This is probably the one I would recommend since it is the most complete and easy to use: http://www.ubuntu.co…

If you are going to end up putting it on a really old machine that does not have very many resources, this is a very light weight version of basically the same thing: http://www.xubuntu.o…

Let me know if you have questions…

I have one of those. How close is it to actual unix? I want practice so that I can be qualified to be a Unix Admin.

In practice the closest thing you are going to get to Unix is Linux or BSD. A Unix Admin would be working primarily with different builds of Linux. The most popular build of linux right now is probably CentOS because of the support contract, but Ubuntu is starting to make serious headway into that market with the introduction of support contracts and a solid base product.

One of your main problems in learning this is that a lot of the ‘usability’ stuff in the OS is going to mask the actual commands getting run. Your best friend will be the Terminal because it is basically a window to the soul of linux (or any unix like system). Mac OSX is actually built on a unix like system now, but you would not really know it because of all the usability features.

You will probably want to start with Ubuntu and get a feel for it. Learn where things are in the file structure working your way up from ‘/’. Once you get a feel for that, you may want to install something like Debian (what Ubuntu is built from) on another partition and try to work with it without a UI and see if you can make it do the stuff you want to do. A good example would be to install and setup a LAMP stack and serve web pages to your private network.

Although Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian and Mac OSX are all technically Unix like systems, the way they deal with applications and store files can be quite different. You will find this out when you try to setup the same LAMP stack you set up on Ubuntu and Debian on a CentOS machine.

Let me know if you have questions, but that should get you going.

I’ve tried the FreeBSD but I can’t seem to get it to boot correctly. It starts booting and the prompt gets to A and freezes. ????

Ya I have used FreeBSD, but it was not that easy to figure out. Its possible that there is no GUI installed on the FreeBSD distro you have and that may be why it does not go past that screen. If that is the case, then you would be able to type on that screen. If it does actually freeze (you cant type), then you will want to change the settings in your BIOS so that it shows the execution of the startup scripts and you will be able to see what is happening and what operation is is freezing on and you may be able to troubleshoot from there. In FreeBSD, they may give you something like ‘Verbose Mode’ or something (instead of having to change anything in the BIOS) that will show you all of the commands being run.

I would recommend installing Ubuntu initially and get a feel for it. They have made it pretty easy to get started and going. With other distros it can be a real PITA to get stupid stuff like internet and such working and you will end up troubleshooting more than its worth.

Once you get a feel for Ubuntu, then checkout Debian. It is going to be kind of like being thrown right into the fire, but the structure of everything will be the same as Ubuntu, so it is a good next step of you get your feet wet with Ubuntu.

Got the latest Ubuntu loaded on a USB stick. Boots perfectly and works faster than Explorer on the computer.

Ya that is expected. Ubuntu will probably out perform Windows by a large margin, especially on older machines. I played World of Warcraft for a little while, and the machine I was using at the time was way below the required specs for the game. I tried to play it on Windows and it wouldn’t work at all. I reinstalled with Ubuntu and ran it through the winex emulator and it worked perfectly. On linux I was outperforming people in benchmarks who had twice the machine I had, but they were running Windows.

The reason that Windows is so heavy is because it loads every possible ‘plug and play’ type option that it thinks it could need on boot. This means that ‘out of the box’ everything will just work with Windows (or theoretically it will), but the price is that a large portion of your resources are no longer available to you, the user, because the system is using them.

Ubuntu takes a different approach. When it boots, it looks at what peripherals and such you have attached, and it will only load the required ones for your configuration (maybe some other default ones, but not everything under the sun). This means that it runs leaner and will give you, the user, more the system’s resources to work with. The caveat with this is that you may not have truly ‘plug and play’ environment. If for example, you plug a usb webcam into your machine once it is booted, it may not recognize it right away. In order for it to be recognized, the best bet is to just leave it plugged in and reboot. The OS will recognize that the webcam is plugged in and will load the required files to use it.

Basically, if you ever have problems with Ubuntu, the best option as a first step of troubleshooting is to reboot and let the OS try to resolve the issue.

Have you tried vmware server?

You can get a free Solaris 10 download from the Sun website (not Opensolaris).
Pretty easy to get certified on this rather than working and studying on the many flavours of Linux. Plus you can then go on a work on the many Enterprise softwares and virtualization technologies around it. Ubuntu is okay for spotty students to get started. For real employment opportunities, work on the enterprise grade Unix variants.

Thanks! I’ve got the cds. I could make an iso and then run it on vmware at uni to get practice.

And speaking of uni, do you know of any that teach some classes using english as the primary language? Just a lark, if the opportunity happens.