I have just installed Ubuntu because I need a linux system asap and Ubuntu seems to be easiest for that. But I plan on installing some other Linux distro's for a while (maybe on virtualBox too) so i can understand the inner workings of linux and especially more about unix. I know that alot of the stuff on ubuntu is automated for me, I would in the long run, prefer to slowly do it myself to understand everything better. I guess my main goal though, is to understand unix as much as possible, since i know even when I start working, i will be exposed to a unix environment. any ideas?
Then go with Debian, Red hat/CentOS or Freebsd. as you said they are not automating tasks for you and you must do most of the configuration yourself.
These are my opinion. Also there will be AIX, UX, ...
I choose them because there are much more tutorials out there to use and learn.
go for solaris... it's a real unix derivat and runs on x86 hardware!
I suggest Solaris as a first preference and Red Hat as a second preference.
I recommend you don't confuse yourself with so many distors, just pick up one distro and learn the administration tasks, then it'll be easier for u to deal with other distros...
I agree. For learning UNIX check outOpenSolaris OS | Free Open Source Software | OpenSolaris ZFS or Solaris Operating System - Get Solaris 10
for learning Linux I suggest Redhat/Centos.
thank you for the replies. I think opensolaris or solaris is a great way to start. isnt open solaris just the new version of solaris? i thought maybe its best if i just go with opensolaris? what is the advantages of using solaris over opensolaris?
also, last night i came across info on slackware and apparently (according to wiki), it is the most unix like linux. so would this be a good alternative?
Solaris 10 is used in many production environments, while OpenSolaris is not. Also they differ quite heavily, so if you are planning on taking Unix SysAdmin job path, then learning Solaris is a must. You might also choose Linux SysAdmin path, then learning some production Linux, like SLES or RHEL would be the best choise.
BSD UNIX is a great place to learn. Also the documentation is very good. FreeBSD is used in production environments.
Brian Kernighan's book is also a must for getting your bearings with the shell.
No Linux distribution is good for learning Unix. Note that I used the term "Unix" instead of "UNIX". There is a difference. UNIX is not an operating system but a branding that indicates that a conforming operating system meets the certification requirements of the UNIX brand which is administered by the Open Group (TOG). Unix is a class of operating system.
The reason that I say no Linux distribution is good for learning Unix is basically that Linux distributions use GNU shell, commands and utilities and tool chains such as GCC. These are generally not available OOTB on commercial off-the-shelve Unix operating systems such as Solaris, AIX and HP-UX.
I concur with the other posters who recommended Solaris 10.
I had the same sentiment a few years back when getting into *nix. I finally determined the best way to get into learning it was to avoid the bloated distros that offer 3 or 4+ of every flavored option out there so as to focus more on the underlying system. Slackware seemed like the best boiled-down distro, but I did want some GUI guidance and ended up going with zenwalk, which started as mostly a light weight desktop (xfce) integrated with slackware.
I don't know if I would have learned more or less with another distro/OS, but it has worked for me and kept me funtional without Windows all this time. Now however, I have a new notebook and am about to try out Arch as it has a similar minimalistic approach, but I saw indications of more of a focus on newer hardware (and hopefully less on graphical smilies)-:
Absolutely. GCC, the many available open shells, the GNU toolchain, and GNU utilities couldn't ever be mistaken for ground-up reimplementations of standard UNIX utilities. They don't even have the same names. </sarcasm>
Specifically GNU/Linux I have installed and ran Gentoo which has bsd like facilities. Though it has a very do it yourself feel which can be kinda fun. I have also done arch on a netbook. It has a bsd like rc.conf but the syntax is very different than freebsd's rc.conf.
Either way regardless which os you use taking the time to learn with this small list:
Know your basic posix commands and your system hier. Know how to start/stop services, compile and install your base, kernel, and userland. learn enough vi to configure your system files and configurations. Finally AUTOMATE EVERYTHING.