Thread: Mission Unix Dumb-Ass to Unix-guru

  1. #1
    Student Forever! bookworm's Avatar
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    Mission Unix Dumb-Ass to Unix-guru

    I'm basically a hardcore Windows(.net to be precise)programmer(Its not in the syllbus,yet,its my hobby)I only know VB.net,C++,a bit of C#,HTML and JAVA.However,in this semester,I've got to learn C and Unix.I've never even seen a linux/Unix screen!
    Somebody please give me diretions to good refrence sites and tuts. for Unix.Don't name any books cause I've got to study from only university prescribed books.
    Thnks.

  2. #2
    &TH of undefined behavior Fordy's Avatar
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    Your best bet is to create a partition on your disk and load it up.....it's free to download linux.....the only cost is a bit of reading to set it up (discussed many times on this board and uncountable times on the net) and a little hard disk space...then you can experiment as much as you want

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    The best one by far would have to be www.linux.com . Then there is an old forum at www.linuxquestions.org. They can answer just about anything.
    "When I die I want to pass peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

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    Registered User FloatingPoint's Avatar
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    If you could handle those programming languages, I doubt it if you wouldnt be able to handle Linux.

    Not that hard really, just make sure during installation you know your way around all those partitions as not to accidentally wipe your Windows files, that is if you're dual booting, which is likely what you're gonna do anyway.

    HERE's a good resource for questions you might have during your experimenting w/ it.

    I could also suggest that you go w/ the "friendlier" distros, the likes of RedHat 8 or 9, Mandrake 9, Libranet 2.8, SuSe 8.2.

    If there's a need to have a UNIX on your system, give FreeBSD 4.8 a try. That's the most stable so far from them.

    Luck

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    Registered User codingmaster's Avatar
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    Important websites:
    www.linuxiso.org
    www.kernel.org
    www.xfree.org
    www.linux.org
    www.linuxfromscratch.org

    You can download a user friendly Linux version at www.linuxiso.org for free.

    It think, that the best Linux newbie distro is Mandrake Linux.

    I've started 2 years ago using Linux and used Mandrake..... after a time, when you know Linux u wanna have a better Distro (like Debian or Gentoo) or configuring your own Linux distro (LFS-> www.linuxfromscratch.org)

    Have a look at www.mandrake.com and download the iso's at www.linuxiso.org

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    Student Forever! bookworm's Avatar
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    Wait a minute here,please!Let me scratch my head for a moment,let me bite my nails for a second.
    As I mentioned earlier,I've no history with Linux and Unix and those "free" OS's whatsoever.So I would like to thank u all for the links, but its time for the Question Of the Day award!
    Q) Is Unix and Linux same???!!!
    I wanna know about Unix , not Linux,if at all they are different.

    P.S.Can Unix run with WinXP or Win98 on the same computer?

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    I think linux is based off the unix shell. And if you patrion your harddrive you can run 2 diff os' on the same computer using boot disk floppys.
    "When I die I want to pass peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

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    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    You don't even need a floppy. Let lilo take care of it for you; that's what I've been doing.

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    I needed a floppy when I gave it a go for partioning my harddrive. I ended up booting right to Linux and some linux files were corrupted so I couldn't open a thing or move my mouse. So I had to get my entire harddrive cleared. No more partioning for me!
    "When I die I want to pass peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

  10. #10
    Registered User codingmaster's Avatar
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    I wanna know about Unix , not Linux,if at all they are different.
    Linux is based on Unix, Linux is even better than Unix.....

    Unix was used in the 80s and Linus Torvalds wrote a system, which worked like Unix and called it Linux

  11. #11
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    Originally posted by ZakkWylde969
    I needed a floppy when I gave it a go for partioning my harddrive. I ended up booting right to Linux and some linux files were corrupted so I couldn't open a thing or move my mouse. So I had to get my entire harddrive cleared. No more partioning for me!
    Ouch

    Just sayin' you don't need a floppy.

    edit:
    He's right
    vvvvvvvvvvvv

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    Linux is based on Unix, Linux is even better than Unix.....

    Unix was used in the 80s and Linus Torvalds wrote a system, which worked like Unix and called it Linux
    /me slaps codingmaster across the face

    linux is not better than unix! in fact most of the large websites you visit will be running a form of unix... unix is not dead and very much alive and still widely in use! freebsd, netbsd, openbsd and osx? ring a bell?

    lastly UNIX != LINUX

    my advice bookworm is give freebsd a try www.freebsd.org
    Last edited by ZerOrDie; 07-15-2003 at 12:24 PM.

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    Originally posted by Govtcheez
    Ouch

    Just sayin' you don't need a floppy.

    he said he wanted to partion it with Windows. So if you boot to Windows after the partion on startup you need a disk floppy to boot to Linux and vice versa.
    "When I die I want to pass peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

  14. #14
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    Hey, remember when I said you didn't? Yeah, I was serious.

    edit: Dude, you should really accept that sometimes you don't know everything.

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    Huh? If you have a computer with both windows and linux on your computer. When you turn on the computer it goes to windows. Now If you shut off your computer put a boot disk for linux in then start up your computer. It will go to linux. There isn't any other way to do it partioned that I know of.
    "When I die I want to pass peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

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