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well i've finally decided its time to get rid of windows. i'd like to install linux or unix although i dont know to much about them. i'd love to get something on here and then buy a book and just fool around. but i've heard that unix and linux are quite different and i really have no idea what one i should get. a little help??
hmm,
I am guessing that you have an intel based computer.
though, you may have and AMD set up...
There are many different distros of linux available to you. I only know of 2 Unix distros, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, also I that SUN has recently released a version of Solaris which will run on and intel system, woohoo.
There is a difference between linux and Unix, though I would be hard pressed to explain it. From what I understand, the basic difference is in what the roots of the OS is.
Linux was designed to be an Open Source Alternative to the (typically very expensive)main stream unix OS's.
The basic commands and directory structures, etc are basically the same.
Bottom line, if you are just learning, go with a linux distro, learn all you can and then consider going with on of the unix distros.
From a newbie point of view, I would say, definitely install one of the Linux distros. Redhat, mandrake or SUSE would be a good choice.
All of those are fairly easy to install, and they will let you acquire a feel for operating in a *nix environment.
until you gain an understanding of how to use *nix, I am not sure that it matters what you use, as long as it is easy to get started. And that would definitely be one of the 3 distros of Linux I mentioned above.
There may indeed be good reasons to go with one of the Unix OS's instead of linux, but if you have a compelling reason why you have to use one or the other you probably should not be trying to set it up as a newbie. Knowledge of the OS, and how to manipulate it and how to secure it is something that comes with experience. I dont think that you could really install one of the Unix options and have it ready to use in production until you have a lot more experience with a *nix environment.
Call me full of **** if you want, but at least let me know who is saying it.
Good Luck,
IchNiSan
I agree with starting with linux.
If you are looking for a good book for linux then, try going for
"Linux Fourth Edition"
author-- Richard Petersen
publisher-- Osborne
Comes with-- Linux 7.1
It covers linux pretty well and will definately start you off on your way with linux, but i would also recomend going to a form of Unix after you have a good handle on linux.
the most common ones are (as IchNiSan just stated) are
openBSD freeBSD and netBSD.
however i personally think the one made by sun is a peice of S***, too unsecure.
i would also suggest keeping windows (gag) on hand do to the "more software" thing. at leas til Linux, and BSD implement their adaptTIC emulation terminal.
hope this can help you
If you want a system that is easy to configure, has plenty of applications, games, and other goodies as part of the default install, pick either Suse or Mandrake Linux. They will get you over your Windows addiction quickly.
If you want to dive in deep and learn the guts of Linux early on, and you are looking for more than just point and click computing, go with Slackware Linux.
If you want to do all of that reading, compiling and other computer geek stuff, plus run a pure Unix with a HUGE number of packages available, then go with FreeBSD.
Unix differs from Linux in a few ways, but the top three are the Kernel, the default shells, and the file system. Other than that they use essentially the same commands and software. Just about anything available for Linux can be run on FreeBSD and vice versa. The one exception to this at the moment seems to be commercial closed source drivers, of which there are quite a few for Linux and almost none for FreeBSD, although the ones developed by the BSD team are really good.
Some of the Unix flavors include: AIX (IBM), IRIX (SGI), Tru64 Unix (Compaq), Ultrix (Digital), Digital Unix (Digital), SCO, SunOS (Sun), Solaris (Sun), BSD/OS, BSDi, HP-UX (HP), OSF/1, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, OSX (Mac), Xenix (Microsoft), Plan 9 (AT&T), OpenSTEP, NeXT, NeXTSTEP, Pyramid, Rhapsody and a few others. Trivia :D Microsoft had a version of Unix called Xenix in the early 80's, they actually released it a year before MS-DOS. Xenix only lasted about 5 years, mostly becasue the widely used Unix flavors were already established before MS hit the scene.
Of Course the List of Linux flavors is equally impressive, the key difference is that all Linux's use the same kernel. Unix's do not all use the sam kernel, some of them have origianl AT&T code left over from 1973, and some like OpenBSD are a complete re-write from the ground up. Another big difference is probably that while Linux *is* an operating system, Unix is not, it is a philosophy of OS design rather than an OS, in this way it is correct to call Linux a Unix.
Hope this helped. :D