Lo guys, I've just started a new department in work and I'm going to be using HP-UX with Vi. The problem is I'm completely new to UNIX, I'm currently learning at work but I only have limited amounts of time on our dev systems. Is it possible to get a free/educational version any where? I don't mind if it's a restricted version as I won't be loading any systems onto it, I essentially need it just for 1-2 months to practice my commands and getting my head around the file structure and processes it uses.
If all you want is learning basic shell, then any linux will provide that.
Download ubuntu - it is probably the least demanding version for a newbie. Also install the ksh shell which most production HPUX systems use. ubuntu "hardy" has a free ksh.
Make that your default shell
I agree in principle with the response from jim mcnamara
However, I think there are some differences between Linux and HP-UX. If you desire an HP-UX experience, the site Polarhome - gateway to freedom offers free (non-administrative) access to a number of different platforms including HP-UX.
While I don't use HP-UX , I have noticed from other posts that the GNU utilities are not necessarily installed, meaning that the options to some commands like 'ls' 'date' 'tar' may not be the same as or available on HP as they are on Linux .