Unix beginner...?

i'm very interested in UNIX, but i know almost nothing about it...


How do I start learning...

Unix beginner...?
Take an old PC. Clean out the disks.





Wait!





Before you do that, download the ISO images from http://www.freebsd.org/where.html. Do yourself a favor and get the latest (6.2 as I write this answer). Create CD's from the ISO images. The first CD should be bootable.





Read the INSTALL and README and other documentation files on the first CD. Yes, really, read them.





Then boot your computer from the first disk and *READ* and follow the directions. THIS WILL WIPE OUT THE WINDOWS OS ON YOUR COMPUTER.





Be conservative about installing packages.





Do install the ports directory on your disk if you have the space.





Do install the source tree on you disk if you have the space.





Do have the space.





Log on as root, cd to /usr/share/doc/en and read the handbook, also available at http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859...





From there, you're on your own.





Now, that's just FreeBSD.





Once you understand it, then you can check out http://www.rpath.com for another flavor or Unix.





The great thing about Unix is that there are so many to choose from.
Reply:Also, I don't mean to be insulting if you already know this but, you should be sure you really want to learn Unix and not Linux. Unix is more rare outside of data-centers and larger enterprises. Linux is very common for developers and smaller websites. They are increasingly different the deeper you get into them but on the surface appear very similar.
Reply:Get and old computer and install the OS. It sounds simple but you never really learn except for hands on.


Sun Micro is now giving Solaris 10 away. It is a true Unix OS.


Go to your local computer (used) store and ask if they have any old SPARC computers. If not a P-III 500mhz with 512mb of RAM will do.





Here is the link to the OS.


For PC computer http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get....
Reply:This should get you started:





http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guide_to_UN...





The best way to learn is get on the system and start doing things. Learn how to use either emacs or vi editor also.