Is it a good idea to specialize only in Windows or should I also learn Linux & Mac OS

I'm just getting started with my IT career and I'm trying to figure out which technologies I should focus on studying. My ultimate goal is to one day be a Systems Administrator, but I know that I'm going to have to put in a few years as a Desktop Support Technician first.

I've played around a little bit with Mac OS X Leopard and the Ubuntu Linux distribution, and I am not really a fan of either; I enjoy working on Windows much more, but I'm worried that not being proficient in Mac OS and/or Linux may hurt my career.

So, do you think that I should just focus on what I really love and work towards becoming a master of Windows client and server operating systems, or should I take some time away from studying Windows to study Linux and/or Mac OS? Are there many employers that require Mac OS and/or Linux skills in addition to Windows skills?

Also, if I do study Linux, which distributions would be most valuable for me to study?

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Comments

crrussell3

Overall I think you would be better off focusing your study time towards windows only, but its hard to tell with the way the economy is. You would be surprised the amount of companies out there that are considering F/OSS as a way to save money (even though they might not don't understand the overhead involved in transitioning, training, gettings techs up to speed, etc).

A good indicator would be to browse your local job sites and see what skills employers are asking for with the jobs you would want to obtain in the future, and base it off that. The area you live in my have more demands for non-windows techs than others.

dales

Yes as stated above I would concerntrate on windows if I were you for the time being. As you are just starting out you are unlikely to get anything linux based to fiddle with which predominately are still back end servers. So concerntrate on MS desktop support studies (not the newest and greatest but the ones companies are actually using now, which is still mostly XP pro). When you get to desktop support or 2nd line then you can start dabbling in the world of *nix.

When you get there currently I would fiddle with centos (redhat derivative), but pretty much any distribution would give you a good starting point.

Forsaken_GA

I'm going to dissent from the crowd, and say you should get familiar with some form of unix, whether it be BSD, Linux, or what have you. Mixed environments are quite common, and even Microsoft knows it (to the point where they recently collaborated with the samba guys to make interoperability much better).

If you're mostly interested in the server side of things and want to learn some form of unix, the book Building A Server with FreeBSD is a pretty good primer. In the Unix world, you can't go wrong with being familiar with BSD, Solaris, Centos, and Debian.

Mostly it's up to you, do what you enjoy, but being a one trick pony in the IT world is a quickly disappearing option

mikedisd2

What they said. 90+% of the biz in Windows based environments so it makes sense to get some MS certs. Retain your Unix skills though, they will always be handy. Forget Apple; that's a niche market and time can be better spent attaining further reaching skills.

Sie

Stick with MS for the time being as your just starting out it can be very confusing mixing them all up together. The majority of companies use MS anyway so you cant really go wrong, there is nothing wrong with dappling with Linux from time to time so you learn enough to get by.

tpatt100

You need to learn Windows but from my experience the Unix guys are hard to come by. We had a guy go from level 1 helpdesk to Unix admin at my last job in less than a year. Reason being? NOBODY else was comfortable with HPUX and Solaris. Not that he was the best it was because NOBODY else was comfortable lol. This was a promote from within though which is the reason you need to learn Windows.

blargoe

IMO, you should specialize in one and know it backwards and forwards. If you already are pretty good with Windows, including everything related to Windows participating on a business network, OS maintenance and troubleshooting, etc, then maybe pick up a Linux book and work on basic OS maintenance kind of stuff, or how to accomplish something in Linux that you already know how to do on Windows... something like that... but not at the expense of working on the other areas that would be more worthy of your time... basic networking, DNS, basic security principles... are all areas of knowledge that you need to master as an aspiring systems administrator.

So back to your original question... if you're pumped about working on Windows systems and learning as much as you can, why fight it? You're highly motivated to work in that area, your studies will naturally be more focused, and you will excel in that area. Be all you can be, and when the time is right, move on to the next thing to study. And while there might be an argument for or against specialization or generalization, I don't think anyone would argue that it's a bad thing to have an area in which you really shine.

Stick with MS for the time being as your just starting out it can be very confusing mixing them all up together..

I agree with this point, and would like to add, if you really understand an OS (ie, Windows), having that as a reference point really accelerates the understanding when you try to accomplish the same thing in another os (OSX or Linux or Unix), and in understanding what one OS can bring to the table that another one can not.

shodown

I say start out with learning one thing that you like, then once you are comfortable with it, start dabbling with other things. Its good to be to be comfortable outside you comfort zone. Like I'm a Cisco guy, but I can log into a windows server, check the event log and at least start some troubleshooting until the appropiate people are summoned.

Daniel333

The reality is you are going to be doing it all and be expected to know it pretty well.

SANs, Linux, Windows, Macintosh, Blackberry Server, SQl you name it.

Where are you now as far as experience and certification?

HeroPsycho

In my experience, when you try to become an admin, it's best to know some about a lot of things, but the next step is to become an expert about a more narrow subject. With that said, an admin must be pretty good at something to matter (not great).

Translation: Focus on Windows until you know it pretty darn well to admin it. Then, particularly if your job you have or the jobs you are interested in getting require knowledge of others, branch out.

I never did much work professionally with linux, unix, or Macs, and it didn't hurt my career one bit.

pwjohnston

When I was in school for this (2000ish) our primary classes were in Windows 2000, but we also had classes in Solaris 8 (Unix), Cisco, and Novel Netware 4 or 5 I can't remember. God I wished I had paid more attention in the Unix and Cisco classes.

My point is focus on what you want to learn, but if you are given the opportunity to learn and work on other systems in the future, don't overlook them.

Also, if I were going to focus on learning *nix I would focus either on a RedHat derivative (CentOS, Fedora) or Solaris.

Tony138

Daniel333 wrote: »

Where are you now as far as experience and certification?

I have very little professional IT experience, but I do have a degree in CIS, A+ certification, Network+ certification, CCNA, and MCSA. I feel very comfortable working with XP/Vista/7 and I'm continually getting more and more comfortable with Windows Server 2003, but I know that I still have much to learn, and then there is Server 2008 and technologies like Exchange Server and SharePoint Server that I have not ever dabbled with yet.

AlexMR

tpatt100 is sooo right. If you are just starting and you love Windows that is the path you should take, but I would make an effort at some point to learn Linux and maybe even get linux+ or some of LPI's certs. Linux servers are growing, and for obvious reasons many IT pros are not too much into them. That gives you a great opportunity for growth, as tpatt's example.

Focus on Windows and become a Master as you said. In the meantime learn some linux because it wont hurt you. Being the jack of all trades seems to be a very good way to land a decent job in the field in this times, but that takes way too much time. I should receive a job offer this week. It will be as network admin (cisco) and the job is available because the guy they had quit. He was the server, network and systems admin with just one other "it guy" to help him. They thought his qualities were more common and are now having a hard time replacing him, so they decided to hire three people to do the job he was doing. The guys is apparently very good and had been in the field for 10 years.

UnixGuy

Specialize in one thing, and know a little bit of everything else.

With Microsoft, I find networking (for example Cisco CCNA) entry level knowledge is very helpful.

Also, knowledge of backup softwares such as Netbackup or Backup Exec is useful.

Hardware knowledge is also valuable.

SAN knowledge is priceless.