Solaris

Hey everyone,

I'm wanting to get started with learning about Unix and I'm hoping that I'm in the correct place. The kind of things that I'm aiming to learn about are general Unix operation, the benefits provided by the Solaris platform in different areas, and really just getting a grip of this open-source technology.

To let you know a bit about myself I have a fair amount of training in programming Java following my studies in University. The only computer I own is an Intel Macbook so I need to know if this is a suitable platform (and if not, what other Unix OS would be recommended?). I have access to Ubuntu computers in University too.

Could you recommend any relevant textbooks or online guides that would start me off? I appreciate that this is a large community, so hopefully I can become part of that too (learning and then contributing!).

Apologies if this sort of 'help me I'm new' post appears a lot and annoys anyone, I would appreciate any support though!

- Starky

I've seen people running Solaris 10 on x86 Macbooks. Most use Parallels or vmware - they have Mac's for a reason, and don't wish to lose that OS.

Recommended books for an introduction to Solaris - it would help to understand what it is that interests you...
Security?
Administration?
Application development?
Networking?

As you already have a system running a UNIX variant (MacOS X), I'd recommend becoming more comfortable with what you have before stumbling blindly into that which you do not. It will help you to learn what questions you really want the answers to.

O'Reilly has a couple of books that you might want to take a look at.
1. Mac OS X For Unix Geeks - I've not read this one, but it sounds like a good resource.
2. UNIX in a Nutshell - This is a staple for starting out with UNIX. I used to keep mine at my desk all of the time.

Pick up a book on regular expressions, sed & awk, a shell, etc. as you start to get more comfortable with some of the basics of UNIX.

Best of luck!

Thanks avronius. To give you a bit more detail, I'm currently in the process of applying for an internship with Sun Microsystems which is why I'm trying to boost my knowledge in some of their products.

Having a lot of prior Unix experience isn't really at the top of their priorities as much as being able to learn quickly, which is what I'm trying to demonstrate, as well as having a genuine interest in becoming familiar with Unix platforms.

My intent was to create a new partition on my HDD for Open-Solaris (already have one set up with Vista for some of the CAD applications and Development Environments I use through my studies), rather than completely switching over to it!

In response to the type of things I'm interested in learning before my next formal interview (month and a half away), networking and administration would likely be the most useful, perhaps security as well.

Hi,

I use virtualbox, which is a sun related product on windows for installing and playing with Solaris, they appear to do a version which runs on MAC OS X for intel allowing you to install in to a virtual system.

More details at Sun xVM VirtualBox - Downloads

and VirtualBox

I've used it on an MS laptop for installing/running Solaris, ubuntu, suse and so on without any problems - worth a try and free too leaving more money for beer