Unix and Solaris

There is nothing really hard, but there is a lot of it, and an incredible amount of detail. While most systems have 'man pages' (the user manual description of each command) on-line, if you don't know about a command, you cannot ask about it.

Start with the O'Reily books, such as "Unix in a Nutshell," or "Learning the Unix Operating System." These will give you a basic overview from the user side. "Essential System Administration" will give you a basic introduction to the administration side.

With that base, you can then pick and choose the books dealing with specific subsystems as you need them. You will also have enough general knowledge to recognize the topics for which you need more detail.

If you will be working on a Solaris system, you will need to read the 'man pages' for all Solaris-specific commands as well. Sun has created a number of commands, especially administrative commands, which are specific to Solaris, some of which change between Solaris versions.

Goodluck.

This is not an answer. This is a comment. It's cool that you managed to learn Windows 2000. How long did this take you? 24h, 1 week, 1 month? I'm an MCSE (no training - just pass the examinations), I've been digging in NT for 4 years now, I've been working with Windows 2000 for 2 years (since Beta 3) and I still say that I'm not even close to _KNOW WINDOWS_. But, hey, where there is no brain, there is no gain.
But, now seriously, multiply at least by 3 the time you spent to learn W2K. This, probably, means 3 days.

Hard to learn is relative.. just apply yourself and you can understand how UNIX work. Then you can learn the commands and how/when to use them. You also need lots of hands on to get comfortable with the operating system. You can install both Windows and Unix on your system if you really want to learn UNIX

You know this is a loaded question: Experience is you best way to learn. There are a lot of "unix base" OSes for free or very little, like FreeeBSD or Linux. These do not require a lot of computer power. Also, keep in mind that there are quite a fewflavors and versions :( which makes rather difficult to learn. Here at work, we use Sun, HP, AIX, and IRIX. There are DEC and SCO out there too. There similarities but they do have their quarks...
Good luck...by the way, I too started with Microsoft technologies and learn unix soon afterwards. The basic concepts are the same in any computing environment.

I recently migrated from NT to Solaris. If you're considering to a user, the migration is not so difficult. If you are planning to administer systems, that's a whole new world. I decided to get Sys Admin Sun certified to learn. I purchased the Exam Cram and certification book from new riders. Six months later, and a ton of studying... I'm now certified. It's the best way to learn!

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