Thanks to helpful guys on this forum, UNIX Academy DVDs and few books, after about 6 weeks, I passed all four basic exams on unixacademy.com
I'm very far from been a guru but I believe I learned all basics, I feel very confident working in command line and I can put together simple script. I can install and manually configure (including all network settings for double homed machine). I can perform simple kernel manipulations, like loading/unloading modules. I learned "awk". I can configure Grub. As of now I can do many other things. Assuming that I faced Linux for first time in my life less than 2 months ago, I think it's a lot.

I need a goos advice on further learning. Some suggest learning for red hat certification other insists of SuSE. Historically I remember Solaris certification was very popular, but I'm not sure what's its market share today. I'm very serious about learning and I'm quick learner. So it is a serious commitment from my side.

All good advice is appreciated!

Hi there,

As you have got your basics strong enough you can go with LPIC certification. They have 3 levels of certification LPIC1, LPIC2 and LPIC3. Good thing about LPIC exams is that they are platform independent.

Once you are done with LPIC and has got a real world experience you can then go ahead with more advanced certification like RHCSA, RHCE etc or NCLA, NCLP if you want to go with SuSE or Solaris certification. And yes Solaris is still popular.

As far as I know RedHat has got a good market and their certification has got a good reputation in the market.

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Though you have learned the basics and have cofident on command line usage of OS.. you can directly try for RHCSA/RHCE ...

The confident comes when, you can achieve all your tasks successfully in Linux/Unix OS ,without depending on windows..

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Are you doing this for the purpose of gaining career credentials, or just because you want to learn Linux? If you just want/need to learn Linux, you've probably gone as far as you need to go in terms of structured training. You will learn useful and relevant things in your daily use of Linux, especially if you are inclined to look under the hood from time to time, as you seem to be. Hanging out on LQ is one of my favorite ways see how others solve real-world problems, and to expose myself to both problems and solutions that I might not have otherwise contemplated. Answering the questions of others is a great way to drive home your understanding of a problem and its solution set.
--- rod.

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to divyashree:
I do not see how usage of windows undermines one's knowledge in Linux and you use Windows btw. I do like windows 7, I think it is great system, it doesn't prevent me from liking Linux and learning it. I have zillion programs in windows that I need for my job, and most of them will never be ported to Linux. I don't think of learning Linux as of religion, it is not exclusive and I use whatever works. It is just a technology.

to T3RM1NVT0R
thanks for you post about LPIC path, I never heard about it. Is it widely recognized? Thanks for brining it up! I appreciate it!

to theNbomr
I do it definitely to improve my career potential. I hope to get employed as a system administrator. I understand that at this point I can brush it by tear, but I'm in my thirties, not twenties and I have no time for a warming up. I killed enough time for learning useless degree that can't feed me (unfortunately) so I use my other substantial skills and shoot wedding videos (I'm good. I do it for many years). So I prefer a guided path with rigorous structure. I can't afford loosing any more time.

I think you have completely misunderstood that statement. Of course many people here have to use Windows for their work or are dual booting for what reason ever at home. What divyashree wanted to say, if I understand him right, is that you learn more about Linux if you don't rely on Windows for everyday tasks. In the meaning of "Oh, I don't know how to do that on Linux. Let's learn it." instead of "Oh, I don't know how to do that on Linux. Let's boot Windows."
You will find Windows programs that have no counterpart in Linux, and if you need them for work, your hobby or whatever, than use them. But if you make things on your computer that don't need this software, do it on Linux to become more used to it. Theoretical learning is one part, but rather pointless if your new knowledge is not used regularly.

Yes it is pretty widely used certification program.

You can find more information on LPIC from the following link: http://www.lpi.org/eng/certification/the_lpic_program

I agree with it in general. In practice however, I use for this forum our family laptop that other family members use it daily. The conversion of my entire family into Linux users isn't on my itinerary.

Slackware

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"Slackware" what?

Next step pick a distro and learn as much as you can about it. Including the various ways to install, build packages, etc.

Or go with the popular server distros like Red Hat, SuSe, Debian, and Ubuntu; and learn the differences and how to do things in a terminal without a desktop to fall back on.

Learn various apps like vi, vnc, ssh, screen.

Some helpful info:
LINUX: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition : http://linux.2038bug.com/rute-home.html
The Linux Documentation Project : http://tldp.org/

I don't use gui for tweaking of configuration. I even came to a conclusion that graphic tools are cumbersome and hassle to use. And many of them aren't very reliable. I can do most of the tasks you described. I need a structured training because I never worked as Linux administrator and it is a hard to guess what it takes, if you know what I mean.
I was going trough few jobs descriptions and every one of them mentioned Red Hat and Solaris 10, some AIX.

Thats true that editing configuration files is faster then doing via GUI tools but if you are planning for RedHat examination then you should be good at both so that if you are stuck somewhere then GUI tools are like lifesaver at that time.

I will give you a most common example of CUPS. Editing CUPS configuration files is pretty confusing and takes more time if you are not expert at that. However, you can achieve the same using GUI tools. Remember during hands on exams like RedHat exams time matters a lot.

If you want to know what it will require to take on RHCSA or RHCE you can visit the following links which tells you about the RHCSA and RHCE objectives:

RHCSA objectives: https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/objectives/
RHCE objectives: https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/objectives/

Since both of them are hands on examination you will automatically get a feel for troubleshooting the system during your preparation for the exams.

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Yes , Tobi.. You understand me right...

This is what happens for most of the users:

It is often said that Slackware is the best distro for learning linux; and I agree with that.
Using Slackware has taught me a lot more than I would have ever been able to learn from using Ubuntu.
There is an old saying in the linux world:
"If you use Red Hat, then you know Red Hat. If you use Slackware, then you know linux".