*nix to learn for employment?

[ahabeger]

the short:
To be a more marketable employee what *nix should i learn?

the long:
So I'm looking for a new job, I've got a bit of time to do this and I am taking the time to learn some new stuff. I'm good at breaking linux (misconfiging network, bad kernel compiles) but that won't go far in the workplace so I'm looking to learn a distro more in depth, but it seems as though each business uses a different distribution, and that each distro is quite a bit different than another.

My thoughts on this:
Debian: apt-get in debian i'd take anyday, but i have yet to find a business that uses debian
Gentoo: Every Gentoo install is unique and things can be hard to reproduce & troubleshoot but it is damn efficient & small
Mandrake: Seems more desktop oriented, and I'm not a big fan of RPM
RedHat: Bloatware & RPM make me not like this one, but it is the most common
Slackware: lacks package management and seems to be dieing
SuSE: Again, Seems more desktop oriented, and I'm not a big fan of RPM and also suffers from bloat
United: ?! too new to be trusted, I have yet to use it but seems pretty slick
FreeBSD: Learning Linux seems to be what all the cool kids are doing, but FreeBSD has always impressed me with it's conservativeness, ports system seems really powerful
OpenBSD: Seems to be dieing with Slack

Edit: added Free & OpenBSD

 

[Vadatajs]

If you MUST learn linux, then probably slackware, because it doesn't coddle the newbie ass. Otherwise, I'd suggest FreeBSD (which in my experience anyway, is easier to use than slackware, or any other linux for that matter). See the top link in my sig. ISO's available here.

 

[ahabeger]

*BSD doesn't seem to be demanded from the want ads that I am looking at, oddly enough since i would consider it a more server worthy solution than linux, expecially FreeBSD

bah, heck. i'll add open & free to the poll

 

[lowtech1]

IMHO, go with Debain & RH as Linux solution. I uses them for my servers & many others that I have work with. Or, BSD if you are looking for at the Unix route.

I personally don't think it really matter which flavor of Linux you learn, because the skill can be adapt to any other distros.

 

[cleverhandle]

Definitely RH for what you're asking. I disagree with Lowtech, here. There's a lot of stuff in RH that is quite different than other distros. RH tools are not always as clean as traditional UNIX methods which work across distros, but if you really understand the RH tools, they're very powerful when you're dealing with maintenance of many machines in a business environment. But really understanding those tools, rather than simply using them, is just as much work as learning the *nix basics, which you'll have to do already.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

definitely redhat. knowing other stuff is of course a good thing, but first things first...redhat.

 

[Sunner]

Since you're looking to learn to eventually work with it, I'd definately say RedHat.

Let's face it, in the corporate environment, Debian, Gentoo, OpenBSD, etc etc aren't anywhere near RedHat, RH is pretty much the standard, with SuSE in second place, but you'll pretty much get SuSE for free if you learn to find your way around RedHat.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Company i work for mainly uses SCO however they also have some servers running redhat, and there are yet others running Solaris. Of the above options, I'd say get used to redhat .. after you have a successfill machine .. think of installing another distro ...

 

[Abzstrak]

quite simply you need to be versatile and learn more than one. RH is good, but Solaris is probably more important in some industries. Of course AIX is still widely implemented in certain areas too. BSD is good as well. Learn to use the CLI and the differences in *nix's and you'll be able to get around in most of them.

 

[n0cmonkey]

OpenBSD is dying?! Where the heck do you get that information? A nice big grant has been helping Theo keep Guiness in business. Development for OpenBSD is strong and some new and a couple of fairly unique ideas have been implimented in it recently! Systrace (also available on NetBSD, Linux, and Mac OS X), AuthPF, OpenSSH, and spamd are just a few of the neat projects incorporated into OpenBSD.

Now that Im done ranting... The Unix-like and Unix systems I have used in professional workplaces: RedHat Linux, Slackware Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, HP-UX. And out of the Linuxes, the Slackware was part of a product we purchased, that was not home grown.

I voted RedHat though (after seeing your silly OpenBSD comment I probably should have voted for it) because of the corporate support. You wont see OpenBSD much outside of the DoD, NASA, AirForce, various univerisities, and a couple of corporate locations.

Quoted off of openbsd.org:
For the current two year period, a number of OpenBSD security R&D initiatives are supported by DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, USAF, under agreement number F30602-01-2-0537 and also in cooperation with the POSSE project at University of Pennsylvania.

Dying my ass.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Dying my ass.

What, you aren't happy with its current color? :disgust:

I am currently happy with Debian, but was considering trying another distro for the learning experience, similar to what the original poster wants. Redhat seems to be what's popular with businesses, so I guess I'll try that first on my server (Debian, of course, remains on the desktop alongside Windows 2000, which I wish I could get rid of, but must keep it for some critical apps).

OpenBSD is up first in line in the list of OSes I'd install if I get another computer (probably going to get an old used one in a few days, so it shouldn't be that long).

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Dying my ass.

What, you aren't happy with its current color? :disgust:

You made me go to dictionary.com for nothing!

I am currently happy with Debian, but was considering trying another distro for the learning experience, similar to what the original poster wants. Redhat seems to be what's popular with businesses, so I guess I'll try that first on my server (Debian, of course, remains on the desktop alongside Windows 2000, which I wish I could get rid of, but must keep it for some critical apps).

OpenBSD is up first in line in the list of OSes I'd install if I get another computer (probably going to get an old used one in a few days, so it shouldn't be that long).

There is atleast one sparcstation for sale in FS/FT.

 

[Bremen]

WHAT!!!??? Slackware dying!??? Dude, thats even less likely than OpenBSD dying. Now people may be passing it up for other things, but MANY people still use it for servers and whatnot. Unfortunately its not an industry name, and if its being used the boss prolly dosn't know it ;0)

Learn RedHat, or Solaris...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Bremen
WHAT!!!??? Slackware dying!??? Dude, thats even less likely than OpenBSD dying. Now people may be passing it up for other things, but MANY people still use it for servers and whatnot. Unfortunately its not an industry name, and if its being used the boss prolly dosn't know it ;0)

Learn RedHat, or Solaris...

:Q

 

[JOSEPHLB]

Red Hat is the "Microsoft" of the Linux world... I mean... when searches in a job search come up such as.. "Red Hat Network Administrator".. you know Red Hat has to mean something..

 

[MGMorden]

I voted Redhat. It's the most well known. Almost too well known. I've got a sysadmin teacher who seems to think that Redhat IS Linux. When he refers to default Linux setups, default programs, etc, he says Linux, and means "Redhat". According to him the linux hardware management software is cutzu (or however you spell it). It really gets on my nerves because he is a guy who really knows his stuff for the most part (but he's mostly a Solaris guy), but there are some serious gaps in his expertise (and I have to listen way too much about how much "better" Solaris is than Linu . . erm . . . I mean Redhat).

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: MGMorden
I voted Redhat. It's the most well known. Almost too well known. I've got a sysadmin teacher who seems to think that Redhat IS Linux. When he refers to default Linux setups, default programs, etc, he says Linux, and means "Redhat". According to him the linux hardware management software is cutzu (or however you spell it). It really gets on my nerves because he is a guy who really knows his stuff for the most part (but he's mostly a Solaris guy), but there are some serious gaps in his expertise (and I have to listen way too much about how much "better" Solaris is than Linu . . erm . . . I mean Redhat).

kudzu. And Solaris is better.








For some things.

 

[skiznots]

I say Redhat, based strictly on popularity.

~skiznots

 

[ahabeger]

OpenBSD & Slack may still be under heavy development, and may be developing some spiffy things, but their install base isn't that impressive. Thats more what i was getting at

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: ahabeger
OpenBSD & Slack may still be under heavy development, and may be developing some spiffy things, but their install base isn't that impressive. Thats more what i was getting at

Ahh, so a car that does not sell as well as a Civic is at the end of its life, or a band that is not as popular as the back street boys is worthless, and the road less traveled is not worth walking... Got it. Linux is dying, what version of Windows should I install?

 

[Booter]

RedHat.

 

[everman]

Redhat is obviously the most popular, you should learn it very well.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

kinda funny to see the poll results so far. almost 10% say gentoo is good to learn for employment?

fanboys!

 

[Buddha Bart]

Food for thought:
IBM will only officialy support rpm-based distros. Of which only Redhat and Suse are currently supported. So if you're looking for jobs in the US, if its an IBM shop, its a redhat shop. (the germans still love their suse).

bart

[edit] sorry forgot turbolinux... hahhahaha[/edit]

 

[topaz22]

I think that it varies depending on the type of job that you are searching for... i.e. a company that is developing an embedded *nix product , a company that is using *nix for servers(web, file, networking), or workstations. i think that general *nix knowledge would be good to shoot for, and any of the distributions would help with that. redhat, mandrake, and suse are pretty desktop oriented, but you can still get at the internals. last time i played with gentoo, it really wasn't at a stable point. debian and slackware are my favorites, they are very flexible.