I am new to non Windows operating systems. Does anyone have advice on which UNIX OS vendor would be good for learning purposes. I was looking for a version of UNIX that runs on the Intel platform. Do you have any recommendations on where to purchase the software? Thank you.
I am also new to Unix, but I have used and installed both SCO Unix and Sun Solaris. SCO Unix is probably more Intel friendly. The newest to make waves is Linux which is growing ever popular. However there are many free versions out there on the web including Sun Solaris that you can download for free. I know this probably does not help you but I hope it is a start for understanding the easy accesability of different Unix varieties.
If you have a chance goto www.techtv.com . They reviewed some Unix systems a while back.
you may try Red hat Linux or FreeBSD's version. Its great for newbie learner & easy to handle.
I would also suggest FreeBSD if only for the free on-line documentation that is available at www.freebsd.org. Good stuff.
FreeBSD and Solaris are substantially more challenging for newcomers than is Linux. And, Mandrake and SuSE Linux are easier to deal with than Red Hat or any of the others I've looked at.
(I recently installed Solaris, FreeBSD, Mandrake, SuSE, Red Hat, and Lycoris, and those were my conclusions.)
Mandrake and SuSE are available in retail boxes from places like CompUSA and Best Buy.
For tips on getting started, see my article at www.basepath.com/linux.
Maybe for installation but I will take the FreeBSD ports tree over RPM any day of the week. The ports tree is even simple for novices once they learn how to use it (and it isn't that difficult to learn).
I will agree about installation, though. The SuSE 7.x installation was very simple and very Windows like.
After using a bunch of different distros, I have found Mandrake to be the easiest to set up and use. Red Hat is also easy, but not easy as Mandrake. The last time I used Suse was when they had version 6.4, It was easy then, so I can only assume its easier to use now. I would recomend buying distros from www.linuxcentral.com you can get just disks for like 5 bucks that they make if you don't have time to download themand you don't want to spend 30+ dollars for a boxed version, you can also get FreeBSD disks. I recommend this so you can a bunch of diffrent distros at a very cheap price. You will save time downloading, save money and figure out which distro or version of Unix you like. 
yeah ive always heard the linux distros would be the best for newbies, but netbsd installed easier for me than did suse linux, netbsd detected my ethernet card that suse couldnt even tell was there, also id say that netbsd would be better for beginers because you will learn faster how to get things set up on your computer, like setting up the dhcp client, or configuring routing, whereas with suse linux everything is done for you. but thats just my opinion.
I think RedHat will be best choice for beginners. But, everything is relate what do you want from your UNIX box and what is your plans. If you are learning UNIX to work in the future in commercial UNIXs, most if them are System V (HP-UX, Solaris, AIX etc), Linux is better. But if you will work on commercial UNIXs which based on Berkley source (BSD based), FreeBSD is that you need.
Try EBAY you will get solaris (intel version) for Under 20 Bucks .
yea, my friend is a windows user, and only uses the gui so he isn't the best with programing. me, as a GNU/Linux user, am able to get the programs he wants but i am not able to help him out all the time. i was thinking of going along the lines of SUSE or Solaris 10 for his box. he wanted the desktop feel and i am trying to migrate him away from windows, a. to save money and b. since windows is starting to become harder to use for the average user, in my sight. for a person who is not willing to really learn the coding of unix or linux, would getting SUSE or Solaris be good for him. or would it take work to settup and run? from a user point of view, not a sorta coder point of view.
both of windows and unix are useful !
ubuntutry it !
Try taking a look at the sun website where you can download for free the developer edition of Solaris for x86. This comes with a number of compilers and other tools included.
Here's the link to the Solaris download page: Solaris Operating System - Get Solaris 10
The one problem with learning on Linux is that there are so many distributions and most have differences between them. I, too, recommend FreeBSD where everything is more centralized.