Unix Help for Unix Dummy

kmick · 12-01-2005 1:42pm #1

Hi,
I am about to buy a laptop and have to put Unix on it so I can learn the O/S the VI Editor, Some Scripting etc. A few questions.
1) What is the easiest flavour to buy.
2) What is learning curve like.
3) I have used Solaris before should I go for this again.
4) Do the new Unix packages have a GUI (I know Im clueless please dont roast me).
5) Any good online tutorials to recommend for VI/UNIX Generally.

Thanks!

shakenbake · 12-01-2005 3:17pm

1) What is the easiest flavour to buy.

This is really a matter of personal preference. I've used redhat, mandrake, debian and gentoo. I've dropped each one because something about the o/s terminally pissed me off. Gentoo is fantastic though, but not for the faint hearted if your just getting into linux.

Check out Fedora (you will anyway :-) and Linspire, but before you do any of that check out Knoppix. You can download it and run it totally from cd-rom or ram before you install it. It will give you a good idea about where desktop linux is at the moment.

2) What is learning curve like.

It can be quite steep depending on your experience and what you want out of your o/s. It *should* be steep though as far as I'm concerned as the more intimate you *have* to get to know your o/s the better and more valuable tool it will become. Others would disagree though. The excellent thing about linux is that their is alot of documentation and people out there that will be more than eager to help you.

3) I have used Solaris before should I go for this again.
Unless you've got a sparc to put it on I wouldn't really bother. Solaris x86 is a bit of a joke.

4) Do the new Unix packages have a GUI (I know Im clueless please dont roast me).

Some do, some don't. Anything you need to use day-to-day, mail, www etc will have a nice frontend if you prefer it that way.

5) Any good online tutorials to recommend for VI/UNIX Generally.
Loads! check out www.linuxgazette.com for starters, I've always found this to be a great general resource for n00bs and 1337's alike!

Syth · 12-01-2005 8:49pm

1. Firstly you can get a unix OS like Linux or {Free,Net,Open}BSD for free off the internet.

4. GUIs. Lots of packages have GUIs, some tools don't, but there are frequently other packages that are GUI front ends, (I'm thinking cdrecord here). Some distributions have GUIs for system configuration. I had Fedora Core 2 (and Red Hat 9) and they had GUIs for configuring. I'm on Slackware 10 now, and it has few GUIs.

5. I use Vim (Vi Improved) religiously. There should be a programme with vim called vimtutor that will allow you to learn the basics. Vi(m) is very confusing for new users who don't know how Vi(m) works.

And http://www.linuxquestions.org is a huge forum with.. you guessed it, line questions. It's a good resource.

aidan_walsh · 12-01-2005 9:03pm

Syth wrote:

1. Firstly you can get a unix-like OS like Linux or {Free,Net,Open}BSD for free off the internet.

Edited for correction.

nadir · 12-01-2005 9:59pm

"toshiba laptop || sony vaio" & gentoo live cd & broadband & coffee =

kmick · 13-01-2005 9:52am

Thanks for the info - will check out those sites.

kmick · 13-01-2005 10:21am

Gonna give Knoppix a try - you can run it off a cd - what a novel idea.

egan007 · 13-01-2005 10:23am

Unless you've got a sparc to put it on I wouldn't really bother. Solaris x86 is a bit of a joke.

I'm running solaris 10 on x86 now - it's far from a joke
Running it in 64 bit mode on an AMD64 - im laughing alright - but theres no joke!

Kali · 13-01-2005 10:26am

egan007 wrote:

I'm running solaris 10 on x86 now - it's far from a joke
Running it in 64 bit mode on an AMD64 - im laughing alright - but theres no joke!

Solaris still ship without gcc?

egan007 · 13-01-2005 10:30am

bash-3.00$ which gcc
/usr/sfw/bin/gcc

Guess not

bbbbb · 13-01-2005 10:35am

worked with unix (AIX/Solaris or SunOS as it was) X11/Motif about 8-10 years ago. More recently I installed Suse 8 (think it's 9 now) on my PC, was very impressed with the ease of installation, wizard guided you through it and it seemed to detect all deviced no problems (USB is trick though). The sys admin stuff is made easy through gui tools (yast).

good luck

Syth · 13-01-2005 10:43am

doodle_sketch wrote:

Edited for correction.

True. But you could then get into semantics about the word unix.

aidan_walsh · 13-01-2005 10:44am

Syth wrote:

True. But you could then get into semantics about the word unix.

And Linux.

kdouglas · 13-01-2005 6:44pm

i've heard mandrake is the best OS for laptops, i use it on my laptop, and everything installed smoothly and auto-detected all my hardware, havent put too much into trying other flavours on laptops though.

Raskolnikov · 13-01-2005 6:56pm

kdouglas wrote:

i've heard mandrake is the best OS for laptops, i use it on my laptop, and everything installed smoothly and auto-detected all my hardware, havent put too much into trying other flavours on laptops though.

Yep, Unix can be a dog to install on lots of laptops, Mandrake is regarded as (and in my opinion is) the easiest OS to install.

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

Great little site which might help you find if your lappie supports a particular Linux distro.

nadir · 14-01-2005 4:22pm

yeah, but you'll want to be installing something like apt, which lets face it is a bit of a drag.

Unix Help for Unix Dummy

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