UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

hello all,

im new to this site...and look forward to corresponding with you all.

i am a microsoft kid (sad) currently i work on small networks and repair computers for home and business.

i want to better my skill set...but dont want to carry on down the MS route. Basically i want to acquire higher end skills to allow myself to be more employable by bigger organizations in future.

i was thinking about learning a flavor of linux and starting the LPI course.
but then i spoke to a good friend of mine who works in the UK and he suggested i rather learn Solaris Unix.

I was reading a report that said Unix is alive and well and is only growing in the large business sector.

So im thinking about it, but have a few questions.

1) are there a lot of unix jobs vs linux (in fact are there a lot of linux jobs)
2) If i learn unix will linux be easy to pick up
3) if i am to learn unix is solaris the way to go, or is there many other options
4) is solaris something that can be self taught and studied
5) If i learn to use solaris, does that mean i will be familiar with other types of unix like sco open bsd etc...
6) are there any prerequisites to learning solaris unix
7) are there other skills required to work with unix in the real world (i suppose it would depend on what you doing)

sorry so many questions, just looking for a push in the right direction...

thanks for reading
eagerly waiting your input

j0n1n

1) There seem to be quite a few Unix ~ Linux related jobs in the US, but these are being posted by agencies and headhunters. Lots of Linux projects out there that need ppl like you to help network your system to theirs for websites or other needs.

2) Unix ~ Linux differences exist, but the key is to be able to google and check the manual pages on the system when you need to solve a problem. RTFM (read the fine manual) as Unix/Linux gurus often say.

3) I once used Solaris on a Sparc machine and it's what got me excited about using Unix. Redhat is also used by many companies and is one of the most commercial distributions.

4) If you have a chance to use Solaris and do projects and administration with it, you'll be picking things up as you go

5) Of course! but again there are subtle differences between these systems. Researching and googling differences will help you out here.

You might want to check out the Linux Journal magazine and online websites. Their topics are always cutting edge and interesting.

thanks standingtree,

i liked the RTFM ...we used to have one in the office years ago that went "RTFS" or Read The F****** Screen" if you did something daft and it was right in front of you.

am i better off doing some solaris cert (sure i saw there was one) or just work away and hope i become good enough to prove myself job worthy.

how long will it take (+-) to get a good grip on unix??? 1 year / 2 years?

thanks again for your help
j0n1n

ITs more a question of what do you want to do: development or administration?
To be good in UNIX depends what you call good... Being able to sort yourself out is the first step...
e.g. Todays issue at work : a dept cannot access their NAS, the enigineers responsible restarted the smb /CIFs etc..
I was called after 2 1/2 hours when people got desperate, I know nothing bout the OS ( weird Debian with what looks like half of the commands existing reminding me of a chroot...) its a VM, it took me 15 minutes to get things working... all I needed was 1: vi 2: a valid account, 3: sudo root when needed...
The linux engineers know I am sure far more commands than me (I am not linux ) but I have many years of UNIX experience and so I see issues with a different approach...

Good points VBE ~ I think J0n1n is on the right track. For now I would simply start by using a Linux distribution. I recently decided to use a Ubuntu USB Live system which means not having to reinstall Linux on the hard drive, but simply run a live system off the USB drive~ stick. You can also do this from a live CD. I'd first heard about this from Knoppix's website (another very good Linux distribution).

VBE's point on whether you want to do development or admin is very pertinent. I now do a mix of both on my system although it's more on the simple usage along with tinkering and tweaking to get my system running smoothly . Posting questions about things you want to try out is also a very good start to learning. Perhaps in no time you'll be helping and offering suggestions to others!

Hang in there and keep learning!

Well, Im going to give you my experience... I recently got a job for programin Bash Scripts, dealing with FTPs and lots of Linux crap Ive never dealt with before. (Including setting up servers/configurations/mail servers) And yeah... I was hired to be a "programmer". (note that I've never had experience with none of the above before)

Month and a half later I can tell you that Linux is awesome. I even installed Mint on my home desktop (Im an Android enthusiast). The best of it? ITS SUPER WELL DOCUMENTED!!! Theres NOTHING you wont find in the internet related any Unix/Linux problem/how to ect... So far I havent been assigned something that I already know how to do it, they give my my orders, I google and I come out victorious!

My biggest regret is not having learned linux in my college years.

Through my career I've learned that everything you learn is an asset to you, youll never know when you are going to use it again for professional o personal matters. So go ahead make the jump, you are doing your professional career a favor.

That's the thing -- Linux/UNIX are systems, not "things to learn". You need to learn how to solve problems in it, not just "learn x" then "learn y" then "learn z". This is because they're sets of smaller tools to be used together, not a short list of big premade things.

So it's not so much "learn Linux" as much as "learn to solve problems using these tools together", as well as "learn to administrate Apache and MySQL and whatever other services are installed/running".

How long it takes to get a grip with that can depend, it's a very different model than Windows.