Relevance of Traditional Unix to LPIC1 and RHCSA?

haziz

Is there any advantage to tinkering with a traditional Unix installation (as opposed to Linux), whether BSD or System V based, such as FreeBSD or Solaris while preparing for both LPIC1 and RHCSA? It would not be my primary test bed (that would be Debian, Centos and Slackware for the LPIC1 and Centos for the RHCSA) but would be in addition or would that just confuse and muddy the picture? I have used both FreeBSD and Solaris sparingly in the past but most of my usage is with Linux.

Thanks.

Slowhand

In my experience, you're bound to find something like FreeBSD out there, and it's just different enough to make it worth your while spending a little time learning the ins and outs, but it's definitely similar enough that you'll get a LOT out of your Linux training. Solaris, though, is a whole other beast. I wouldn't waste too much time on learning something that different, (HP-UX is another one that's way out in left field,) unless you're actually going to be working with the technology.

In short: spend your time learning Linux, particularly the Red Hat and Debian based distros, and take a wait-and-see approach with anything outside of that world. The jump isn't huge, so you should be good with a book and a little bit of lab-work if you need to tinker with a UNIX-variant.

paul78

If part of your goal is to have a well-rounded view of Unix, getting familiar with a SysV based Unix would be useful. In larger enterprises, you are likely to come across SysV based Unix like AIX, Solaris, and HPUX.