Hello everyone
I am an undergraduate in the nigerian university nd after my 200level IT though I learnt on my own
I have been using microsoft OS for a long buh I want to try out linux ubuntu because most of the books and tutorials I hve been seeing online are centered on Linux operting system.
Now I hve chosen a career path being (system and server anlyst/database management/database administration) though am not familiar with it at all buh I kinda liked the job after visiting some reputable IT organisations in lagos
Nairalanders gurus I need help on these underlisted questions
1. Advise me on how I can start on my own to learn database/server analyst/ and make the best out of it
2.Which linux distribution can fit into the above listed career
3. What can I start learning from now because we are just learning theory so I want to start gaining experience from now cos time waits for no one
Please Nairalanders help me out

In response to your number 2 question, which i feel is the most important (maybe because I'm a Linux advocate). All Linux distributions are called Linux distros because they all use a Linux kernel. The difference in them, is mostly some additional feature created by the proprietary companies and the User interface. That said if you are conversant with one distro, chances are you can use or easily migrate to other distro and you don't know it. It's the same folder structure and the same terminal commands except for a few tools. From what I know, Ubuntu is the most preferred Linux distro for beginners so I advice you start playing with it because it will prepare for your solutions to your questions 1 and 2. Hope this helps.

kudaisi:
In response to your number 2 question, which i feel is the most important (maybe because I'm a Linux advocate). All Linux distributions are called Linux distros because they all use a Linux kernel. The difference in them, is mostly some additional feature created by the proprietary companies and the User interface. That said if you are conversant with one distro, chances are you can use or easily migrate to other distro and you don't know it. It's the same folder structure and the same terminal commands except for a few tools. From what I know, Ubuntu is the most preferred Linux distro for beginners so I advice you start playing with it because it will prepare for your solutions to your questions 1 and 2. Hope this helps.

Ubuntu good it's what i use however i have been hearing about Gentoo and it's speed Ubuntu is quite buggy as hell, had mine since 11.04 and upgraded along the updates till 15.04 much slower than newly installed 15.04. Linux is the best

thank you for the information you have given me i have downloaded Ubuntu 14.04 something like that so about the server analyst and database management how do i start learning it on my own?

If i may ask, what is your understanding of the position "System Analyst"? Just to be sure that we're on the same page as far as the title is concerned.

Thank you very much for this post. I'm hoping you could help me with a Linux problem.
I installed the Kali Linux on Vmware. For proper usge of the OS in a virtual machine, this requires that I install Vmware tools and for me to install Vmware tools, I need to install linux headers first. So the problem here is: How do I install Linux headers?

These are the processes I underwent:
After installing, I opened Terminal with root access, I tried the updates using

Apt-get update

The update ended with error in GPG keyrings. I also tried upgrading [apt-get upgrade] but the data size was much that I couldn't download it. I also couldn't upgrade the distro [apt-get distro-upgrade].
When I tried installing Linux headers [apt-get install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)]. My kernel is 3.14_Kali1-amd64.
My respositories [leafpad /etc/apt/sources.list] are very okay. They only include the regular and security respositories on Kali linux site. I use Kali Linux 1.0.9. How do I update without GPG keyring error? How do I install Kali Linux Headers? How do I install. Vmware tools?

kudaisi:
If i may ask, what is your understanding of the position "System Analyst"? Just to be sure that we're on the same page as far as the title is concerned.

sir a system analyst is someone who solves business problems using information technology