Absolute newbie but expert with Windows
 

Hi everyone. I'm what most would think as a Windows 7 power user with in depth knowledge of that OS but have no experience with Linux. I will be moving to a software firm in a year that uses Linux exclusively. Although my job won't require programming, (although I am a C++ user and instructor) I want to become familiar with Linux and get to where I can use it and speak intelligently about it when I start work.

So, I want to set up my computer to dual boot with Windows 7 and a Linux distribution. I am thinking Redhat workstation. It seems to be more robust that the desktop version and seems to be the Linux many major companies use commercially (enterprise, that is).

I will be starting over with a new hard drive. I plan on partitioning it and placing my current Windows 7 image on it and then setting up Redhat to dual boot.

So here are my first questions...

1. Am I thinking correctly about the dual boot?
2. Can Redhat and 7 play together nicely especially the file systems?
3. Are there threads or places I can go to get good instructions on how to set up the two OSs on my computer?
4. Am I thinking correctly about Redhat being a good solid commercial grade distribution to learn on?

Thank you all for any advise,

tex

Yes, sure, if you have unlimited funds!

What most people use is CentOS: https://www.centos.org/
If I were you, I'd go with CentOS.

Best regards,
HMW

Thank you HMW. I see that it only cost $179 for the workstation. I can afford that. Do you know something I don't. I mean, will there be additional cost beyond that?

Whichever I use needs to be very similar to what the commercial world uses. Is CentOS like that?

tex

4. from what i know of redhat (very little) is that it requires a license for a support contract (which cost $ hundreds/thousands). thats why mostly corporations use it (i believe by default it runs headless ?). i use fedora which is owned by redhat but is targeted more for general purpose home use (they use it as their market testing; usually new features show up on fedora first then are compiled into rhel when the bugs are gone).

1. for dual-boot you should install windows first then install the gnu/linux distro (windows has a nasty habit of fixing the bootloader so that it is the only bootable os on a pc).

2. most gnu/linux distros can read/write ext2/3/4,hpfs,reiserfs,fat32/ntfs/... whereas windows can only read/write fat32/ntfs.

3. just create a live-usb and go from there (its actually easier done than said).

What do you want to do with Linux? SysAdmin or programmer? That makes a huge deal of difference. I'm a programmer and not an IT person. (That much should be patently clear if you look at how inept I come across when I post stuff about IT related topics :D )

Either case, for my world I'd go with a Debian desktop derivative either Ubuntu, MINT, or Debian and concentrate on the areas of programming under Linux that mattered to where I was heading. For instance, learning the System-V programming model as well as the tools employed to build code are pretty important to understand if you're going to write applications, drivers, or kernel code in Linux.

You know a WHOLE YEAR in advance about this?!?

C++ ... but not C# .... expert .... Hmmmmm (just ribbing you!) But I program in Windows too.

CentOS is recognised as the "free" equivalent of Red Hat. It uses the same repositories and is community supported rather than commercially supported.
I believe they are identical in use though someone should correct me if I'm wrong. :)

There are lots of threads in this forum regarding dual boot, use the search facility or you can always Google "Linux Dual boot". The Linux distribution is fairly irrelevant, the process is the same for all.

Play Bonny!

:hattip:

Imho the $179 for a workstation on Red Hat would be a waste of money, as everything you learn on CentOS will be exactly the same on Red Hat, as their build with the same source code but different with different logos and names. There are also other distros uses commercially. SUSE is a big one, and Debian and Ubuntu are often used too. But starting anywhere would help - CentOS to learn Red Hat, openSUSE to learn SUSE, or perhaps playing with a Debian distro. If you know just one distro, most others won't be too confusing to pick up on.

1) Seems fine

2) Windows won't recognize any of the Linux file systems, but Linux can use the Windows ones. Do not use a Windows filesystem for the Linux OS though, use a native Linux FS for that, but you can use NTFS for a shared partition.

4) Use CentOS unless you want to pay the required support contract for RHEL.

That's the yearly subscription cost. When you consider that each version of RHEL is supported for 10 years, you'd be paying nearly $2k over the life of the distro. You do not want to run RHEL without an active subscription, as without it you'll lose access to all bug and security fixes.

The big caveat there is be aware of secure boot UEFI, etc. I don't know the exactness having moderately older computers, or having bought systems with no OS and thus not having to worry about it, but just be aware that if you buy something that has fast boot, UEFI BIOS with secure boot, that there are just some things you ought to do to disable certain parts of that to make it amenable for Linux to be installed as a dual boot, or even to allow it to boot off of anything but the Windows hard drive install.

Note also what a lot of us may have forgotten to point out, try LIVE boot distributions, or Virtual Machines where you can "try" a distribution before installing it.

If you are switching to a Linux admin job (REALLY?!?! They hired a Windows person to do Linux admin?!?!),... I would not only play with CentOS (or Scientific Linux, also a RHEL clone), but with Debian as well, as well as some other Distros (like Gentoo, Slackware, etc.). You'll need experience from both a RPM and a DEB package perspective (and learn to use the alien tool, which "converts" between the two packages). You'll also need to learn about setting up server packages (Apache, MySQL, etc.) and networked shares (SAMBA, Fuse, etc.). Michael Jang's RHCSA/RHCE book would be a good place to start...

But again,... They seriously hired a Windows admin person to do Linux admin?!?! Unless the job is hardware intensive, I really don't understand that. I have 15+ years of Linux experience, have used Unix systems since the mid 1970s (as a kid of a college professor), and I still occasionally get schooled in terms of Linux admin stuff...

+1 to rmistler's suggestion of Live CDs and Virtual Machines. If you don't want the hassle of dual booting, but want a stable Linux install to mess with, you can just pull up VirtualBox (freely downloadable for Windows as well as Linux) and throw a Linux ISO into a virtual machine. You can also mess with multiple distros this way. If your goal is to just learn the basics without switching to Linux on a daily basis, this is a great option.

I plan on going to work for a contractor we use in my industry now. I am certain I will work there.

What I want is to learn how to run a computer with a Linux distro that has the features found in most commercial distros used in industry today. That why I thought RH workstation would be good. I don't have a problem using a different one as long as my time spent learning Linux on that distro won't disadvantage me if I start using a higher end version later.

So I guess I want a version that is good to learn on with those skill sets transferable to the commercial versions. I won't be an admin or programmer, but my past experience will be used as a application representative to companies who buy the packages. So I need to bone up on Linux.

I don't have a problem with using a virtual setup if I will be able to learn about Linux with no penalty in reduction in capability.

tex

This isn't Windows...the free versions aren't crippled and the paid versions aren't "higher end". You need to move past the Microsoft nickle and diming mentality if you ever want to get to know Linux.

With the non-free distros you're paying for the support contract. If you don't need the support contract, then don't use a distro that requires a support contract (RHEL, SUSE, etc.). CentOS is the same thing as RHEL, it has all of the capabilities and it functions identically. It just has no support contract and there are some ever-so-slight differences in package versioning that you will never notice.

I say find out what they use now and try to mimic that. For instance if they do use RH now, then go the free option and use CentOS. That brings you the closest.

And still ... I'd learn about scripting, be that BASH, or Python, or something. As an app representative, likely in Linux you'd have to tune something, set things up, establish a startup job or script. Just good stuff to have some minor awareness of where things need to go even if a more expert person actually creates the content and you'd just be there to place a file and get it working, or handle the interface to a customer. The more you know, the better.

Understanding how applications run and how to debug some stuff when things go wrong, in general, things like user permissions, understanding things like sudo and just how to configure a new user as well as manage the groups they belong to will likely aid you in this type of role. Sort of not go crazy trying to be either a sysadmin or a programmer, but at least being cognizant of what things are entailed when providing support to a customer who uses your solutions.