UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

New here with a few questions. I've been reading a few similar threads to this one, but wanted a fresh perspective. A little about my self. I'm doing telephone and internet connectivity support at the moment. Self studying to get my A+ certification. In my mind, I'm about a month or 2 from being ready to test...probably close to 2. I have some networking, pc repair experience and enjoy working from the command line. I think I would enjoy being a UNIX admin.

1. Any advice on becoming a UNIX admin? Should I get a network+ cert next to ensure I have all the networking essentials before working on a UNIX cert?
2. Recommended books or online study guides, courses for learning UNIX?
3. Is there a particular version of UNIX that is more in demand these days?
4. Is there a program or software that I can download to have a UNIX enviroment to practice and learn in that you guys recommend?
5. Besides these questions and scouring the forums, do you have any other advice?

Thanks in advance! Glad to be hear

amazing ping

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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions - The UNIX and Linux Forums

Thanks joeyg! For home use, do you have a dual boot pc for both windows and unix, a unix virtual machine of some kind or a seperate pc for Unix? If I have an older version of RedHat Linux-does that have Unix on it or is that something completely different?

I know the question wasn't directed for me, but I think I might give you some insight into learning Unix. If you want to learn some commercial Unix, then Solaris is available for free for learning purposes. It is running great in VirtualBox virtual machine. About old Red Hat... If you want to learn RH, then get the newest CentOS version and train on it. It is free to use as well.

Thanks Bartus11

I'll look into that. Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse and asking the wrong questions. The more I read the FAQs and forums here, the more it looks like it's not easy to jump into UNIX admin. I do need a career change and I think I would enjoy working in UNIX and I can build off of my current knowledge. Do you guys think A+, Network + through self study and then onto a UNIX cert is smart? I know that a lot of UNIX admins are self taught but I don't know any other way to get my foot in the door. I need to get into a company where I can start learning some stuff on the job, but in this economy, I'm having a really hard time. My resume looks pretty weak.

OKAY...so I was going to download Ubuntu but is' more like Linux and not Unix? so I'm seeing that freebsd http://www.freebsd.org/about.html is UNIX? Is freeBSD a better download to learn unix than ubuntu? I think I already know the answer.. yes. The question is.. will that be good enough? I'm way before Novice here. lol

So I tried installing Ubuntu from an ISO disk. Must have a video card/driver issue. Couldn't get Ubuntu Unity desk top to display correctly ..all of the drop down menu's flickered to the point of being unreadable and when a windwo did open it was invisible or a solid color. I was unable to boot into classic Ubuntu.. Failed. I then tried installing freeBSD from an ISO disk and apparently wasn't smart enough to get through the basic installation screens. lol so ...what do you do ..where do you go when your too stupid to install something with UNIX on it. blah.

edit to add that I'll try solaris next but not thinking I'm smart enough to figure that out either. lol

There are ready virtualbox images on Oracle site with prepared Solaris Express 11. You can try them, if you have 2 or more GB of memory.