Re: How different is one UNIX or LINUX from another?

On 2008-09-29 05:49, Artificer wrote:
There are several well known UNIX systems like Solaris, AIX or HP UX
and also many well known Linux Distros like SUSE and RedHat. I wonder
if somebody becomes a good administrator on a Linux Distro if he will
be able to do basic administration of a UNIX system or if somebody is
good administrator of one UNIX System if she will be able to do basic
admin of another UNIX system. How different are SUSE Linux and Solaris
from an administrator point of view?

Well, there are much that differ the unix systems from each others too.
I started as Unix admin, and mostly Solaris , but I was playing with linux
in the early days on my spear time, just to learn it.
(kernel 0.96 I think it was)

There is 2 major differences that may or not may be important.

first, a linux system is adjusted a bit to play well as a non productive
system for a single user, who turn the computer off when it's not in use.
The cron system is reconstructed for that, so jobs are running when the system
is up, while the old unixes has jobs that only run some nights, and really don't like to be powered off when the user go to bed.

Second, linux systems are build with gnu software, while other unixes has their
own utils and gnu software on top of it, which you must think of when you work with them, eg. tar on linux is gtar on unix, or you get the system default tar
that can make a mess of your files.

But once you are a good admin of linux or unix you know how to read manuals and
figure out how it works.

/bb
.

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