From where to learn UNIX ?

atulpol

Hey guys , I really am interested in learning UNIX , I have started reading COMPLETE REFERENCE TO UNIX reference book but as i am beginner i dont get some concepts ..are there any video tutorials or websites on which i can learn UNIX as a beginner ?
THANK YOU

phoeneous

Linux | Unix | Open Source Training - LinuxCBT.com

slotzero

Phoeneous's suggestion is excellent.

There are many good resources out there:

Learn UNIX in 10 minutes

UNIX Tutorial - YouTube

Unix Manuals - Unix Tutorial

Those are just from a quick google search and looked reasonable. There are minor differences between Unix and Linux but nothing to cause you too much grief. If you spin up a Ubuntu box and get familiar with the command line, you'll be on a good path.

I started with an SVR4 release from Altos and SCO back in the day, then transitioned to Slackware at home, then Red Hat, BSD, SUSE, Debian, Knoppix, Mint, Ubuntu - many distros of Linux. When I encountered AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris I was able to adapt very quickly.

Lots of good text editors out there, but whatever you choose, you should still learn vi and how to get around in it. The commands in vi will help you if you ever end up using sed, awk, and other greatly useful tools in Unix and Linux.

I wrote a fully functional BBS in a Korn shell script on SCO back in the days before teh internets were popular.

Basically the way to learn is jump in! Install, break some stuff, install again, make a goal for yourself to do something, then try to do it! Ask the Google Gods when you're stuck, post in the forums for the distribution you're running.

Hope that helps, or at least gives you some things to think about.

antielvis

If you have the money for Nuggets, etc, by all means, use them. They have an excellent package which goes beyond jsut what you need for a course to "Linux in the real world".

If you are limited for funds, let me suggest this. Linux/UNIX is very slow to change & many of the commands haven't changed. I'd recommend you find an older used book on LInux or maybe Solaris. These books will be dirt cheap (if not free) and the OS, as you know, is free. 90% of what existed in Linux in 2005 is still there today.

My experience with Linux is: the two most difficult parts of UNIX are learning to script in BASH & initially getting your head wrapped around the basics (like vi, etc). Once you understand them, it becomes much easier. I think it's a "way of life & thinking" more than just a job.

atulpol

Yups antilevis , My funds are very limited , That is the reason I have got the UNIX-The Complete Reference book for free from one of my seniors ,which was published back in year 2000 , It wont be a problem right?

slotzero

atulpol wrote: »

Yups antilevis , My funds are very limited , That is the reason I have got the UNIX-The Complete Reference book for free from one of my seniors ,which was published back in year 2000 , It wont be a problem right?

Most of the information there would still be valid. Good luck!

kohr-ah

Check local library for books (ours has a ton of technical books)

YouTube, YouTube a lot of times even has some of the cbt nugget videos so you may be able to see some of the videos on there.

antielvis

atulpol wrote: »

Yups antilevis , My funds are very limited , That is the reason I have got the UNIX-The Complete Reference book for free from one of my seniors ,which was published back in year 2000 , It wont be a problem right?

That's one thing that's beautiful about UNIX or Linux. On the command line, many of the commands used 10 years ago are still relevant and much of the file structure & configuration is the same. A poster mentioned Youtube & indeed, there are many tutorials available on Youtube which are quite good.

Have you considered contacting a Linux Users Group or a University with a Computer Science club? They don't always allow in outside members but they may have mailing lists & online books. Try the Waterloo Computer Users Club at University of Waterloo About the CSC I use their mirrors as they have an extensive selection of linux/bsd distros amongst other cool stuff.

UnixGuy

Make sure you understand the difference between Unix and Linux. Good luck

JDMurray

Learning to use an operating system by reading books is like learning to play the piano by watching someone else play. You can only really learn UNIX--or any OS for that matter--using a hands-on approach.

So after you buy those books and bookmark those Websites, download VMware Player or VirtualBox and a distro of FreeBSD or OpenBSD and get your fingers dirty.

lsud00d

UnixGuy wrote: »

Make sure you understand the difference between Unix and Linux. Good luck

I enjoyed the documentary Revolution OS. It should help OP, and anyone for that matter understand where Linux came from and some of the ways it differentiates from Unix

Revolution OS Linux Documentary 2001 FULL Movie - YouTube

phoeneous

UnixGuy wrote: »

Make sure you understand the difference between Unix and Linux. Good luck

One is spelled with an L, the other isnt

JDMurray

99% of the difference is in the kernels. Everything above that can be the same on both.

UnixGuy

@lsud00d: +1 for Revolution OS, excellent documentary!

JDMurray wrote: »

99% of the difference is in the kernels. Everything above that can be the same on both.

There are differences when it comes to system administration. As someone who started with UNIX and later on moved to Linux, I noticed that many people (in the IT industry) still don't know the difference between the two. I also found that the transition from UNIX to Linux to be easy, but not so easy from UNIX to Linux (I could be wrong though). I also noticed that many universities still live in the past and don't teach the students important relevant stuff.

Cyberhooligan

It's hard for you to learn *NIX from a thick manual I believe. go practice on real machine.

JDMurray

UnixGuy wrote: »

There are differences when it comes to system administration.

The differences are in the software tools avaialble to perform sysadmin tasks. The Linux community tends to write a lot of tools because of all the different opinions of what a proper flavor of Linux looks and feels like. The UNIX community is much more aligned and traditional and not so "app happy" when it comes to managing UNIX itself. Both UNIX and Linux allow you to write your own tools and scripts if you don't like what's available, and that's what's really important.

UnixGuy

JDMurray wrote: »

The UNIX community is much more aligned and traditional and not so "app happy" when it comes to managing UNIX itself..

This is true, but to expand my point further, it sometimes hard for a Linux admin to jump right into a UNIX role. For example, someone with 5+ yrs of Linux administration will not be able to expand a Solaris VxVM volume under Veritas Cluster control, it's a different kind of experience. The good (or bad) news is, Linux is taking over the market, and we will see more DevOps and automation too.

gbdavidx

should one learn debian or centos for the first time?

jibbajabba

gbdavidx wrote: »

should one learn debian or centos for the first time?

I'd be inclined to say it is personal preference. I personally prefer RedHat based distributions but most companies I worked for used Ubuntu alongside RedHat (RedHat mainly when Oracle is needed).

docrice

My two cents...

I think it was over decade ago when I first jumped into the Linux world. It was something I knew I "had" to learn, so I went with Red Hat 7.3. I had no idea what I was doing aside from a few basic commands, and coming from the DOS/Windows world (I started with DOS 5 back in the early '90s), it was a shell-shocker (if you'll excuse the pun, Ithankyou) because I didn't understand the file system layout, the minor differences in syntax, among other things. Very aggravating.

Having the books help, but banging your head against the wall a few times trying to figure something out is also part of the experience which molds you. It's something to be embraced, odd as it may sound.

CentOS and Ubuntu tend to be the more common Linux distributions used in the enterprise that I've seen. Whatever you go with, you probably want the version of the distribution that doesn't have a GUI environment so you're forced to learn the CLI. Looking at online resources, I'm sure you'll find conflicting advice on how to do various tasks, but that's part of the game as there are many different ways to do the same thing. Doing it all in a virtual environment using VMware or VirtualBox can be an immense time-saver these days.

JDMurray

Also everyone realize that most Linux distros today are based on a more fundamental Linux distro. For example, Ubuntu is based on Debian and CentOS is based on RedHat (Fedora). The based distros are known as upstream source distributions.