Arch Linux

rhfrommn

Member

From: Minnesota

Registered: 2005-01-13

Posts: 99

Re: Linux Vs Solaris

I think that I am aa experienced linux user, who knows its way around in linux, but on solaris I felt very novice-ish. The home directory is not /home anymore. Installing software is different. Although mysql was installed, I had to run serveral init-scripts before it was actually ready for use. I suppose a  linux distro adds those initialialisation to the install procedure. A weird experience, I thought I could use my linux knowledge on a unix machine, I stand corrected. But I probably have a head-start on window-users.

You have a great headstart, but you're right they are still pretty different.  As an analogy, Solaris is like driving in the Indy 500, while Linux is driving a Corvette.  They are both fast cars, but there's a fairly substantial difference between how you'd drive each of them. 

As far as the Windows only users - I suppose to fit the analogy you could have them driving a tricycle with training wheels. 

What you'll find is that with experience in one version of *nix you will be able to pick up the next pretty easily.  After 7 years as a full-time Solaris admin I took a contract where I thought I'd be doing Solaris again.  However the day I showed up they told me a more pressing project came up and I'd be doing nothing but AIX for months on end.  After a week of panic, reading manuals, and messing around on test servers I was up to speed enough to survive.   And a few months later I was offered a full time job.  I'm considered one of the "AIX guys" on my team because of doing enough AIX in those few months to catch up.

My mentor early in my career had lots of sayings he drilled into my head.  One was "Unix is Unix".  I didn't realize how true that was until the experience I described above.  If you know one and are willing to learn, working with another is no big deal at all.

If you dive into Solaris deep enough you'll find the same thing.  Might take more than a week though.

Last edited by rhfrommn (2007-07-26 16:04:25)

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: Linux Vs Solaris

Learning Unix is like many other things.

The first one is hard - you know nothing.
The second one is equally hard - you don't know how much of what you know about the first Unix is specific to it, and how much is generally applicable.
The third and subsequent ones are much easier - you know what's going to be different, and also, you know the common bits very well by then.

Borosai

Member

From: Sandy Appendix, U.S.A.

Registered: 2006-06-15

Posts: 227

Re: Linux Vs Solaris

Well, I just received my Solaris 10 11/06 DVD kit, and I'm looking forward to testing it out. According to the Solaris website, it has great 64-bit/Opteron support and performance, which is perfect. However, I'm not certain how the remaining hardware is going to work. On top of that, installing packages won't be as pleasant I'm sure, but it's all for the sake of trying something new.

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: Linux Vs Solaris

Two popular places to download Solaris packages are http://www.sunfreeware.com and http://www.blastwave.com.

No, it's not as nice as pacman, but then, nothing is.

oli

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2006-02-07

Posts: 164

Website

Re: Linux Vs Solaris

You can use pkgsrc too for Solaris.

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Use UNIX or die.