Hello guys.

I use quite a number of processing softwares at my place of work and I actually learned most of them by myself (I even dabbled a little with Java many years ago, but I was still job-searching then and I dropped it when it didn't bring in quick bucks). The thing is, recently I've needed to work with certain types of data at their most raw form, and I've heard that this is best done on Linux/Unix.

And so, I need to learn it.

I've already been to www.unix.org and lots of other Unix-for-beginners sites, but i can't seem to get the gist of it...perhaps cos i'm addicted to windows or maybe I'm just getting old. For instance, here are some questions I can't seem to find answers to:
- What EXACTLY do I need to run Unix??
- I understand Unix is an OP-system, so umm, do I need to run it on a stand-alone system (just like windows)? How about using VMware, will that work? Or does it run on windows...? I'm pretty lost on this one.
- And PLEASE where exactly can I get the Unix operating system itself??

Anymore comments/suggestions on how to proceed from here will be really appreciated. And good help-sites too. I'm mostly a do-it-yourself person, so good tutorials will be appreciated too.

Thanks.

Nobody on NL using Linux/Unix?? Well, that's a new one...

Anyway, i found www.unixdownload.net; things are lil simpler now. But I still won't a few pointers... I'm thinking of going with Ubuntu.

Well well well... Not one comment yet?? Woooooww! Nairaland has certainly changed since my hay-days - at least one dude must drop in to just do "yimu"...


Oh well, for the benefit of others who may click the topic in future, hoping that my question's been answered, here's the best explanation I could find:

"Unix" was originally the name of an operating system for the PDP-11, developed at Bell Labs in the 1970s. Its design was immensely influential, and it was copied and reimplemented dozens of times.

Nowadays, "Unix" is an umbrella term for an entire family of operating systems, some but not all of which are directly descended from that original OS; anything whose primary system programming interface is compatible with the POSIX.1 API specification can legitimately be called an implementation of Unix -- and there are dozens of them. It is easier to list the operating systems still in wide use today that are NOT implementations of Unix:

Windows
IBM's z/OS and their relatives, which have been under continuous development since before 1970
a few deeply-embedded things that are more like runtime libraries than complete OSes

(There are also a bunch of experimental research prototypes that are trying to move beyond the Unix design, but they don't qualify as "in wide use", alas.)

"Linux" is the common name of one implementation of Unix. It has been around since the 1990s and is one of the top five most commonly used implementations today -- probably either #1 or #2, depending on how you count these things.

Linux is unusual in that the kernel, the C library, the compiler, the basic set of "shell" utilities, and so on are all developed by different groups of people; moreover, there's more than one choice for most of those pieces. Someone has to pick a set of pieces and put them together and make sure they work properly in combination. That someone (usually a group of people, nowadays) is traditionally referred to as a distributor of Linux, and their output is a distribution. Debian and Ubuntu are distributions of Linux; they used to be extremely closely related but have since diverged quite a bit.

(Technically, the name Linux refers specifically to the kernel, and it'd be a little weird to call an operating system Linux if you didn't use that kernel, but there are people keeping everything else and swapping out the kernel, e.g. Debian kFreeBSD.)

(Footnote for pedants: all glossing-over of fine distinctions in this post was 100% intentional.)

Source:http://superuser.com/questions/816018/what-is-the-relationship-between-unix-linux-ubuntu-and-debian

I'm downloading Ubuntu right now from http://releases.ubuntu.com/14.04.1/ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso.

Sayonara!

Hi, I got this late. Linux doesn't run on windows because of its file system. I use fedora and its cool because as a programmer, it offers a lot of functionality with ease. It comes with packages and most importantly, its open source and you can contribute to it and make it work for you.

kay9:
Hello guys.

I use quite a number of processing softwares at my place of work and I actually learned most of them by myself (I even dabbled a little with Java many years ago, but I was still job-searching then and I dropped it when it didn't bring in quick bucks). The thing is, recently I've needed to work with certain types of data at their most raw form, and I've heard that this is best done on Linux/Unix.

And so, I need to learn it.

I've already been to www.unix.org and lots of other Unix-for-beginners sites, but i can't seem to get the gist of it...perhaps cos i'm addicted to windows or maybe I'm just getting old. For instance, here are some questions I can't seem to find answers to:
- What EXACTLY do I need to run Unix??
- I understand Unix is an OP-system, so umm, do I need to run it on a stand-alone system (just like windows)? How about using VMware, will that work? Or does it run on windows...? I'm pretty lost on this one.
- And PLEASE where exactly can I get the Unix operating system itself??

Anymore comments/suggestions on how to proceed from here will be really appreciated. And good help-sites too. I'm mostly a do-it-yourself person, so good tutorials will be appreciated too.

Thanks.

The best way to learn is to use the linux OS. The best way to start with is UBUNTU or any other distribution that you think you would be okay with.

You can download linux Ubuntu here http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

@ d3mn8 and temi, thanks guys.
I'd already arrived at same conclusions you advice but it is still good to know I made the right choices. I'm running Ubuntu on VMware now; currently getting my grips on Linux commands/terminal. Hope to move on to C language by next week.

kay9:
@ d3mn8 and temi, thanks guys.
I'd already arrived at same conclusions you advice but it is still good to know I made the right choices. I'm running Ubuntu on VMware now; currently getting my grips on Linux commands/terminal. Hope to move on to C language by next week.

Am sure you would enjoy it if there is any issue let me know. Would be willing to assist.

You made a terrific choice when you decided to learn *nix. Most tools and programming languages were first developed on *nix before being ported to other platforms. The core of OSx is Unix. If you are a software Dev you'll greatly benefit from using Linux unless Microsoft Windows is your primary target or you use .NET technologies only.

Itz cool kay9. I'm about to begin a cool project on C tomorow. It would be nice of you to contribute, I'll give you details soon...

No probs. Hope I get good enough to contribute though.