Unix training source needed

[Peter James]

I am a total newbie when it comes to Unix. Can anyone
point me in the direction of a free and good on-line
training site suitable for someone like me? A site
that they can actually recomend would be very useful.

Many thanks,

Peter

[Andrew Gabriel]

Post by Peter James
I am a total newbie when it comes to Unix. Can anyone
point me in the direction of a free and good on-line
training site suitable for someone like me? A site
that they can actually recomend would be very useful.

You'll probably need to narrow things down a bit to get
any useful replies. e.g.
What area of unix (sysadmin, app development, kernel
development, performance tuning, system architecture, etc)
Which unix (e.g. Solaris, AIX, Linux, etc).
In the case of development, what languages, what type of
apps, etc.
Might also be useful to know what your current background
(if any) is in computing.

[Peter James]

Post by Andrew Gabriel

Post by Peter James
I am a total newbie when it comes to Unix. Can anyone
point me in the direction of a free and good on-line
training site suitable for someone like me? A site
that they can actually recomend would be very useful.

You'll probably need to narrow things down a bit to get
any useful replies. e.g.
What area of unix (sysadmin, app development, kernel
development, performance tuning, system architecture, etc)
Which unix (e.g. Solaris, AIX, Linux, etc).
In the case of development, what languages, what type of
apps, etc.
Might also be useful to know what your current background
(if any) is in computing.

I never thought it would be so complicated.
I run an Apple iMac and using the terminal I have just installed
slrn. I found the process interesting but very difficult and
frustrating. I tried to install other Unix software but found it
impossible given the level of my present knowledge.

I decided I would like to learn more about the Unix
system, it's use as an alternative to the dreaded windows and I
thought it would be interesting to try and become competent in
its use.
So that, in a nutshell is what it's all about.

My current packground in computing is as a user only, I am a
retired civil servant with lots of time to dedicate to this
project.

Peter

[John McCue]

<snip>

Post by Peter James
I never thought it would be so complicated.
I run an Apple iMac and using the terminal I have just installed
slrn. I found the process interesting but very difficult and
frustrating. I tried to install other Unix software but found it
impossible given the level of my present knowledge.

What is the "other software" ? I never used a mac,
but AFAIK it should have enough installed to learn
quite a bit about shell scripting and command line
tools.

Post by Peter James
I decided I would like to learn more about the Unix
system, it's use as an alternative to the dreaded windows and I
thought it would be interesting to try and become competent in
its use.
So that, in a nutshell is what it's all about.
My current packground in computing is as a user only, I am a
retired civil servant with lots of time to dedicate to this
project.

does "man ls" work ? If so reading man pages is a
decent start. You can also try searching for "UNIX
command line" and "UNIX shell"

Post by Peter James
Peter

regards,
John

[Peter James]

Post by John McCue
<snip>

Post by Peter James
I never thought it would be so complicated.
I run an Apple iMac and using the terminal I have just installed
slrn. I found the process interesting but very difficult and
frustrating. I tried to install other Unix software but found it
impossible given the level of my present knowledge.

What is the "other software" ? I never used a mac,
but AFAIK it should have enough installed to learn
quite a bit about shell scripting and command line
tools.

I thought I would try and install Alpine as I used to use Pine some years ago.
I thought it would be easy and after considerable trouble and error messages
I gave up.
Then I discovered MacPorts and installed it in about 2 minutes. Easypeasy!
I've also since discovered a free traininng course for Unix on the net. So
maybe I've solved my own problem.
But thanks for replying.
Peter

Post by John McCue

Post by Peter James
I decided I would like to learn more about the Unix
system, it's use as an alternative to the dreaded windows and I
thought it would be interesting to try and become competent in
its use.
So that, in a nutshell is what it's all about.
My current packground in computing is as a user only, I am a
retired civil servant with lots of time to dedicate to this
project.

does "man ls" work ? If so reading man pages is a
decent start. You can also try searching for "UNIX
command line" and "UNIX shell"

Post by Peter James
Peter

regards,
John

[Kevin Bowling]

Post by Peter James

Post by Andrew Gabriel

Post by Peter James
I am a total newbie when it comes to Unix. Can anyone
point me in the direction of a free and good on-line
training site suitable for someone like me? A site
that they can actually recomend would be very useful.

You'll probably need to narrow things down a bit to get
any useful replies. e.g.
What area of unix (sysadmin, app development, kernel
development, performance tuning, system architecture, etc)
Which unix (e.g. Solaris, AIX, Linux, etc).
In the case of development, what languages, what type of
apps, etc.
Might also be useful to know what your current background
(if any) is in computing.

I never thought it would be so complicated.
I run an Apple iMac and using the terminal I have just installed
slrn. I found the process interesting but very difficult and
frustrating. I tried to install other Unix software but found it
impossible given the level of my present knowledge.
I decided I would like to learn more about the Unix
system, it's use as an alternative to the dreaded windows and I
thought it would be interesting to try and become competent in
its use.
So that, in a nutshell is what it's all about.
My current packground in computing is as a user only, I am a
retired civil servant with lots of time to dedicate to this
project.
Peter

I would recommend some higher goal such as software development. Using
a unix system isn't that much different than any other computer system
in that it is just an interface or barrier to do what you are actually
trying to do. There's a reason why tablets and things like ChromeOS are
so popular, many people just need the OS out of the way :). On the
other hand, unix has a lot of facilities that make software development
and building network infrastructure more pleasant.

Installing FreeBSD in a VM or on and old PC would be a good initial
pursuit and the docs are second to none
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/

You may then wish to pick up a book like "The UNIX Programming
Environment" that explains how things like sh, sed, awk, make, C etc
work together to become a compelling development environment.

Regards,
Kevin

[kaltheat]

Hi Peter,

Post by Peter James
I am a total newbie when it comes to Unix. Can anyone
point me in the direction of a free and good on-line
training site suitable for someone like me? A site
that they can actually recomend would be very useful.

For what I know the best training is to get things done with the OS you want to
learn. This will lead to a path where you stumble and bump on barriers from
time to time. You will do researches in manuals, on the net or in books and
will be able to ask detailed questions in forums and you will overcome those
barriers. This way you constantly gain insights of how your OS works, what
tools it has and how you can use those tools in a proper manner.

If you want to learn Unix this might be difficult as Unix is not a single OS.
There are many OSs out there working similiar, but quite different in some
places. Personally I think that OSX is an unclean and confusing "Unix" (as it
is optimized to keep the user apart from the internals). If you want more pure
Unix experience, I would recommend you to use a BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, ...).
FreeBSD for instance has a big handbook with lots of explainations and examples
and a helpful user-base with mailinglist, forums, local user-groups, ...

Regards,
kaltheat