Re: Unix administrator
begin: Dimitri Maziuk <dmaziuk@yola.bmrb.wisc.edu> quote
> * Chris Parker (cparker@adelphia.net) spake thusly:
> > Student here from a micro$oft school of thought and sick of it. What
> > do I need to read...study to gain the honor of a unix admin.? Is
> > athere any good online classes or tutorials that i should check into?
> > Also what would be a good route to take for a beginner programming?
> > Hopefully the Debian gurus will reply.
> > THANKS TO ALL THAT REPLY!
this is sheer and utter nonsense. you said "admin", not "programmer", right?
1. you DON'T start programming assembly language to become a unix admin.
2. you DON'T have to learn C to be a fledgling unix admin, although it would
definitely make sense to read K&R down the road, AFTER you learn basics.
a good knowledge of make is more important.
3. you DON'T need to read knuth and aho to become a unix admin.
4. you DON'T need to learn discrete math to become a unix admin. being able
to use a calculator is good enough.
5. you CERTAINLY DON'T need to read stevens to become a unix admin. a good
book like the NAG is certainly enough to begin with. later on, you can
flesh out your knowledge with more detailed books. stevens is overkill.
6. you DON'T need to read ESR's cathedral to become a unix admin. that the
HECK does this have to do with admining?
7. you DON'T need to start soldering shit.
this is completely insane. he must have thought you meant
"programmer". here are the few things i agree with:
> Read Tannenbaum, Silbershatz (sp?) and Sobell's Practical Guide. Try shell,
> awk, sed scripts. Read the Camel book and learn Perl.
now this is good advice. you MUST MUST MUST know perl and shell.
> Set up Sendmail, Bind and Inn on your quadruple-boot home peecee
only if you want to become a professional. you never said if you want to use
linux for home use or not. no need to know bind and inn if so. knowing a
bit about sendmail is crucial, but you certainly don't need to, say, read the
o'reilly horror called "sendmail".
> (read everything you can find on linuxdoc.org).
good advice, but unrealistic. read what you need to know. don't read what
you don't need to know. you certainly won't need to learn how to program
device drivers, for instance. a basic understanding of what they are, how
they work and how they're configured is enough.
> Proceed to Garfinkel's Practical Guide and Zwicky's Firewalls.
there's tons of good references out there.
> Get an entry-level helpdesk job at an ISP and work there
> until hospitalized. Alternatively, work there for a few months, walk to the
> nearest asylum and surrender yourself to friendly nursies.
mandatory if you want to become a professional. not a good move if you want
to administer your home system.
> Or you can skip all of those steps and go get your head examined now.
hmmmm....
one last comment from me. once you install linux on your system, almost
everything you need to know will be on your hard drive somewhere. advice
which is better than mine (and MUCH better than the guy who posted this) is
to learn where to find this info on your hard drive. once you do that,
you've taken the most important step to becoming a linux admin.
peter
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