, I chose to offer my differing viewpoint.

Please feel free to take my comments in context.

I'd look for a class maybe in some university's continuing education program, to get you started.
If your employer has any sort of education program, you may be able to take a course from Sun at your employer's expense.
Start with the basics, ie., learn to be a user first, then go into the administration part.

system shock - i was thinking about that as well. always a great option. my only problem with that is with what the OP had stated:
to me... this seems like a "learn solaris fast" kind of deal. on top of the fact that his boss is talking about job cuts! shelling out money for someone with job cuts on the horizon... i doubt it. if he were willing to spend the $1500 himself on a basic solaris 10 admin course (like the ones exceed offers), then hell... why not. although, i personally wouldn't. i've taken those courses (one of my last jobs had this as "for educational purposes, we will send you to class" thing) and they aren't THAT good. its basically the sun docs in a more streamlined approach.

I see what you are saying... it is just that sometimes, depending on the company's size and/or practices, the money for employee education may have already been allocated, so an employee wouldn't be asking the company to spend extra money, but taking advantage of money that's already spent in the books. In my case for example, I work for a financial institution, and we have training available that was paid for early this year, so I wouldn't be able to go to my boss and ask him to send me to say, an EMC class, but I could attend a SuSE admins class, because the company has an agreement with Novell and pays for education credits annually at the beginning of the year.

definitely. he needs to take advantage of all 'free' training asap. gets you out of work for a week and finally catch up on some sleep!!! ahahah. obviously this is all pending this is the way it is for him.