I'd suggest learning Linux specifically at this point, as it is quickly gaining popularity in many areas. Additionally, as Linux is part of the "UNIX family", what you learn about Linux will translate pretty well to other *NIX operating systems.

A great way to start learning Linux without even having to install it on your computer is to get one of the "Live" Linux versions which runs soley off of a CD. Knoppix is probably the most popular distribution of this type, but there are many others.
Although these versions of Linux will run more slowly than a version which you install directly to hard drive, because they do not alter your hard drive at all, you don't have to worry about modifying your existing (probably Windows) system in any way. Of course, if you want to dive right in to the real thing, you can either make a partition for Linux on your current hard drive or add a second drive just for Linux. If you currently have Windows installed on the machine you want to put Linux on, the Windows installation should be detected during the Linux installation process, and Linux will automatically configure your system to give you a choice of loading either Win or Linux when you boot.

There are tons of online Linux resources, the Linux Documentation Project being one of the most comprehensive. The site has a huge collection of online books, guides, HOW-TOs, etc. covering aspects of Linux from beginner-level to quite advanced. I'd also suggest buying one or two hard-copy books as "hands-on" references. O'Reilly Press publishes many excellent Linux books; "Running Linux" and "Linux in a Nutshell" are two good titles for beginners.

For help with specific Linux questions, there are obviously many online Linux support sites with friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable members. My two favorites are *cough**shameless plug**cough* www.justlinux.com and www.linuxquestions.org.

i believe that you should really learn linux as well since as stated before it is in the unix family so much of what you learn will beable to be used on any unix box. that is what i have noticed anyway. the two books mentioned above are great books as they are o'reilly books and i find that any book from them is normally not notch
i have also heard that the linux bible books are great too. they have them for specific distros as well
and as for a linux suport site my fav would have to be <shamelessplug> www.linuxforums.org </shamelessplug>

but this site is also great for linux help as there are ppl here from many different linux support forums like me from linuxforums.org and alot of ppl from justlinux.com and linuxquestions.org so if you stay around here there is always linux ppl around

Yeah, the site admin over there has put a price on Dani's head for stealing Alex (alc6379) and I from him. :mrgreen:

Hello,

I started with Linux many moons ago with RedHat 5.2 and with MKLinux on the PowerMac.

I would go with what DMR and K offered; but going with your mention of being a Windoze administrator, you probably want to install it and get going to see the guts of the OS. I would go with Fedora Linux, and / or RedHat 9. (Fedora is more recent).

To get Linux working on a computer, I would go with a Pentium II - III, 256 MB RAM, and a 5 GB hard drive or so. Give yourself some room to play. IF you would like a book, I suggest the Wiley Yellow / Black books RedHat 9 Linux Bible (or the Fedora Bible).

Also agree that if you have questions, feel free to ask! Linux is a NOS from the start -- so you can setup windows file sharing, Mac file sharing. My Linux box also thinks it is a Netware 3.x bindery server!

Christian

yeah i just didnt tell the admin at linuxforums.org (where i mod too) that i am modding over here to. if so i cant remember tho

but as for what distro i would say start out with say fedora get the feel of linux or something like that but if you really want to get down and dirt with linux you should think about a different distro like slackware (best distro in my mind ) or gentoo. but the problem with gentoo is that it has not installer at all but this also means that you learn alot just installing the system and slackware is the oldest distro of linux available today as for on the 11th of this month it will be exactly 11 years old and it is probably the most unix like distro out there its really not that hard to get installed on my first time i messed on on the boot stuff but my second time i had it in a few seconds and have never had a problem since i say it is my favorite distro. but you will hear this from everyone and everyone will ahve a different opinion on the best distro out there everyone supports there own distro

edit: i just relized how many smiles i used lol

Hello All,

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think I can get my hands on a copy of redhat 8. Does it have the same features as version 9? I really don't think it matters since my experience with Linux is nil. But thanks again for the tips and links to excellent support sites. :mrgreen:

You're really going to want to get the most recent version of Red Hat. If you can't download it, I suggest trying to find someone who can. Ideally, you'd want to look at either RedHat 9 or Fedora Core. Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat, and is intended for home/personal use. It will be more updated than Red Hat 8, which is important for the sake of hardware compatibility.

There are a number of great Linux distributions. My personal favorite for a new user is Mandrake Linux, version 10. I'm sure people will argue with me, but I've set it up for people who know very little about computers at all. I decided to get "down to their level", and configure everything they'd need through the GUI. Lo and behold, it was the first distro I've used that allowed me to do that! In others, the GUI configuration was buggy, or it was inflexible. I was surprised that I was able to configure everything I needed with Mandrake. Not only that, but once you want to get down to the metal with things, the configuration files were easy enough to read and understand, and it wasn't too difficult to configure everything from the commandline, too.

Yes- newer versions will have better/broader support for hardware devices; you'll stand a better chance of having Linux properly detect and configure all of your devices if you go with a more current version.

Before trying to install any given Linux flavor, go to the distributor's support site and look at the Hardware Compatibility List for the particular version you want to install. If the HCL doesn't list one of your devices as certified/tested, you might have to install third-party drivers to get the device to work, or it may not even work at all.

I recommend trying out some Live CD's like PCLinuxOS, Knoppix, and MEPIS before you really get into it. That way you don't have to install onto your hard drive and you can get a feel for the menu's and what not of the Xwindows environment. Then when you choose to later install a linux distro you'll have the 'feel' for it.

The largest difference will be getting familiar with the linux shell...which is comparable slightly to DOS for windows...that's when you'll need to frequent the forums posted about earlier!