# Best Unix OS for Beginner



## Hrishi (Apr 10, 2016)

Hi folks,

While I have asked/discussed this question in TDF group, but I thought to ask it in forums as well for more opinions.
I am planning on learning Unix OS. [ Target is HP UX/Unix ]. 

However since you can't simply run HP Unix on non-iTanium CPUs so I am looking for something with similarity that can be run on Desktop hardware.
From what I know HP Unix is a beast in itself and doesn't resemble any other OS very well. However , I would still love to try the nearest kin of it.

Also some resources for learning would be appreciated.
I am looking forward to learn the basics in 20 days time.

On a side note : If someone among st you in working or proficient in HP UX, please do let me know. I have few queries revolving around it from career perspective.

Thanks.


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## thetechfreak (Apr 11, 2016)

You want to learn the basics of Linux or the basics of HP UX? 

Try Linux Mint or Ubuntu for basics of *Nix


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## Hrishi (Apr 11, 2016)

thetechfreak said:


> You want to learn the basics of Linux or the basics of HP UX?
> 
> Try Linux Mint or Ubuntu for basics of *Nix


Preparing for HP UX so it's Unix not Linux. 
Apparently I don't know much about either of these two. 
And since Unix is the quite different from Linux in architecture.. Etc(?)... So I don't know how much learning Linux will help in preparing for HP UX. 

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk


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## Stormbringer (Apr 11, 2016)

Don't know much about HP UX. My quick googling gave me this comparison of commands UNIXguide.net ( AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, LINUX, SOLARIS & Tru64). Also HP UX is based on BSD itseems, so find a distro that is based on BSD. Hope this helps


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## Hrishi (Apr 13, 2016)

Thanks. I am going to start with Solaris.
Found serious lack of resources to study from when it came to HP UX.


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## quicky008 (Apr 16, 2016)

Hrishi said:


> Thanks. I am going to start with Solaris.
> Found serious lack of resources to study from when it came to HP UX.



is solaris available free of charge for personal use?


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## Inceptionist (Apr 17, 2016)

quicky008 said:


> is solaris available free of charge for personal use?



There is illumos

illumos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedi


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## ico (Apr 18, 2016)

FreeBSD.


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## Desmond (Apr 18, 2016)

Hrishi said:


> Preparing for HP UX so it's Unix not Linux.



Dude, Linux is totally Unix. All commands of Unix work in Linux shells as well. Only difference are the kernel and the utilities (Linux mostly has GNU utilities) which the Unix OSs have unique to them.

That being said, Linux is always the best gateway for anyone wanting to get into more specialized Unix OSs. Once you have learned shell commands there is not much for you to do to close the gap between Linux and other Unix OSs.

However if you still need something more specialized, then BSD comes closer to Unix than Linux. But it is still just another flavour of Unix like Linux. You could try OpenBSD or FreeBSD. But then again, shell commands are the same for all of these.

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quicky008 said:


> is solaris available free of charge for personal use?



There was a project called OpenSolaris. But it was shut down after Oracle decided to close-source Solaris after acquiring Sun Microsystems.


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## kg11sgbg (Apr 19, 2016)

Hrishi said:


> Preparing for HP UX so it's Unix not Linux.
> Apparently I don't know much about either of these two.
> And since Unix is the quite different from Linux in architecture.. Etc(?)... So I don't know how much learning Linux will help in preparing for HP UX.
> 
> Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk



GNU/linux and unix are more or less same.
In fact linux is the user friendly of the two because it has GUI based desktop environments,whereas unix is based on pure text writing(shell scripts,commands,controls,etc. those of which are present in any linux flavour and environment also)or rather it is a command user interface type of environment. [MENTION=5007]Desmond David[/MENTION] has wonderfully explained that to you.


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## Desmond (Apr 19, 2016)

Basically, all the meat of Unix comes from shell scripting, which is one of the most fundamental things that all system administrators know. Therefore, if you want to learn Unix, you should also start learning Shell Scripting.


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## Hrishi (Apr 20, 2016)

Thanks for the insight Desmond.


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## Desmond (Apr 20, 2016)

You could also change the shell in linux to another shell that is used in Unix OSs. For example, AFAIK HP-UX uses the KornShell (ksh), you could replace the bash shell in linux with ksh and you are good to go.


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## anupamjas (Jun 7, 2018)

Linux 
Go with Ubuntu or OpenSuse or Fedora or Mint


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