Hello all:

I would like to know the best starting point and best forwarding points in learning of LINUX; which best fitted in Job hunting in this field. Specially my target is Canada employment market.

If any one guide me with references (if possible). I am greatful to him. Further guide me for resources which easy and worthable to give me the fastest track to learn.

Best regards,

Aleem

As far as I can tell, the only way to learn linux is to jump in and start. All the books in the workd can't teach as much as experience. Get your puter to do all that it can and surf the forums. Usually your questions have already been asked. As linux becomes more popular, your experience will be above the curve. Once you have a fairly good handle on the distro that you have picked, try another. Never get too far away from the terminal. I guess the difference between linux users and the other OS, is that the other guys are just appliance users. In linux you can pretty much make you computer do what you want vs, only doing what the computer will let you. Good Luck, and jump in.

You won't learn Linux by reading books. If you want a job, it might help to look at Linux Professional Institute certification, but ultimately you need to know Linux.

Use Ubuntu or Mandriva to learn the basics of Linux. Then move on to Arch, Slackware, or Gentoo. Read the documentation on distro websites, with Gentoo being particularly good. Carla Schroder's Linux Networking Cookbook is one of many excellent books. If you work through and implement every example in that book you will know a lot about Linux servers. Most bookstores have plenty of good introductory Linux desktop books. If you are a programmer, join a distro as a developer and you will quickly become employable.

Your question doesn't have many specifics so it is hard to give you more info than this.

Similar question. I've been using GNU+X+Linux since it became available and unix since '84. I've got a few lines in the kernel where I fixed a driver bug. I wrote the first LILO Mini-HOWTO. I've remastered Knoppix with custom content. I've been running email, DNS, and web servers, troubleshooting everything, and walking newbies through installations (etc) on the phone for years. But it's all been a hobby, no full-time professional paid experience. How do I get a "real" job making Linux work for people?

CLS

Start taking money for what you do? Seriously speaking, look at the wanted pages (wanted for job, not dead/alive) and start picking up firms that sound like they have work to do with computers - especially servers. I'd say it's difficult to find a job where you can do just one thing you like to do with Linux, and get paid for it - most of the time you'll be doing something else (with some other operating system, very probably) and when you are on Linux, you might be doing something you didn't expect. But you do get paid..now if you really enjoy using Linux and helping people out, it might be a good idea to find some other sort of work to get paid for; if you do only Linux-related things at work and outside it, you'll soon grow tired of it all.

Here it looks like they're eager to hire people who can write device drivers for Linux or administrate (read: fix, when something "odd" happens) some Linux servers. I'm sure they do offer such jobs there too, but like I said, it's unprobable that that's the whole story they offer.

Reading some basic book about Unix is good theory-wise; Linux books are equally good, but Unix books tend to be easier to get, not that distribution-specific (at least those I've read; it seems Linux is more "flavour-branded" than Unix, or then it's just me) and still offer everything you'd want to know in theory (why there is no C:, where Control Panel went, what's this mounting stuff all about, ...) - everything that doesn't "change much". All the things that do change, like desktop environments and such, you need to learn by using them or by reading from websites. Get the book or don't, but do install some Linux distribution - it's the very best and fastest way to learn (read things tend to get forgotten for life, but done things come easily back).

One more word about the distributions: a lot of people say "start off with Ubuntu, and when you know how to use the graphical desktop, switch to Slackware or Gentoo and ultimately to Linux From Scratch (LFS)". That's partially nonsense: every [not-too-specialized] distribution of Linux does offer the command line, which is one of the things you should understand, and usually a graphical interface which is good to know too. Ubuntu is no less "pro" Linux distribution than Slackware - they surely do things differently, but both come with a command line and allow you to make changes to things. If you are happy with Ubuntu (or any other distribution), and you don't know it from the top till bottom, stay with it rather than waste time installing a new one. You'll have plenty of time for that later - but before you get along well with command line and the system in general, there is no sense in hopping in and out. It's like people told you to buy a Fiat Punto and when you got it's engine started and moved the car a little, you should be getting a Mercedes as fast as you can; surely both of them can do all the agent tricks you see in movies, both can teach you how to slide, how to drive dangerously - and more importantly, how to drive safely and sensibly (of course - they are both cars).

Once you do feel you know very much about the (Linux) operating system you like so much, feel free to try the others. Notice the differences in configuration and (usually system-wide) file locations, namings and all that. Pay attention to having dhcpcd instead of dhclient, things like that - they are the major differences between distributions, and are less important to learn than the general usage of both graphical desktop (the main ones, to get the idea) and command line.

And once you feel brave, dive into scripting. It's like getting a new dimension in your world - like going from three to four, or further. There's lots to learn, things that ease up your daily life a lot and things that make you spend time ten times longer on things you'd normally do in a sec

After some time you'll probably notice that you can't possibly learn everything trough during your life (taking into account the speed at which new things come and old ones evolve). Focus on the things you think are important, learn what you need to feel comfortable in the OS, and get a job - you'll learn while doing, too. There are a lot of people not living in the too-well-being countries that do get a job and learn while doing, and get the money you don't while you're studying for perfection and never going to work.
EDIT: that means..stay sharp, get work.

I would advise you to learn Red Hat. It has enterprise releases that many companies are moving to. If you know Red Hat Linux I believe it will help you to pick up any other linux if needed (but really any Linux will do this, they all have their similarities).

For the corperate environment you will not find places running stand alone server. Zen and Vmware are popular for virtualizing servers.

Learh how to connect Linux to a SAN. It can be tricky even to linux pros. SAN management is another job potential career choice for any Linux professional.

To get paid while you learn ....I suggest calling all the ISP's in your area. Get a job on the evening or night shift being 1st line support. You will learn a lot that way and then be able to step up to level 2 and level 3 etc.

Good luck learning Linux. It is so worth it, but working with corporate servers and knowing Linux for gaming are two different beasts. Though ...if you know one, figuring out the other should be easier.

I agree totally with b0uncer. start with slackware (or something "hard" and mostly commandline) and just keep at it until you make it work. otherwise you won't get as good a foundation and you'll be susceptible to learning bad habits, relying on gui too much, won't know where anything is, etc.

The transition from slackware to RHEL/CentOS/Suse, etc. -- which are probably among the most-used in business or enterprise environments -- will also be much easier from slackware than from debian or a debian derivative like ubuntu. For your purposes, ubuntu is probably the last distro you should consider, in fact (imho). If you absolutely need gui help, etc. to start and you just can't deal with slackware, at least try fedora before ubuntu.