I'm spending quite a bit of time trying to learn Linux and a few questions come to mind. Right now I have installed Linux on a partitioned hard disk. Half of the disk has Windows XP and the other half has Linux Fedora.

I'm curious to know whether stores sell systems that come with Linux pre-installed, similar to how they sell systems with Microsoft Windows pre-installed.

Do you buy a blank system and then install Linux on it?

Any thoughts on the different options of installing Linux, the advantages and disadvantages of the various options are welcome.

A few years ago, there was an operating system called Lindows, that had the graphical UI of Windows and the Unix back-end. It was sold for a short while on PCs sold at Walmart. However, I remember them having trademark issues with Microsoft due to the similar name to Microsoft Windows. I believe they became Linspire - The World's Easiest Desktop Linux

Apple's operating system, OS X, is also Unix based. Apple - Mac OS X - UNIX

There are many free Unix distributions so generally it's just downloaded from the web, burned to CDs, and then installed on a blank disk. We use Redhat Enterprise (not free).

Unix based operating systems are designed to be low-overhead, fast-response, and robust at handling system errors. Unix generally requires less overhead in the way of CPU and RAM. You also have the benefits of open source, so you're going to pretty much be able to find any application that fulfills your needs for free. It's worth mentioning that Redhat offers a number of Enterprise solutions, redhat.com | Enterprise Linux, which are not free.

Windows has become more reliable as of late, but it is still prone to crashes that require server reboots. Because the core operating system of Windows Server is near that of Windows XP, you also have a lot of the same security vulnerabilities that need to be patched. Windows Update makes this easier, but you also run the risk of auto-installing patches that require server restarts and/or cause issues with existing software. The fact that the computer is Windows based also means that it's going to be a more frequent target to worms and viruses. The per-seat licensing fees on Windows Server also makes it less desirable when faced with free alternatives like The FreeBSD Project.

Both systems get the job done. It just comes down to user preference.

Thanks for the nice overview.

I never heard of Linspire before, but it's nice to know the history behind Linux OSs.

I learned Unix many years ago from a personal tutor, but my school and job didn't use Unix, so I soon forgot about it. But I did remember the highlights that it had a kernel, it was multi-user based, the Vi editor and so on.

But today, I'm trying re-learn it mainly because it is still being used by many corporations, and many job requirements specify Unix/Linux plus it's a cool operating system.

I like the terse command line utilities and their many options. Recently I finished learning the Vi editor with a built-in tutorial that comes with Linux - vimtutor . The tutorial is interactive and has been written very well. I also bought a book on Linux to learn the commands and shell scripting properly.

Hopefully the time invested in learning Linux will pay off some day.

You'll also want to check out the pico text editor. NSIT Support - Pico: Unix Text Editor It's a bit easier to learn than VI and more intuitive.

Just being able to move your way around a Unix server will save you hundreds (if not thousands) in sys admin fees.

Thanks, yeah I agree knowing Unix is a big plus.

It's also one of the most desired skills in a tech resume.

The poll here at the Unix forum : The UNIX Forums - What editor does everyone use?
shows that most people use Vi or VIM

I think I've become quite familiar with the basics of Vi / ViM now so I'll stay with Vi for now.

I would just have to keep practicing it often, so that I don't forget it.

The only PITA with Unix I find is that the same edit commands don't work universally with all apps. For example in the info app one would press the space button to page down, but page down is something else in Vi I think.

But overall Unix seems quite powerful in its abilities.