Chuck The Geek.com

Red Hat Linux certification, why Linux is cool, and how you can try it out

February 13th, 2006 by Chuck Sharp

In case you were wondering, the reason posts have been non-existent over the last week is that I was attending a class about Red Hat Linux system administration. A co-worker has described this class as “fire hose style” - they just flood you with information until you can’t take any more. After taking the class and working the labs Monday through Thursday, we took a certification exam on Friday. This six hour exam touches on all the bases of administering Linux server systems in an enterprise (big corporate) environment, and successful completion results in the Red Hat Certified Engineer title. Well, I passed. It was a long but fun week, and I learned a lot. I’ve been using Linux in various ways for close to a decade, and I learn new things about it everyday.

Linux is an operating system (OS), as is Windows XP, 2000, etc. It provides the software needed to allow you to run other programs. Windows and Linux provide the access to the underlying system and hardware that you don’t ever like to think about, like dealing with system memory, networking, hard drive storage, system maintenance and monitoring, stuff like that. The next layer of the OS gives you the graphical interface - you know, windows, start menu, mouse cursor, pretty pictures, etc.

Linux is open source. That means it is freely reproduced and used by anyone. What happens is that groups of people take Linux and a bunch of Linux programs and put them into a big package, usually several CD-ROMs. These big packages are called Linux distributions.

Linux is really neat because of the philosophy behind it and many of its related projects. Not only does Linux provide an incredible operating system and user interface, but there are thousands and thousands of outstanding open source software packages to do pretty much everything you can imagine, from office software to mp3 encoding to games to powerful productivity tools. Plus it’s fun.

If you want to play with Linux (it really is fun, and not as hard as it sounds), I’d recommend downloading and burning a “Live CD.” A Live CD is a condensed Linux distribution that fits on one CD and can be run from the CD drive, which means you don’t have to install Linux on your computer at all! I’d recommend trying out Ubuntu, a distribution that’s produced to be extremely stable and easy to use by anyone. Just download the Ubuntu Live CD iso image, burn that to a CD (read the directions on the website), put the CD in your CD drive, and reboot your computer. Alternatively, you can order a CD from their website for free. They’ll even ship it to you free.

A good article that takes you through the Live version of Ubuntu can be found here.

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Entry Filed under: Linux, PC Basics