A while back, someone asked if anyone had successfully taught themselves
Unix. (It was in the context of systems administration, so I'm assuming
the question from a Unix sysadmin POV.)
An interesting question.
I was reflecting back on a few years of Unix experience and decided to
put pen to paper (so to speak) and jot down what it would take to teach
yourself Unix.
(NB: the question of whether or not I have been successful at it is hard
to answer. I suppose you would have to ask my colleagues or supervisors
that. But in any case, my observations follow.)
One of my University professors taught a Unix sysadmin course for grad
students. I was an undergrad at the time, and did not take it, but
followed it closely. The material didn't seem very hard, and I wish I
had been able to take it. I don't think the fact that it was a
grad-level course was what held me back at the time, but more likely a
lack of funds. But I think more than coursework or access to books, the
primary factor in being able to teach yourself Unix is a hunger to do
so. If you are not interested in the subject, then no amount of classes
you take will help you. If you have a sincere desire to learn the
subject, then lack of materials will not hinder you.
Almost all my computer-related college courses had to do with Unix in
some shape or form. If you paid proper attention, they Unix part of it
was soaked into your bones via osmosis.
But that was many years ago.
There are a lot more formal courses now on Unix and Unix systems
administration nowadays. Certainly there are more books and online
materials. So the young person who is looking to enter this field
certainly has more resources to access that they can take advantage of.
Get a Unix Job
If you are in college or about to get into college, definitely try and
hit up a college Unix lab. They are always looking for cheap labor and
you will learn a LOT. Also, they don't require a glamorous resume. If
you know a bit and are hungry to learn, you can probably snag the job.
Run Unix
I think it goes without saying that you should already be running a
Linux or a BSD on your home PC already. Don't dual boot! That only will
tempt you to boot back into Windows when you find you can't do something
in Unix. Kill Windows and jump into Unix cold turkey. Start off with
something easy like Ubuntu or Fedora, and then work your way to
something more powerful like Debian or FreeBSD (which have steeper
learning curves).
Google It
You have something now that I did not have when I started out -- Google.
Use that to your advantage. If you are not sure of something, Google it,
odds are there have been tons of people who have gone before you and
have had the same doubts.
Join a User Group
Definitely join your local LUG or BSD user group. Subscribe to their
mailing lists and stay on it.
Learn a Programming Language
In addition to learning Unix, if you don't how already, you should be
teaching yourself how to program. Not just shell scripting, although
that is a start. Pick one of Python, Ruby, or Perl, and learn it inside
and out. A good Unix person is a good programmer. Unix is so powerful
because it gives you a rich suite of tools to program and is probably
the most programmer-friendly of all the modern operating systems. Even
if you never use Unix in the future, you will find that the ability to
program your way out of certain problems to be invaluable. As a
sysadmin, not a single day goes by where I don't write or use some dozen
line throwaway script that just makes my life easier. You won't believe
me now, just do it, and trust me on that.
Join a Professional Organization
There will be things that you just won't be able to teach yourself,
either because it (1) takes experience or (2) is very expensive. #1 will
come with time and with jobs of greater complexity and responsibilities.
It won't hurt to to join LOPSA or Usenix SAGE later on, they have a lot
of people talking about best practices and such which is very useful,
even if you don't plan on becoming a sysadmin. As for #2, stuff like
SANs and NASs and multipath and fiber channel are harder to learn on
your own with homebrew equipment unless you've got a job where you can
play around with stuff like that, but it will come as you graduate to
better jobs.
Don't Quit
It will all be a bit obtuse and difficult at first. Unix has a fairly
steep learning curve. Stick with it. One day, probably a year or so into
it, things will just "click". You will see the beauty of the command
line tools and how awesome it is to glue them together with pipes. You
will behold the elegance of putting everything in text files and the
value of a really powerful text editor and shell. Later on, you will
invariably find yourself on a Windows or Mac box and discover that
things that are easy and powerful on that Unix box of yours is either
impossible or very hard to do on non-Unices -- this is less true with
Mac nowadays since it is Unix under the hood, but you get the gist. Once
you reach that point, you will have "gotten" Unix and will begin to love
it.
Learn to Love It
I think it was Paul Graham who talked about this in one of his essays:
during the dot com boom someone came to him and told them they were
going to start a company and that it was going to be based on Windows.
The person assured him that the company was going to be a success
because they hired Windows "experts". Graham thought to himself that the
company was doomed to failure. The reason being that in order to be an
expert at something, you had to have used it for several hundreds of
hours (the equivalent of 10-man years); not just at work or school, but
in your own free time. In order to become an expert at an OS, you needed
to love it and use it all the time. Graham knew people loved Unix and
used it all the time. On the other hand, he knew that no one had any
real love for Windows, so these so-called experts probably weren't. Sure
enough, the company went under a short time later.