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New to UNIX

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by it_isgr8

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I am a beg?nner in the use of the LINUX Platform. I need help on resources that are required for beginnnnnnnnnnnnnnners!!!!!!!!!

15 replies

by ed.k

Get the free VM Player from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Install - easy(!)

Then go to http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/cat/45
and choose a VM image - suggest Ubuntu 6.n or SUSE 10.n

Depending on what you choose, you may need to use a Bit Torrent client - try microtorrent from http://www.utorrent.com/

My experience is that these bit torrents can take days to download!

The great thing about a VM is that you can copy the files before you play around, so yo have a roll back!

Have fun learning this way - I do

Ed
www.stratlab.co.uk

by hal 9000

In your area by looking up the list here

http://www.linux.org/groups/

Depending on the Distro of Linux that you are using they may have their own Users Group or Help Forum as well.

Col

by ploober

I would sugest getting Suse 10.1, it is by far the most friendly and flexable Linux distro,plus it has many bundled aplications that will please any ex-windows user. Otherwise there places like www.linuxprinting.org and www.linuxquestions.org that helped me alot when I converted.
Long live TuX!

by scashwell

SuSe (Novell release) is our main COE - also using MySQL,
KDE and mail-web server capabilities. What is your
experience regarding hardware requirements? We use a
quad-Xeno svr with 4GB ram and 2.5TB SCSI arrays. Been
good so far - there are 28 users.

Tis week we are installing Kubuntu for both the MAC
Intels and PowerPC machines - just to try out. Have you
explored other flavors?

regards, Skip

by danlm

These were all free, and what I did when i first started using FreeBSD was join these forums. I then just started watching conversations about specific questions people posted to get an idea what could be done. There also is huge amounts of tutorials on the web for free that I am constantly using both for general Unix and specific to Unix operating systems.

At this point, here are my questions for you.
1). Have you installed the os yet?
2). Do you plan to set it up with a GUI desktop like windows use, or something like?
3). Do you want to learn Unix from the ground up(command line) or do you want a point and click(windows style environment).
4). What do you want to use your UNIX machine for?? A server(file server), a desk top, a firewall between the Internet and all of your other machines?

Good luck though, I love my Unix file server. But, I also still use windows too.

Based on the answers to these questions helps with finding specific resources to help you learn. I know thats alot to ask, but please understand. There are different types of Unix, they each have their quirks. Unix has some really good strong points with specific use's(file server, firewall).

If you haven't installed the os yet, do you know the Unix os you want to install?

Dan

by it_isgr8

Hi,

Thing is the job i've been offered will require me to use the UNIX OS.Before i start i need to get aquainted with UNIX.i am starting work in january 07.i am about to install Linux (Fedora) on my desktop.so before do that am lookin for resources (tutorials and downloads).is fedora good for this purpose..

Will appreciate further help.

Thanx........

by tig2

Create a Puppy Linux CD. Boot from the CD. You will find yourself in a Puppy session. From there, open a terminal window (command line) and do whatever you need to do.

The beauty is that when you close the session, your original OS is untouched. While Puppy can be configured to surf the net- has a browser built in- you might want to just take notes on questions you have and be able to use something familiar to ask questions and get answers.

Because Puppy doesn't touch the base machine- runs completely in RAM- you don't have to worry about doing anything to screw up the machine. It is the perfect playground.

Give it a try. At the worst, you will be out a CD... unless you do as I have and put it on a thumb drive. If you hate it, wipe it out and start with another distro.

Also- get a copy of Unix for Dummies. I have both Unix for and Linux (Red Hat) for and use them constantly. And don't forget that you can "man" anything. From the command line, man plus any command will take you to the "man" or manual page about that command.

I have used Unix on and off for more years than I care to admit to. Once you are familiar with the commands, it is a great and very powerful tool. I think you will enjoy your experience.

Congrats on the job and your willingness to do whatever you have to do to be successful. I wish you all the best!

by it_isgr8

Hi Dan,

Thing is the job i've been offered will require me to use the UNIX OS.Before i start i need to get aquainted with UNIX.i am starting work in january 07.i am about to install Linux (Fedora) on my desktop.so before do that am lookin for resources (tutorials and downloads).is fedora good for this purpose..

Will appreciate further help.

Thanx........

by hal 9000

Red Hat Enterprise Edition. And is Linux not Unix so there are a few differences.

Depending on what it is you will be actually working on there could be massive differences as Unix & Linux are different things and while similar in some ways are different in other.

Even in the Different Unix's there is a range of differences so without knowing more of what you are attempting to do it's hard to say.

Col

by danlm

other then AIX(IBM), I believe most of the corporate Unix flavor's also offer a personal release of their software also. If I was to make a choice to learn on, I would try to go that route.

Also, with regard to supporting applications? Okkkkkkk, db's/binaries/scripting?

I'm guessing here, but I would imagine that with that very generic description of your job duties. You will need to learn some command line stuff. Ie: how to navigate, how to create, delete, copy, move files. How to compile programs?

Shoot, application supportive role can seriously snowball into what you need to have for a knowledge base. Ie: Are you creating make files for the compile process. Are you going to need to create supporting shell scripts for the applications?

If you are only required to know the basics, then the tutorials are there for this basic type of information.... navigation, create/delete/move/copy files/directories. If you are required to have a further knowledge for supportive role, there are tutorials.... But, I really don't know your knowledge background. Have you done any application development is what I'm asking? Haw good is your knowledge of DOS commands and or syntax? DOS knowledge could help you in both learning commands and any shell scripting you might have to do. Makes the learning curve much shorter.

Again, I would try to get the operating system you install at home as close to what you will be using at work to start off.

Dan

by it_isgr8

I have been offered a job by a Cellular provider.so i will be managing Applications that run on the Unix Platform.

it_gr8.

by stress junkie

As HAL9000 said, there are some very large differences between different Unixes. Given that, you could use any of the *BSD Unixes or Open Solaris. They are all free for noncommercial use. None of them is as user friendly as a typical Linux distribution.

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp

http://www.freebsd.org/

http://openbsd.org/

http://netbsd.org/

Then there is the issue of which applications will you be supporting? If you are going to be a DBA on an Oracle server you can download a free one user version of Oracle. In that case you would want to find out what platforms this free version will run on. On the other hand if you are going to maintain applications that have been created in house by your employer then you have more options about what to use for practice. If you are going to be coding and compiling then you probably should use one of the genuine Unixes because the Linux file structure is not always the same as a real Unix distribution.

Why are you so reluctant to share details? It seems like you are trying to give the least amount of information possible for questions that are being asked. If you've already been given the job then you should know what platform you are going to be using or you could call your future employer and ask.

Then responding to perfectly good replies with things like "Unix Beginnnnnnnnnnnnner" isn't very polite. The things that droolin said were very oriented toward beginners. For example, if you don't know whether to use a GUI then you're in pretty sad shape. That's pretty basic to using any computer running any software. All in all it looks like you don't know enough about computers to turn on the power switch, much less get work in the field.

by scashwell

SuSe 10.1 is the best release to date. I started with SuSe
on v.7, both on the Intel and PowerPC platforms. It is still
the easiest (all be it extremely powerful) release I have
tried.

There is a good amount of processing-power required to
make the release really work, especially fi one installs
many of the applications. I am running the release on a
quad-Xenon server with 4GB ram. In addition to the KDE
desktop enviro, the applications include Open Office and
MySQL (600+GB data). The machine acts also as a web
and mail server supporting 28 email users. I do not think
a less robust hardware config would suffice for our small
business.

PS - I a going to try the Ubutu (specifically the Kubuntu)
6.10 release this week. Will post results after a trial.

Regards to all and thanks to members for their posts and
advice!

Skip

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