Which Unix Is Right for You?

If you've already got full access to a working Unix system, that Unix is probably the right one for you. Unless, of course, you want to learn how to install a new one or start from a fresh system.

Even though this book focuses on the freely available Unixes that run on desktop (or even laptop) hardware, most of the information here will work with commercial Unixes such as Solaris, because it's focused on the applications.

If you're using a modern Apple computer, you're already using Unix when you boot into Mac OS X. If you wanted to use a Unix terminal instead of the normal Mac desktop, you could install Yellow Dog Linux or one of the BSDs, but then you'd lose the wonderful Quartz user interface. More power to you if you go down that path, but keep your Mac OS X CDs handy in case you don't like where it leads.

Users of x86 PCs have the most options available. If you need to keep Windows XP on your system (say, you need to access the office VPN or Microsoft Word to write a book, or, like me, you can't live without video games), Cygwin will give you a complete Unix environment without affecting Windows in any way. Cygwin applications can run alongside traditional Windows applications without any trouble or performance problems.

If you don't need to keep Windows on your system, you could start fresh with Linux (we'll be covering the Fedora Core 3 distribution) or FreeBSD.

Choosing Linux or FreeBSD depends on several things. FreeBSD is a good choice for stability, but Linux has a bigger development and user community, where things move faster and change more. Both support a vast range of hardware and offer similar capabilities. Ask a few friends if they use one or the other and go with what they're using . . . if you run into any trouble, they might be able to lend a hand.

Other Linux Distributions

I've chosen to cover Fedora Core 3 here because Red Hat's offerings have been very popular for home users as well as business users.

There are a few other, interesting distributions, though. My favorites include Mandrake, which is said to be the most "user-friendly" Linux for desktop use (although SuSE might be giving it a run for its money), and Gentoo.

Gentoo Linux is a bit of an oddball because during the install, you compile everything yourself. This is great if you have lots of time and if you want the absolute best binaries for your system. Everything is optimized specifically for your CPU.

If you're wondering which Linux is "right" for you (there are literally more than a thousand different Linux distributions out there!), you could try out the Linux Distribution Chooser (www.tuxs.org/chooser).

I've gone through it a couple of times and it keeps giving me Mandrake or Gentoo. As always, use these sorts of things as a springboard for your own research, and do some reading before you format your hard drive and start installing.

Or just use Fedora Core 3, because that's what this book covers!

Another option would be to run a computer emulator or virtualizer like Microsoft's Virtual PC or VMware Workstation. These programs behave like complete virtual computers running on your system, letting you install another OS from scratch while keeping your original system intact and available . . . you'll be running, for example, Linux in a window on your XP desktop. This emulation layer generally gives you a bit of a performance hit, however.

Dig in and enjoy!