casey fraites wrote:
> thank you for your time Ronan
>
> For your insite on networking with linux I am college
> student and I help out at a local computer shop in
> town I am looking to network a small amount of
> computers what brand of linux would you recommend I
> hear that redhat is used mostly in enterprise and
> small businesses Is there tutoruals on the net to
> help learn the basics of operating linux ??
What kind of user do you want to be? Do you want to help your computer
shop by installing and supporting Linux on white boxes (major
involvement)? Do you just want to use Linux as a Desktop for word
processing, email, etc. (very little tutorial needed, especially if
someone else sets-up your box). Software Developer (a special breed of
insanity on any platform)? Do you want to set-up a home LAN or your own
ISP? What you want to use Linux for will dictate what kind of
books/tutorials that you need, and should influence how you initially
approach Linux.
There are many books on learning Linux or using Linux. The O'Reilly
books are solid, but they seem a bit technical for a first book. The
Hillsborough County Public Library system has quite a few
introduction-grade books on Linux (including Linux for Dummies). If you
need to pick-up an elective, or a CS class, any basic course on UNIX
will teach you a lot about the underlying structures of Linux (commands,
filesystem layout, lore, etc.) in case you want to know the gory details.
I have used SuSE for the last five years. I like the installer (which
does a great job of recognizing your hardware and configuring your
system to match) and the packages which are installed and configured
automatically. Honestly, once a machine is installed and configured the
way that you like it, all of the major distros work in pretty-much the
same way (which is no surprise when you figure that the most important
differentiating factor between distros is the installer software). Red
Hat is not only common in Enterprises; it is very popular for home use,
and Mandrake which is popular primarly in homes is based on Red Hat.
If you want to play with Linux without a major investment of time or
knowledge, you can bring your box to a SLUG meeting and you should find
someone who will help install and configure Linux for you. Then you can
use it as a Desktop and let your learning be driven by your needs. If
you are going to do this, you should coordinate on the list to make sure
that someone will be at the meeting who can help, and that someone will
be bringing a distro to install.
--ronan
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