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Learning Linux?

Cpl.Klinger

I'm not a Linux newbie by any means (dual boot Win7 and Unbuntu 11 currently), but I wanted to get a better foundation in Linux with a distro that actually would require some work and learning. Ubuntu is nice, but acts too much like Windows, and at times seems a bit too easy to work with. I've thought about going to RedHat, but wasn't sure. Basically, if you were telling someone going deeper into the tech sector, which distro would you tell them to learn on? SuSE, RedHat, Ubuntu, Debian? Something else?

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Comments

Forsaken_GA

I'd recommend learning Debian and Red Hat (and by Red Hat, I mean one of the rebuild distros, such as CentOS or Scientific Linux. Scientific Linux is presently the best choice for Red Hat 6, as the CentOS crew has been doing some serious drag ass when it comes to keeping current).

Most distro's these days are going to be derivatives of one of the two. All distro's have their little quirks, but the major differences tend to be in package management, so I think it's best for folks looking to learn linux from the server admin side to be familiar with aptitude and yum.

ally_uk

Linux+ is the way to go, if you can afford it highly rate the train signal videos

hiddenknight821

Although, I haven't tried this, but why hasn't anyone suggested building linux from scratch?

I'm gonna consider doing this once I start my Linux+ study. I thought I would have time and money to do it quickly last summer, but who am I kidding. I probably would need a year to master this thing.

Everyone

Luckily my employer doesn't care what I use for a desktop, and we have VMware Workstation licenses. I use Linux as my desktop so it forces me to get better at it. I have a Windows 7 and a Windows XP VM for the few things I can't do from Linux. Currently I'm messing with Ubuntu 11.04. I switch distros every few months. I've run Sabayon, Fedora, and openSUSE as my primary O/S too. I have 1 CentOS 5.5 server at work that I'm responsible for, but we do have a full time Linux guy now so that's really the only Linux server I get to touch.

Our Linux admin swears by Arch Linux. Most of our servers are Red Hat based, a couple actual Red Hat, and the rest are CentOS.

I setup a CentOS server at home to mess around with LAMP configurations and try to help improve my skills.

demonfurbie

mint linux is a very user friendly linux to start with, how ever its not used on any kind of enterprise level

if you want to learn linux for something higher than Linux + later i would pick suse or redhat they both offer certs for administration.

redhat is more common in the us and suse in eu.

Cpl.Klinger

I think I'm going to end up triple booting Win7-Scientific-Debian Squeeze. I don't have a lot of stuff I need to do in Windows (I've switched most of my gaming to either the PS3 or to emulator stuff), so I may end up cutting the size of my Win7 partition back to where it forces me over to Linux. Thanks for the advice!

Forsaken_GA

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Although, I haven't tried this, but why hasn't anyone suggested building linux from scratch?

LFS is not something I would suggest for someone who's trying to learn unix. It'll give a nice low level understand that's for sure, if you can beat the frustration factor.