UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello everyone. I wont waste anytime and I will get right to the point.

I've been working with Linux for about 7 months and started using OpenBSD and FreeBSD for about 2 months. I have a very strong background in Microsoft (MCSE).

I plan to continue working with Microsoft as it's one entity that will always be around and will have a need for people who know how to work the operating system. (not to mention the need to get Microsoft and Unix/linux systems to communicate)

However, over the past couple months, i've really grown to love UNIX and Linux. I dont know how to describe it except I feel free.

I'm currently running a OpenBSD Firewall/Gateway with 2 Linux machines, one Windows 2000 and one FreeBSD mail server all on my LAN. The practice and learning experience has been great and my desire to learn more is endless.

I've always been curious about Sun and Solaris. It's sounds incredibly intriguing to me. It's definetly something I would like to pursue. (So many places are pumping out MCSE's, I need to take a different route)

So my question to everyone is, what recommendation to you suggest to get started with Solaris? I'd prefer to grab a sparc box off of ebay, pick up some box and just have a blast with it.

Any suggestions? I really like neo's post in the FAQ in a couple of threads about Linux/Unix certifcation questions.

Basically, im trying to seperate myself from the crowd if you know what I mean.

Iff anyone out there as some input or suggestions, please feel free to post. This is something i'm very interested in, yet not sure how to get started.

Thank you for everyones input. I do appreciate it.

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In terms of rapid upskilling the best advice I would give to someone whose anything like me (like to play)... is to try and get your head around scripting. Scripting is the next level from the command line (in that you use command line sytax in your shell scripts anyway) - so if you can get clever with scripts you'll get clever with command line syntax.

Make something.

Decide on something that sounds reasonalbly challengin - but not too over the top to start - then try and build a script. What you'll learn from trial and error, and using these forums will help you to upskill in a major hurry.

Might not be everyones cup of tea for learning - but it's the best way for me and its the way I learnt a lot in a small space of time.

Good Luck,.

Peter is correct - scripting will help immensely. I wrote a tic-tac-toe game probably 10 years ago in Basic which I have re-written in DCL (VAX/VMS), csh, Perl, and ksh. Each time I would quickly learn things about the syntax of the language I was using. Since I already knew the logic of the program, I didn't have to think about that - only how commands would work to do the same thing. Also, being able to script gives you one more tool more than others out there when going to get a new job.

As far as Solaris, get the download of X86 from SUN. I think it cost $20 but will give you something to play with and a way to learn.

Scripting is something I very much want to learn. I've been learning some perl lately as I see shell scripting/scripting in general will be very useful as well as build my skills.

Solaris looks like it can be a lot of fun. I love Unix and Linux and think I can grasp Solaris pretty quickly.

I'd like to get started learning Solaris but im not sure where to begin.

Certifications are something considered, but i'd like to "learn" the system and actually know it. I dont want to know it on paper, but in a enviroment.

Would a recommendation be to buy a Sparc type box on ebay, maybe a couple of books and head from there? Just trying to get my feet wet in Solaris.


HP-UX is something else that sounds very interesting. After reading some posts by neo, its another one of those types that has sparked some interest. That's another subject entirely.

Thanks everyone.

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I was going to rebuke RTM for saying it costs $20 to download... but sure enough, there it is in black and white ah well... mores the pity. Grab the Solaris 8 x86 binary, burn it to disk, and pop it on a spare machine.

Confidence grows by leaps and bounds once you start scripting, so my vote goes there too.

If you want hardware, prices have dropped significantly on the Ultra5s, you can grab a 256MB 333MHz boxen for a good price. PCI/IDE internals, no SCSI, but they will run Solaris 8 nicely.

You can go uber cheap and get a Sparc5 (recommend at least 128MB mem, 170MHz cpu), but they are very long in the tooth, and I can't see running anything over Solaris 2.6 on them. They have 13w3 monitor plugs, so that adds the cost of an adapter or new monitor.

Solaris 8 integrates disksuite, a volume management tool. If you go the Ultra5 route, get a cheap-o SCSI card, some cheap-o drives, an external drive enclosure (I hear cardboard works pretty good ) and play around with raid...

www.sun.com/blueprints, docs.sun.com, www.sun.com/bigadmin and www.sunfreeware.com are good leaping off points... only book recommendations I'd give are the Sun Blueprint books... otherwise, everything you need is online.

...scripting is something i'm very much interested in learning. I can find it quite useful for many things.

However, I am very new to scripting so I need some help.

What sort of recommendations would you suggest to get me started to learn how to script? Lets assume scripting will be completely new, so I need to start from the ground up.

Do you have recommendations for books? web sites? Anything that can help me better with Unix/Linux/Solaris?

Any advice here is great.

Thanks everyone and thanks for the great links!

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Real quickly, I remember seeing some recommended books for scripting I believe by Neo and a few others.

however, I do not recall which ones they were.

Any mind helping out a bit and giving some advice on learning scripting? Any advice and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks all,

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