Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Security and Technology : Learning FreeBSD or RedHat?

[WinApp]

Hi everyone.

I'm still fairly new to the UNIX world and was curious about the knowledge some of your more experienced sysadmins have...

I originally started researching and learning RedHat. However now that RedHat's EOL is here, I've been thinking about maybe switching a bit more towards FreeBSD.

It seems like a solid system, perhaps more so then RedHat (each one has its perks I suppose, but that’s not the issue). Anyways, I still think it would be wise to still keep up on RedHat/Fedora. I was wondering if you guys find it easy to work on and keep track of more then one OS? Obviously there are lots of similarities, but each have their quarks... Obviously there is an overwhelming amount to learn on either one…

Any suggestions for a learning sysadmin?

Thanks

Charles

[Werpon]

You can learn any other Linux flavor, too... They aren't too different, anyway.

[carrotweb]

I'm in the same boat. I'm a programmer looking to learn more about the admin side of things.

I elected to start with Debian instead. I think distros like Debian, Slackware, or Gentoo will let you get under the hood a little bit more, so you really do understand how Linux works. Afterwards, if you want the increased simplication (and sometimes hassles, too) that Red Hat offers, then go for it.

[carrotweb]

By the way, FreeBSD is a great choice, too. I plan to learn FreeBSD ultimately since I understand Cpanel does or will be supported on FreeBSD.

[phpdeveloper]

CPanel supports FreeBSD 100% and been for some time already. It's a great OS and is definately worth knowing/looking at if you want learn more of unix.

[WinApp]

Thanks for the replys everyone. I think I'll dive in to FreeBSD and check in here and there to see how Fedora shakes out. For all I know, the majority might migrate away from RedHat and it wont be as popular anymore.

Other then tech support, and things of that nature... is there any real reason to move to RedHat Enterprise? especially with all the other options?

One other note. I'm very much into networking as well, and I'd like to experiment with building a firewall, VPN's, etc... Mostly just for experimental purposes and I'll use it at home. I've heard FreeBSD or even OpenBSD are rock solid choices for such a task (OpenBSD seems like FreeBSD's very secure brother from what it sounds). So I'm hoping once I get in there, the two will be very similar.

Charles