Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeMan
...if I want to learn serious Unix, what operating system should I use? I'm running OpenBSD, did I choose the right one?
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You ask a useful question, however, this is off-topic from the OP's initial intent. When changing subjects, it is more useful to all to begin a new thread.
As for which Unix to learn, it all depends upon your ultimate goal:
- If you are wanting to leverage knowledge for employment reasons, you may want to consider Solaris and/or Linux for these are most widely used in classic IT shops today.
- Having said that, the *BSD's are also used in industry, but the licensing makes the *BSD's more palatable to embedded work (...as is Linux to a lesser degree, however, the GPL can make usage by start-up companies more difficult if source is not made freely available.).
- Of the *BSD's, FreeBSD has the greatest popularity & usage in industry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ems#Popularity
...as it is used extensively by companies such as Yahoo!, Juniper, etc. However, this is not to imply that any of the other *BSD variants are not useful or popular for specific reasons. OpenBSD is in use at numerous companies for its firewall & other security capabilities. NetBSD also is used in a number of embedded environments.
You will find that there is no clear answer to your question. Although the *BSD's have forked & have their own personalities, they all have a heritage coming from a base code base which is over thirty years old. With this, comes a great deal of stability. Note that Solaris builds on this same tradition as it stems from the early BSD code base as well.
Linux, on the other hand, began as a complete rewrite modeled after Minix's kernel in the early 1990's. It's code base is not as old, but it has undergone rapid growth, & has captured significant market share.
So there is significant overlap between the *BSD's, Linux, & Solaris, but each effort has developed its own personality & community. It is up to you to experiment & dig deeper to see which variant fits your needs best.