Sorry for getting all dramatic, but for me you're asking a red pill/blue pill question. I applaud your curiosity and can only recommend you follow your gut and take the red pill. The truth is by asking the question you already know what to do next. Just keep going. However I'll give you a few ideas because you got me excited.

1. Get in touch with your osx terminal
   
2. Get linux ASAP
   
3. Learn the command line
   
   

   OSX Terminal
   

   
   Underneath the shiny GUI surface of your mac you have an incredible unix style OS just waiting to be played with and mastered. A few tips to get you going.
   
   
   

   Download iTerm 2. Press cmd-return, cmd-d and command-shift-d.
   

   
   Congrats. you now have a hollywood hacker style computer
   
   

   Copy and paste this line into your terminal and say yes to xcode.
   

   
   ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
   
   Awesome you now have homebrew. A linux style package manager.
   
   

   May as well get cask too.
   

   
   brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask
   
   Now you can install programs by typing a couple of words.
   
   try
   
   brew cask install virtualbox
   
   

   Get Linux ASAP
   

   
   Linux is relatively easy to get up and running and awesome fun. try any of these options
   
   

• Download virtual box and install a 'virtual machine' to run linux on your mac (see above).
  
• Buy a Raspberry Pi.
  
• Create a bootable usb and install refind on your mac.
  
• Take a friends old laptop and install linux on it from your live usb distro.
  
  If any of the above seems slightly daunting don't sweat it. Be confident and you may just surprise yourself at how much you can learn in such a short amount of time.
  
  

  Learn the command line
  

  
  The command line opens up the wonderfully powerful and creative world of unix. Push on.
  
  

• Get the basics down with codecademy
  
• Play with some books (this or this for eg)
  
• Watch some youtube videos (this guy's good for webdev)
  
• Learn a text editor (Try Vim. You already have it. Type 'vimtutor' in your terminal to get started)
  
  

  Play, Play, Play
  

  
  Do what gets you excited.
  
  I got a big kick out of learning ssh and then pranking my friends with commands like
  
  say hello friend, i am your computer. i think your friend two-gun is very handsome. Is he single?
  
  or
  
  open -a "Google Chrome" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0uYvQ_aXKw
  
  Do what you find fun. Oh and check out Richard Stallman. He's a good egg.
  
  Enjoy.
  
  

  edit-0
  

  forgot iTerm link
  

  edit-1
  

  Wow! Gold! Ha! Thank you. This is so unexpected! I'd like to thank the academy, my agent, my mom...

A few of my favorite books I reference and recommend. Just a note, many of these are older and can be purchased used for much less. Also if you can afford it, get a Safari subscription. I use my work Safari subscription but this alone has saved me from my book buying habit. Now I only buy "must have" books. :)

Official Ubuntu Server book - I really like this book as the writing style helped me "get it" with Linux. Kyle Rankin has a very good method of showing you the technology and then a quick run down to get the server working, followed by some admin tips. It's a just scratching the surface type of book but it's enough to get you started. I rarely use Ubuntu now, but this book helped me understand DNS and other topics that were IMHO harder to grasp from other books.

As a bonus, this book also has an entire chapter dedicated to troubleshooting. While this sounds obvious, it's a great read as it talks about dividing the problem, how to approach the facts, etc. Stuff a seasoned admin would know but might be hard to explain to a new admin.

The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction - You can read this book for free on the site, but having a paper copy is nice. As mentioned, you should have a very solid understanding of the command line. In my experience, I have seen co-workers struggle with basic shell scripting and even understanding how to make a single line for loop. This book covers the basics, moving to shell scripting and I think it's a good solid reference guide as well.

DevOps Troubleshooting: Linux Server Best Practices - This book is referenced a few times here but I'll throw another comment for it. Another book from Kyle Rankin and has the same straight to the point writing style. It's very quick reference and simple enough that you could give this to a new sysadmin and he or she could get started with some of the basic tools. While the book covers a good selection of basic services and tools, it's easy to get deeper into a chapter and find it's only discussing a handful of troubleshooting steps. The idea with this book is it's a quick reference guide, and if you want to get deeper into troubleshooting or performance, take a look at other books on the market. Either way, this is a great book I keep on my desk or reference through Safari.

UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th Edition) - Another popular book based on the comments here. This is a pretty big book, thin pages, but it's like a small brick of UNIX/Linux knowledge. While it's starting to get dated, it does give a great reference to many topics in the system administration world. The chapters can dive deep into the subject and offer more than enough information to get started but also understand the technology. The e-mail chapter I thought was great as well as the DNS. I think of this book as a overall guide and if I want to know more, I would read a book just on the subject, that's if I need more information. One thing to point out is this book makes use of different OS's so it's filled with references to Solaris, different UNIX versions, etc. Not a problem but just keep in mind the author may be talking about something outside the scope of vanilla Linux.

Shell Scripting: Expert Recipes for Linux, Bash and more - I found this book to be a good extenstion of the Linux Command Line book, but there are many many other Bash/Shell scripting books out there. The author has many of the topics discussed on his site but the book is a good reference for scripting. I can't stress enough how important shell scripting is. While it's good to know a more formal language like Python/Perl/etc, you are almost certain bash will be on the machine you are working on.

Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud - I can't comment on this book beyond the first chapter, I'm still reading it now but it's reading similar to Brendan Gregg's site, and that's a great thing. If you don't know who this guy is, he's one of the top performance guys in the Solaris and now Linux world. He has some great infographics on his site, which I use for reference.

Use method for Linux

Linux Performance

Example of Linux performance monitoring tools

Hope this helps!

It depends on what you already know.

​

Do you have any prior programming experience? If not, start there. My no. 1 recommendation here would be Allen B. Downey's free Think Python book. Others might come along and recommend something like SICP, which is a good book, but perhaps a bit hard for an absolute beginner. Downey also has a version of his book that uses Java, so if you know for a fact that this is the language your introductory programming class will be using, then that could be a better option (Python is a simpler language, which makes it easier for you to focus on the actual concepts rather than the language itself, but if you know that you'll be using Java, you might as well kill two birds with one stone).

​

If you do have prior programming experience, you have all sorts of options:

• You could learn a functional language, like a Lisp (Clojure, Racket, Scheme, LFE, ...) or something in the (extended) ML family (Standard ML, OCaml, F#, Haskell, Elm, ...).
  
• Or, you could go the other way and learn something low-level, like C. You could even learn about C and Lisp at the same time by building your own.
  
• Or learn a logic programming language, like Prolog.
  
• Or, if you really want to understand object-oriented programming (and how languages like Java managed to stuff it up), you could learn Smalltalk.
  
• If you don't know what a unit test is or how to write one, you should learn.
  
• Learn about data structures and algorithms. As a CS student, you'll be learning about them at some stage anyway, so there's no harm in starting early. Some people might recommended CLRS for this, but for someone just starting out, I'd recommend something a bit friendlier, such as this series of videos from Princeton (presented by Robert Sedgewick, author of one of the most popular books on the subject). If you'd prefer a book, this free one from Allen B. Downey (who also wrote the introductory programming text I recommended earleir) looks quite good.
  
• Work your way through NAND2Tetris. It will take way longer than a month, but it will definitely set you apart from the rest of the class. Even if you don't do this now, you should definitely plan to do it at some point.
  
• Learn about databases. Again, you'll have to study them eventually, so why not start early? You could start by trying to build something that uses a database, like a simple todo utility.
  
  ​
  
  Regardless of whether or not you have programmed before, I would also recommend doing the following:
  
  
• Learn some basic Unix skills. It doesn't have to be too much – just enough to be able to sit down at the command line and have a vague idea of what you're doing is fine for now. You'll learn more as you use it more. That said, if you really want to dive in and learn how everything works, then something like How Linux Works could be a good read.
  
• Learn some discrete mathematics. As a CS student, you'll be required to learn it at some stage – it's the mathematical backbone of CS, much like calculus is to physics – so you might as well start early. This free, book-length set of notes from MIT is very well-regarded (but don't expect to get through it all in a month!). There is also a set of video lectures if you prefer. If you're keen on learning functional programming, another option could be to integrate that with your discrete maths studies by reading Thomas VanDrunen's Discrete Mathematics and Functional Programming (if the physical book is a bit expensive for you, there's also a cheaper ebook version available).
  
• For bonus points: learn to use either Vim or Emacs. There probably isn't a massive practical advantage to using these this early in your career (although they could certainly come in handy later), but if other students see you writing code in one of them, you'll look like an absolute badass. Your teachers will probably be quietly impressed, too.
  
  ​
  
  if you have any questions about my above suggestions, let me know, and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction.
  
  ​
  
  Good luck!

When I was 15, my uncle got me a summer job on the landscaping crew for the hospital he worked at. At six feet and two hundred twenty pounds I was physically capable, but I was still a kid out there with the grown men. The summer was full of hot, sweaty triple digit days with lots of lawn mowing, weed eating, raking, gardening, and planting. It sucked. Many time I'd hear the men I worked with say, "You'll never catch me in any office! I love being out here in the fresh air!" Frankly I thought they were nuts. This was about the moment in my life when I decided my future work environment was going to have full time A/C, a water cooler, a big comfy office chair, and unmonitored break times. My uncle did me a solid that summer, and that's what I'll try to for you now.

​

If your goal is a paying job in cybersecurity, here is your blueprint for the first two to three years. Advanced math and programming skills are definitely not needed, math was my worst subject in school by far. College degree also not needed, my best friend is literally a high school dropout and he makes $150K as an AWS cloud architect for NASA, no BS. Intelligence is also helpful but not absolutely critical, I worked at IBM for five years with a woman that could not have been more average in every way. The only thing she was exceptional at was taking notes, any time she or anyone else did something it went in her notebook. If she need an answer for a problem later, she'd look in the notebook. Advanced equipment is not necessary, a second hand laptop and cable modem speed internet connection should be more than sufficient. Frankly, the "what to do" is the easy part. Actually sacrificing hours a day to learn the skills and execute the career plan is the hard part. By far the most important trait is determination, just a refusal to give up. Remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

You should be aiming to eventually get a position as a Security Operations Center (SOC) analyst.

A SOC analyst position gives you some insight into a whole range of different information security problems and practices. You'll see incoming recon and attacks, your org's defenses and responses, and the attacker's counter responses. You'll get experience using a SIEM. You'll become familiar with all of the tools in place and start to figure out what works and what doesn't. You'll learn the workflow of a security team and what the more senior engineers do to protect the enterprise. After a couple of years, you'll probably have a much better idea about your own interests and the path you want to pursue in your career.

​

Here's how you get there:

​

Step 1: Get the Network+ certification (Skip the A+, it's a waste of time for your purposes). You MUST understand IPv4 networking inside and out, I can't stress that enough. A used Net+ study guide on Amazon should be less than $10. Professor Messer videos are great and free: https://www.youtube.com/user/professormesser

​

Mike Meyers has about the best all in one Network + book out right now, you can get that from Amazon. You can also check out Mike Meyers' channel on Youtube, he has a lot of Network+ videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcIV\_qc-eOU

​

Step 2: Start learning some basic Linux. The majority of business computing is done on a unix type platform, this will not change anytime soon.

​

For Linux, I'd highly recommend "Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, et al. The information is presented in a way that is comprehensible to regular people. You can get a used copy of the fourth edition for about $15.00. The second edition got me through my first three jobs back in the day :) https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=evi+nemeth+4th+edition&qid=1551450119&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

​

Step 3: Get a techie job, probably in entry level tech support or helpdesk. You have to do a year or two here to get some practical experience.

​

Step 4: Get the Security+ certification.

​

Step 5: While in your tech support job try to do every security related task you can.

​

Step 6: Attend Bsides conferences (very cheap), there is almost certainly one within a couple hours of you. http://www.securitybsides.com/w/page/12194156/FrontPage

​

Step 7: Join a local hackers group similar to NoVA Hackers or Dallas Hackers.

​

Step 8: Network with everyone you can at security conferences and in your hackers group.

​

Step 9: After you get those certs and some technical work experience, apply for every SOC position you can.

​

Step 10: Take the free online Splunk class while you're waiting.

​

Step 11: Keep going until you get that SOC analyst job.

​

Guess what, you're an infosec professional!

​

That SOC analyst job should pay between $50K and $60K. You'll stay there for a year to eighteen months and get a couple more certifications, then leave for a new job making $75K to $85K. After five years in the tech/cybersecurity industry you should be at $100K+.

​

Feel free to PM me with questions.

Okay then. I'm glad that you have a can-do attitude and sound hungry. First let's get something settled. You're nearly as high up in the certifications chain as you can be with Microsoft and you're noticing it's not getting you the places you need to go. This is a supply and demand problem. Employers can get people like you on the cheap from contracting agencies, and often they needn't even be in the united states. You need to increase your value. Here's what you do, you're going to dive in head first. There are two distributions of Linux that are widely known to have some level of enterprise support, which means enterprises (the companies that will pay you lots of money) will be attracted to them. These distrubutions are Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu Server Edition. I recommend that you start with Red Hat, but not necessarily because it's a better distro but because they have a well-designed certification program.

• Subscribe to /r/linuxadmin
  
  
• You're currently using Windows. This is going to be extremely uncomfortable for you at first but you will need to start using Linux on the desktop, and this shouldn't be your side project, this should be your daily laptop you rely upon for everything. There are two distributions that match RHEL exactly in every way but remove the redhat enterprise stuff so you don't have to pay for a license. These distros are Scientific Linux and CentOS. They're both fine to use for the desktop, i'd recommend going Scientific just a matter of personal preference.
  
  
• I typed the previous because of some encounters I've had with Windows admins who have been forced to learn the bare minumum of linux and hated it. They installed it on some ancient piece of crap computer or just on a virtual machine on Windows. They didn't have to rely upon it and therefore learned basically nothing. Linux isn't a toy for you to play with on the side, it's your primary computer now. I cannot stress enough how important this is if you are going to be successful. Sometimes things aren't going to work and you're going to have to figure it out.
  
  
• Go to IRC on Freenode when you have questions and can't find the answers from googling, there are general ##linux channels but there are also ones more specific to your distro like #centos or what you are trying to accomplish like #bash or #nginx
  
  
• From your linux laptop set up VM's there for your research. you can use virtualbox for a straight VM or it would be much more career relevant to learn how to use docker. You can also get a small number of free AWS machines in their free teir program.
  
  
• Your goal is to obtain an RHCE. Red Hat Certified Engineer. As a prerequisite, you will need an RHCSA, a Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator.
  
  
• It seems that now even every linux bash command has a video for it on youtube. There's a ton of resources on youtube now for linux training. Utilize them.
  
  Books
  
  
  • Red Hat RHCSA/RHCE 7 Cert Guide: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EX200 and EX300)
    
    
  • How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know
    
    
  • Classic Bash Scripting
    
    Start drilling yourself. There's another less impressive certification called the LPIC which has three tests, there's sample tests all over the web for free, i recommend taking them often and when you don't get a question correct go into your VM and use what you were asked
    
    
• With linux you have the ability to, for free, set up any number of web servers, databases, authentication services, filesystems and security features. The only way you are going to learn is by doing, check out this post which is basically an outline of setting up every major system for an enterprise environment running 100% on linux. You could build up an entire company's infrasructure by learning how to do this, with no software licensing costs whatsoever.
  
  Pick a language, I recommend first getting really good at BASH then Python.
  
  Don't stay at jobs. We get raises by moving to new companies. Your median stay should be about 18 months if it seems like you've topped out. Don't be afraid to GTFO of Florida. I stayed close to home for too long and wasted a lot of time limiting myself in the Midwest. If you are able to relocate and have an RHCE i guarantee your salary will double in 3 years. DOUBLE. And it will keep increasing. And you'll be working on way more interesting stuff.

> windows server/services?

Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN are Microsoft's main reference portals for operations and development, respectively.

For structured learning, Microsoft offers their MCSE Program. Each exam covers a specific topic, and there are learning objectives and links to reference material available. Microsoft Press will usually have a self-study guide available for each exam.

There's also the Microsoft Virtual Academy, but I've never used it and can't vouch for its quality. Of course, it's free, so....

> linux server/common services? (Could be distro specific)

For professional use, the most commonly used Linux distributions are RHEL/CentOS and Ubuntu. (Debian is also popular, but it's close enough to Ubuntu that you can lump the two together.)

Both RHEL and CentOS have documentation available:
RHEL Documentation Page
Ubuntu Server Guide

RHEL's documentation is far more thorough and complete. However, Ubuntu has community support in the form of the Ubuntu Forums and Ask Ubuntu, and I've personally found it easier and faster to find specific information and solutions for Ubuntu.

For structured learning, Red Hat has a certification track available (which is obviously focused on Red Hat technologies), and LPI has a certification track that is more vendor-neutral. There are self-study books available for Red Hat's certifications, but they are all outdated for the current exams, and I don't recommend buying them until they're revised for RHEL 7.

For self-study, the closest thing to a Linux system administration bible that currently exists is the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook. However, it's a bit dated in certain respects.

Linux support and documentation, like its development, is spread out over the Internet. If you're looking for how to do something, usually the best place to start is Google. Searching for "[stuff] Ubuntu" or "[things] CentOS" will usually send you to the right place. Stack Exchange is also a pretty good resource:

• Stack Overflow, for scripting and coding questions
  
• Server Fault, for questions regarding system and network administration
  
• UNIX and Linux, for questions about Linux in general
  
  > Networking
  
  Networking education is split into two worlds: theoretical/academic computer networking, and practical, vendor-specific networking.
  
  For theoretical networking, your best bet is to pick up a textbook. We recently had a thread discussing recommendations.
  
  For practical, vendor-specific networking, the big player is Cisco. Cisco has a certification track available with course objective and reference materials. For self-study, anything written by Wendell Odom is gold; however, bear in mind that you really need a lab for self-study to be effective.
  
  Other companies, like Juniper or HP, also have networking certifications available, but I only recommend them as a supplement.
  
  Lastly, while I describe Cisco's training as "practical," that doesn't mean that the theoretical aspect of networking is unimportant for a professional. There is an industry-wide push toward software-defined networking, and if your SO wants to get in on that, she'll need to have a firm understanding of computer networking theory.
  
  > NetSec
  
  Hardcore NetSec isn't really my field, but /r/netsec has a Getting Started Guide with some resources available.

Many people may disagree with me, but as a Linux user on the younger side of the spectrum, I have to say there was one thing that really worked for me to finally switch for good- books.

There's tons of wikis and forums and of course Reddit to ask questions, but it is hard to get good answers. You may end up paying for books (unless you look on the internet for books) but it doesn't beat having a hard copy in front of you. It boils down to a time vs money trade off. The only wiki I would follow is one directly from the developers that act as documentation, not a community wiki. Also worth nothing certain wikis are more tied to linux and the kernel than others, meaning some are comparable/interchangable with the distro you may be using. Still, a novice would not easily put this together.

Forums are also useless unless you have the configuration mentioned in the post or that forum curates tutorials from a specific build they showcase and you as a user decided to build your system to their specifications. There's way too many variables trying to follow online guides, some of which may be out of date.

This i've realized is very true with things like Iommu grouping and PCI Passthrough for kernel based virtual machines. At that point you start modifying in your root directory, things like your kernel booting parameters and what drivers or hardware you're gonna bind or unbind from your system. While that does boil down to having the right hardware, you have to know what you're digging into your kernel for if you dont follow a guide with the same exact parts that are being passthrough or the cpus or chipsets are different.

Books are especially handy when you have a borked system, like you're in a bash prompt or an initramfs prompt or grub and need to get into a bootable part of the system. Linux takes practice. Sometimes its easier to page through a book than to search through forums.

Another thing about being an intermediate or expert Linux user is that you don't care much about distros or what other users or communities do. It wont matter as under the hood it's all the same, spare the desktop and the package managers. Once you're out of that mentality you just care about getting whatever you want done. I'm not one of those guys that's super gung-ho FOSS and open source. I just use what gets the job done. Also from a security perspective, yes Linux is in theory MORE secure but anything can be hardened or left vulnerable. It's more configuration tied than many uses and forums or threads lead it on to be.

My workload involves talking to servers and quite a bit of programming and scripting, in a variety of capacities. That's what led me to linux over the competitors, but I'm not so prudent to never ever want to use the competitor again or have a computer with it. With understanding Linux more, I use it more as a tool than to be part of the philosophy or community, though that enthusiasm pushes for new developments in the kernel.

I'm assuming you're a novice but comfortable enough in linux to get through certain things:

In any computer related thing, always TEST a deployment or feature first- From your linux system, use KVM or Virtualbox/vmware to spin up a few linux VMs, could even be a copy of your current image. This way any tweaks or things you want to test or try out is in an environment you can start over in.

The quickest way to "intermediate-expert" Linux IMO is learning system administration.

My go to book for this is "The Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook 5th edition"

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Unix+and+Linux+System+Administration+Handbook+5th+edition&qid=1564448656&s=books&sr=1-1

This edition is updated recently to cover newer kernel features such as could environments and virtualization. This book also helps when learning BSD based stuff such as MacOS or FreeBSD.

Another good read for a "quick and dirty" understanding of Linux is "Linux Basics for Hackers" It does focus on a very niche distro and talks about tools that are not on all Linux systems BUT it does a good concise overview of intermediate things related to Linux (despite being called a beginners book).

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Basics-Hackers-Networking-Scripting/dp/1593278551/ref=sr_1_3?crid=396AV036T1Y0Q&keywords=linux+basics+for+hackers&qid=1564448845&s=books&sprefix=linux+bas%2Cstripbooks%2C119&sr=1-3

There's also "How Linux works" but I cannot vouch for this book from personal use, I see it posted across various threads often. Never read this particular one myself.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/137-6604082-4373447?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1593275676&pd_rd_r=feffef24-d3c3-400d-a807-24d8fa39cd1e&pd_rd_w=8GX0o&pd_rd_wg=3AMRB&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=WBQKPADCVSABMCMSRRA1&psc=1&refRID=WBQKPADCVSABMCMSRRA1

​

If you want a more programming oriented approach, if you're confortable with the C language, then you can always look at these books:

The Linux Programming Interface

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200/ref=zg_bs_3866_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5YN3316W22YQ4TSMM967

Unix Network Programming VOL 1.

https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Networking/dp/0131411551/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Unix+Network+Programming+VOL+1.&qid=1564448362&s=books&sr=1-1

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-3rd/dp/0321637739/ref=zg_bs_3866_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5YN3316W22YQ4TSMM967

These books would take you to understanding the kernel level processes and make your own and modify your own system.

As many have mentioned, you can go into these things with "Linux from scratch" but it's also feasible to do Linux from scratch by copy/pasting commands. Unless you tinker and fail at certain things (hence do it on a vm before doing it to the main system) you won't learn properly. I think the sysadmin approach is "safer" of the two options but to each their own.

Instead of buying tons of books, you might want to look at Safari Books. I have the 10-book bookshelf subscription, and it is seriously plenty. Pros, you have instant access to a massive library of tech books. Cons, you are stuck reading on your computer/tablet/phone (I did try reading a few chapters on my Kindle, but the didn't care for the experience).

Books I would suggest:

• UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook - this is seriously a great book, that will make any admin better.
  
• Time Management for Systems Administrators - has a lot of good tips for time management, but some things are a little dated.
  
• The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition - This is a great read on how to be a better system administrator.
  
  I'm not a huge fan of training videos, but generally watch recordings from conferences. Although, I do really enjoy the format of vimcasts though.
  
  As for general advise, I did see someone recommend looking for an MSP. If you are looking to be a Linux SysAdmin, I wouldn't recommend this route as you are going to be supporting MS installations. Personally, I started doing help desk for a web company and moved up from there. Also, I worked hard to create my opportunities within each position. You'll have to put yourself out there and be patient, It took me 4 years to earn the official title of Systems Administrator (in a small-ish town). The key to this is finding a good Sr. SysAdmins who are willing to mentor you, and some environments/people aren't conducive to this.
  
  EDIT:
  
  BTW, I have a B.A. in Political Science, so don't be ashamed to rock that Philosophy degree. You will see a lot of posting that are looking for a B.S. in Computer Science/Computer Engineering/Rocket Surgery, but seriously don't even worry about that. Most job postings are a list of nice to haves, and most places really only care that you have a degree.
  
  I've been recruited by and interviewed with some very respectable tech companies. I just usually have to explain how I got into tech with a political science degree. In an interview, having the right attitude and knowing your stuff should say more than your major in college. But, you will also run into elitist douche bags who knock your degree/doubt your abilities because you don't have a B.S. in CS/CE. If you work with these people, your work should speak for itself. Don't try and get caught up into a pissing match with them. If it is an interview (as in someone you might work for), practice interviewing never hurts.

Here is a "curriculum" of sorts I would suggest, as it's fairly close to how I learned:

1. Programming. Definitely learn "C" first as all of the Exploitation and Assembly courses below assume you know C: The bible is pretty much Dennis Richie and Kernighan's "The C Programming Language", and here is the .pdf (this book is from 1988, I don't think anyone would mind). I actually prefer Kochan's book "Programming in C" which is very beginner freindly and was written in 2004 rather than 1988 making the language a little more "up to date" and accessible. There are plenty of "C Programming" tutorials on YouTube that you can use in conjunction with either of the aforementioned books as well. After learning C than you can try out some other languages. I personally suggest Python as it is very beginner friendly and is well documented. Ruby isn't a bad choice either.
   
   
2. Architecture and Computer basics:
   Generally you'll probably want to look into IA-32 and the best starting point is the Intel Architecture manual itself, the .pdf can be found here (pdf link).
   Because of the depth of that .pdf I would suggest using it mainly as a reference guide while studying "Computer Systems: A Programmers Perspective" and "Secrets of Reverse Engineering".
   
   
3. Operating Systems: Choose which you want to dig into: Linux or Windows, and put the effort into one of them, you can come back to the other later. I would probably suggest Linux unless you are planning on specializing in Malware Analysis, in which case I would suggest Windows. Linux: No Starch's "How Linux Works" is a great beginner resource as is their "Linux Command Line" book. I would also check out "Understanding the Linux Kernel" (that's a .pdf link). For Windows you can follow the Windows Programming wiki here or you can buy the book "Windows System Programming". The Windows Internals books are generally highly regarded, I didn't learn from them I use them more as a reference so I an't really speak to how well they would teach a "beginner".
   
   
4. Assembly: You can't do much better than OpenSecurityTraining's "Introductory Intel x86: Architecture, Assembly, Applications, & Alliteration" class lectures from Xeno Kovah, found here. The book "Secrets of Reverse Engineering" has a very beginner friendly introduction to Assembly as does "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation".
   
   
5. Exploitation: OpenSecurityTraining also has a great video series for Introduction to Exploits. "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation" is a really, really good book that is completely self-contained and will walk you through the basics of assembly. The author does introduce you to C and some basic principles of Linux but I would definitely suggest learning the basics of C and Linux command line first as his teaching style is pretty "hard and fast".
   
   
6. Specialized fields such as Cryptology and Malware Analysis.
   
   
   Of course if you just want to do "pentesting/vuln assessment" in which you rely more on toolsets (for example, Nmap>Nessus>Metasploit) structured around a methodology/framework than you may want to look into one of the PACKT books on Kali or backtrack, get familiar with the tools you will use such as Nmap and Wireshark, and learn basic Networking (a simple CompTIA Networking+ book will be a good enough start). I personally did not go this route nor would I recommend it as it generally shys away from the foundations and seems to me to be settling for becoming comfortable with tools that abstract you from the real "meat" of exploitation and all the things that make NetSec great, fun and challenging in the first place. But everyone is different and it's really more of a personal choice. (By the way, I'm not suggesting this is "lame" or anything, it was just not for me.)
   
   *edited a name out
   
   
   
   
   
   

"IT skills" is pretty broad. What is your IT degree- MIS, Cyber Security, Information Sciences, etc? The answer will really depend on what your degree is in and what your interests are. For example, I could tell you to study programming, but if your degree and interests align more with Cyber Security policy implementation, that might not be the best recommendation for you.

As somebody who has been on a few hiring committees, I'd say to work on your soft skills. In many cases, these are more important than technical capabilities. Specific soft skills I look for in new hires: organization, attention to detail, solid time management, communication, and self-sufficiency yet a team player. For us, we will take the candidate who doesn't know everything but has a good attitude and willingness to learn over the person who thinks they know everything and has a horrible attitude.

General technical skills you should toy around with: know your way around Active Directory in Windows, learn how to view event logs on a system (for Windows, hit your Start key and type in Computer Management), NIST Risk Management Framework, learn the parts of a computer and how to set them up and tear them apart. Learning Linux is also good- what I did to understand Linux better was purchase a Raspberry Pi and set it up to run Raspbian OS and RetroPie (to turn the Pi into a retro gaming machine). I also purchased The Linux Command Line and practice the commands from the book in the Raspbian terminal.

Also, before graduation, try to get some kind of internship, even if your major doesn't require one for graduation. It's a great opportunity for you to build hands-on experience and work in an IT environment doing real work. Oftentimes, you will learn something new in your internship that is not taught in school, and the experience might broaden your interests a bit (not to mention you may get a job offer or at least great references because of your internship!). If you need assistance in trying to figure out how to land a good internship, just let me know.

There are a couple things i'd recommend to start with. First, figure out how you learn best. For me it's physical books. I get bored and distracted with videos and pdf's get forgotten about. I'd definitely getting some decent reference material. Here are some of my favorites:

• The Python Pocket Reference
  
  
• The Bash Pocket Reference
  
  
• The Linux Pocket Reference
  
  
• The Linux Bible
  
  
• Literally anything by No Starch Press They're excellent books, fun to read and look great on a shelf.
  
  
  Kali on a raspberry pi is fine but i would not recommend starting with Kali. It's not a beginners Distro. If you can, i'd recommend picking up a cheap 2.5" hard drive for your laptop and swapping it with the Windows drive, or dual booting works too. Install a linux distro and eat your dogfood. Ubuntu and Linux Mint are great for beginners, with Mint and the cinnamon desktop being very similar to Windows 7.
  
  Centos or Fedora are also good. Fedora is based on Red Hat Enterprise linux, so it's very similar to what you'd find in an business enterprise environment. Centos takes it further though. It's literally just RHEL without branding or paid support.
  
  All of these (apart from RHEL) are free and all would be a good jumping off point. The only real difference between them all is the package manager and Desktop environment. Red Hat uses 'yum' while Debian uses 'apt'.
  
  Once you find one you like start practicing. Nearly all utilities you'll find will have a graphical user interface but the command line is always going to be more extensible/powerful. If nothing else get the Linux and Bash pocket references and test administering your own system. Try using the command line for python instead of IDLE. Learn to reboot/shutdown, install/update/upgrade/search with your package manager, try to make your system faster and document everything you do. EVERYTHING.
  
  You'll be a pro in no time.
  
  (I'm serious about the documenting. It's important. If you don't believe me check out some of the stories u/patches765 posts in r/talesfromtechsupport. It's like documentation is his superpower.)

That is prepping for the Linux+ right?

I haven't done this course or the exam, but I've been using Linux for a decade. I think for Linux in general - if you are coming into it from scratch then you really need to practice setting up a system, configuring services, compiling software, use a variety of package managers, writing some basic bash scripts and so on. Then you'll have a framework for a lot of the arbitrary stuff they want you to memorize - all the various flags, switches and options. At that point you probably want to do heavy flash-carding for the real arbitrary stuff.

Basically I'm not sure there is a way around simply using it - unless you are great at memorizing stuff without relating it.

I don't know if this book covers the objectives better than the course material, but I found it excellent back when I first got into Linux (I used the 1st edition). http://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-Superuser-Should/dp/1593275676

It was the kind of book that you could simply read through, play with what you learned in each section and it made a lot of sense. A real learning guide rather than a dictionary/reference.

Oh and if you want to learn a lot of really useful command line tips and tricks, this memrise was super helpful: http://www.memrise.com/course/50252/shell-fu/

If you master that memrise it'll make you super productive when working in a linux environment.

the easiest way is to strictly identify which part is really the variable:

foo=test

cp $foofile testdir/. # cp: missing destination file operand after 'testdir/.' ($foofile doesn't exist and expanded to null, not enough required params for cp)

cp "$foofile" testdir/. # cp: cannot stat '': No such file or directory ($foofile still doesn't exist, but expanded to '' due to double quotes usage - good practice)

cp ${foo}file testdir/. # will compy 'testfile' if exists

Also it is usefull to access command line params from inside the script if there are more than 9 params, to access 10th param use ${10}

and here is some list i noticed for myself of how to use this braces, while reading this book - would recommend:

Sorry for formating issues, reddit treats spaces and new lines in special way..


variable substitution:
substitution:

Bash supports various variables substitutions:

$a - will be substituted with 'a' value

${a} - same as $a but could be concatenated w/ string w/o spaces:

${a}.txt - will be expanded in a_value.txt

${11} - 11th positional parameter given to script from shell

${var:-word} - if 'variable' is set, the result will be its value

if 'variable' is unset - the result will be 'word'

$(var:=word} - if variable is set results in its value substituted

if variable is unset, it will be assigned to 'word'

such assignment will not work for positinal params(see 'shift')

and other special variables

${var:?word} - if variable is unset error with reason 'word' will be

generated, exit code of such construct will be 1

${var:+word} - if 'variable' is set, the result will be 'word',

(but variable's value will not be changed)

otherwise result will be EMPTY string

Example:

$ echo ${variable:-ls} - variable unset - ls used

> ls

$ export variable=1

$ echo ${variable:-ls} - variable is set- its value used

> 1

$ echo ${variable:+ls} - variable is set - ls used

> ls

$ echo ${variable1:+ls} - variable unset - empty line used

>

${!prefix} or ${!prefix@} - returns NAMES of existing variables

that starts from 'prefix.

Example:

$ echo ${!BASH}

> BASH BASHOPTS BASHPID BASH_ALIASES BASH_ARGC BASH_ARGV BASH_CMDS

string variables substitution:

${#var} - returns length of string in variable's value

Example:

$ var=123456789 #this could be interpreted as a string too now

> 9 #string length is 9

${#} or $# or ${#@} or ${#} - returns number of positional parameters

of the script being executed

${var:number} - return string from number to the end, spaces trimmed

variable is unchanged.

Example:

$ var="This string is to long."

$ echo ${var:5} #returns string from 5th symbol

> string is to long.

Example: spaces are trimmed:

$ echo ${var:5} | wc -c #count chars

$ 19

$ echo ${var:4} | wc -c #return starts from space

$ 19 #space is trimmed so same number of chars

${var: -number} - return string from end to number, spaces trimmed

NOTE - space between ':' and '-' signs

Example:

$ echo ${var: -5}

> long.

${var:number:length} - return string from number till end of lenth

Example:

$ echo ${var:5:6}

> string


${var: -number: -length} - return string number between number(from the

end) and length (also from the end)

NOTE: number must be > than length

Example:

$ echo ${var: -18: -2} #var is This string is to long.

> string is to lon

${@} - return all values of positional params

leaving spaces inside strings (like "$@" ) - bcs it know how

many arguments script has

${} is the same form, it seems

${@:num} - displays values of positional params but from num

$(@:1) - works same as ${@}

${@: -2} works , but starts from the end

${@:num:length} - same as with strings but with positional params

${@: -num: -length} - same as with strings but with positional params

${param#pattern} - finds shortest match and deletes it (lazy match)

Example:

foo="file.txt.gz"

${foo#.}

>txt.gz

${param##pattern} - finds longest match and deletes it (greedy match)

Example

${foo##.}

>.gz

${param%pattern} - same as # but deletes from the end of the file

Example:

foo=file.txt.gz

${foo%.} - note . instead of . in # example

>file.txt

${param%%pattern} - same as ##

${foo%%.}

>file

Search and replace:

${param/pattern/string} - replaces first occurance of pattern with string

${param//pattern/string} - replaces all occurances of pattern with string

${param/#pattern/string} - replaces only if at the beginning of the line

${param/%pattern/string} - replacesonly if at the end of the line

I can relate to your attitude and desire to learn Linux, I've felt the same.

I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=how+linux+works&qid=1558200935&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I read about a chapter or two a day with some coffee. It's fun and interesting. I think it's right up your alley.

For me, there's two types of Linux learning. Things I learn for fun, and things I learn because I have to or my stuff doesn't work. I started with a lot more things I learn for fun, but now most things I learn because I have to.

I do web development on a Manjaro machine using KDE. I love the distro, but I didn't try any others. I don't need to. It's fine. I use Debian on a lot of the webservers, that's fine too.

My feeling is, all these distros you're looking at have much more in common than not. If you set up a Desktop Environment, a popular one like GNOME or KDE on ANY distro, it's gonna be pretty similar. If you just want to use the shell on any distro, well, you can install whatever shell you want, use of that shell on any distro will be pretty similar.

IMO, you should focus MUCH more on deciding what DE/WM and shell you'll be using. This is going to play a much bigger role in your daily use than what distro you use. I think you should look up youtube videos and online tutorials of different people using different shells, scripts, WMs, VIM, etc, and see what excites you.

You can install Arch, step by step, using the wiki, and it's not that hard. It feels scary and weird at first, but you're just cooking, you're following a recipe, and if you mess up a step, a bunch of people have messed that step up too, google it.

Don't think too much. Just jump in.

First of all I should say that I'm no expert in these things, but I'm sure other people will be able to make other suggestions.

>I plan on installing Linux as my OS (technically my first time)

If you're more used to Windows then the UI will be fairly easy to get used to, but the biggest change will be the command line. This is a really powerful but complex tool and I think the best way to get used to it is really just to dive in and use it as often as possible. MagPi have a book for it (Conquer the Command Line) to get you started, but if you wanted something more comprehensive I've spent some time reading The Linux Command Line and found it really helpful.

For Python I think I started out with Code Academy, but mostly picked it up as I went along. I'm currently reading Python Crash Course and I think it is pretty decent, although most people seem to recommend Learn Python the Hard Way (note the tiny link near the bottom of the page to read the book for free).

At the end of the day the most important thing is to take baby steps and take them often: when you've kept at it regularly for a few weeks it becomes a lot more easy.

I wouldnt look down on you for it, but I would expect you to sell me. I've never personally used Blackboard so Im not sure where the skillsets overlap. You should be sure, and you should be able to talk about how that helps you transition. Write and practice your pitch.

The most important thing for a junior position is passion for the field. No expects you to be talk about POSIX and why you would use egrep over grep. They just want to see someone that is hungry and wants to learn.

Also, go buy the The linux command line. Its the best intro Linux manual I've ever read, and its intended for people with zero Linux experience to get up to speed. Its the second best value you will get for money spent on a book. The first best is Interviews for dummies. Im not joking when I say that I payed $1 for it at a used book store and its made me at least 15k dollars back. If you sit down and really learn both of these, you will be able to transition to a jr linxu admin role.

Only about half of the programming industry has a degree directly related to IT or programming. Most have college degrees in something, but in the end the most valuable thing to someone hiring in IT is skills. Once you have the skills, you just need to get noticed.

I would recommend you learn Linux administration and web development. (Or you could learn Windows too - I don't know Windows well so I can't comment on it. Linux and Mac OS X are somewhat more popular in the programming world, but if you're looking to get into IT, not programming, then Windows administration might be more common.)

A good book to learn Linux is "The Linux Command Line".

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Line-Complete-Introduction/dp/1593273894/

For learning web development, you could read "
Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: With jQuery, CSS & HTML5"

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-PHP-MySQL-JavaScript-jQuery/dp/1491978910/

Codecademy would also really help you in here:

https://www.codecademy.com/

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to respond.

I few years ago my youngest brother got his first IT job, and he fell right into an admin role. He too is very sharp. I bought him the following books as a gift to get him started...

The Practice of System and Network Administration, SecondEdition - a few years old but has lots of fundamentals in there, still well worth reading. Hoping for a third edition someday.

Tom Limoncelli's Time Management for System Administrators

I see others have recommended this great book, and I wholehartedly agree: UNIX and Linux System Adminstration, 4th Edition. I was sad when Evi's ship was lost at sea last year. :-( You could tell she loved sailing old wooden ships... just look at the cover. A great loss; she did so much for our community.

Additionally, I will second or third anyone recommending works by Brendan Gregg. I got the Kindle version of Brendan's Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud. I really like this book. It was written to be a good foundational book for the next several years. I am planning to get a hard copy version too. While you're at it, check out these links...

Brendan Gregg:
http://www.brendangregg.com/
http://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html
https://github.com/brendangregg/perf-tools
http://lwn.net/Articles/608497/
http://www.brendangregg.com/USEmethod/use-linux.html

Tom Limoncelli:
http://everythingsysadmin.com/

Introduce him not only to books, but online resources and communities like /r/linuxadmin :-)

Cheers!

A cheap book off of Amazon I am using to create a server is called Linux Administration: The Linux Operating System and Command Line Guide for Linux Administrators (ebook). I think it only included the basics, but hey -- it is $3. Also try the book Computer Networking by Ramon Nastase (off nook app) -- I think it is free, once again, really short however.

Someone here recommended Professor Messer -- he really is an amazing teacher, he is actually pretty much the "Free IT cert guy". So if people can get certs from his teachings, you will probably be a "hero". Messer typically starts at the ground bottom and you will learn a lot from him. So if anything go for him. Look at r/ccna, they have good resources posted over there -- I am sure.

You just have to jump in and do stuff. Using it as your primary OS or always for a particular task (e.g. always use it for internet browsing) is a good way to become familiar with a linux desktop environment.

As for the command, whenever you want to:

• check process usage (Task Manager in Windows)
  
• see how much memory is free ( 'free' command, 'df' for disk usage -- it stands for -disk free-)
  
• make a new directory ('mkdir')
  
• change file permissions ('chmod')
  
• edit a text file (Vi Improved, aka Vim -- http://www.vim.org/, cheat sheet )
  
• listen to music (http://www.tuxarena.com/2011/12/10-console-music-players-for-linux/)
  
• other general tasks
  
  Try to make all of that happen in a command-line/terminal. If you can't figure out a command/program's parameters, check the man (manual) file using the 'man' command ('man <command name>).
  
  For some command command references:
  https://files.fosswire.com/2007/08/fwunixref.pdf
  http://cc.iiti.ac.in/lcommands.pdf
  http://www.pixelbeat.org/cmdline.html
  http://www.computervillage.org/articles/CommandLine.pdf
  
  It may seem silly and retro/outdate, but PRINT out a reference sheet. If it's less than 10 pages it's hardly an environmental crisis.
  
  http://linuxcommand.org/index.php
  
  [ Do some basic software development: hello world, a calculator, a text adventure game, dice roller ]
  
  Also install some software development tools and write some basic C/C++ programs and learn about make files. Most of the times installing new software from source is as simple as downloading the source, extracting it, and then running a number of tasks via the make file (e.g. configure, make, make install, etc).
  
  Learning how to compile basic programs on the command line will make compiling other programs from source a little less opaque. The compiler produces object files from source code and links them to produce an executable file.
  
  [ Install some software from source ]
  
  http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/06/install-from-source/
  https://www.linux.com/learn/intro-to-linux/2017/3/how-install-packages-source-linux
  
  Sticking to simpler software with fewer dependencies (libraries and other software that your new software depends* upon to function properly) is recommended as you should encounter fewer errors if any.
  
  You can always skip this stuff and use a package manager (command line or GUI) if that suits you more.
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto
  https://www.lifewire.com/guide-to-synaptic-package-manager-2205707
  
  [ Reading ]
  
  If you can tolerate reading books and are willing to spend some money, these may be of use to you:
  
  Linux Pocket Guide, 3rd Edition: Essential Commands (By: Daniel Barrett)
  O'Reilly Media
  http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920040927.do
  
  Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition: A Desktop Quick Reference (By Stephen Figgins, Arnold Robbins, Ellen Siever, Robert Love)
  O'Reilly Media
  http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596154493.do
  
  If the price is an issue, shop on amazon and search ebay for a used copy. For the pocket reference at least a lot of stuff is likely to very much the same even in a previous revision/edition.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Pocket-Guide-Essential-Commands/dp/1491927577/
  ^ currently ~$10 on Amazon
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Nutshell-Desktop-Quick-Reference/dp/0596154488/
  ^ currently ~$28 on Amazon
  
  I'd strongly recommend the pocket guide and the other reference may be of some use as well.
  
  P.S.
  If you aren't sure what Linux "distribution" you should install and use I'd strongly recommend a Debian derivative (a version or variant of Linux that's based on the Debian distribution) or another popular one so you will be able to benefit from common tutorials and the familiarity with it that others users have when you end up needing help.
  
  Debian
  Ubuntu
  Linux Mint
  
  You can search for other Linux distributions, debian-based and not, using the search tool at https://distrowatch.com/

Here's my list of the classics:

General Computing

• But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone
  
  
• The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
  
  
• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
  
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  
  Computer Science
  
  
• The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science
  
  
• Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd Edition (aka The Dragon Book)
  
  
• The Art of Computer Programming
  
  
• Algorithms, 4th Edition
  
  
• Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (aka CLRS)
  
  
• Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms Using Python and C#, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People
  
  
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition (aka SICP, available for free on the MIT website)
  
  
• Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 4th Edition
  
  Software Development
  
  
• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann
  
  
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (aka The Gang of Four)
  
  
• Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  
  
• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things
  
  
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  
  
• Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual
  
  
• Hello, Startup: A Programmer's Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams
  
  
• Hacker's Delight, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 3rd Edition
  
  Case Studies
  
  
• The Soul of a New Machine
  
  
• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
  
  
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
  
  
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
  
  
• Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer, 3rd Edition
  
  Employment
  
  
• Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions, 6th Edition
  
  
• The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job
  
  
• The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally
  
  
• The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
  
  Language-Specific
  
  C
  
  
• The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition
  
  Python
  
  
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
  
  
• Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python
  
  C#
  
  
• The C# Player's Guide, 3rd Edition
  
  C++
  
  
• The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with C++: from Control Structures to Objects, 9th Edition
  
  Java
  
  
• Introduction to Java Programming and Data Structures: Comprehensive Version, 11th Edition
  
  
• [Java: A Beginner's Guide](https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Seventh-Herbert-Schildt/dp/1259589315/, 7th Edition)
  
  
• Java: The Complete Reference, 11th Edition
  
  
• Core Java Volume I - Fundamentals, 11th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Objects, 6th Edition
  
  
• Effective Java, 3rd Edition
  
  Linux Shell Scripts
  
  
• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible
  
  
• Mastering Linux Shell Scripting
  
  Web Development
  
  
• Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics, 5th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming, 3rd Edition (also available for free on the author's website)
  
  
• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
  
  
• HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
  
  
• You Don't Know JS: Up & Going
  
  Ruby and Rails
  
  
• Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails, 4th Edition (Note: this book is somewhat out of date compared to the live version on the author's website.)
  
  
• The Well Grounded Rubyist, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer
  
  
• Agile Web Development with Rails 5.1
  
  
• Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, 4th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent Ruby
  
  Assembly
  
  
• Assembly Language for x86 Processors, 8th Edition

First: Calm down. They also want you to work for them. It's not like they just have an endless pool of job candidates.

Technical skills are obviously important but other personal traits are much more important. Are you willing to learn? Do you like working in teams? Stuff like that. Technical skills can often be obtained more easily than personal traits. Be confident. If they ask you many technical questions and you can't answer many of them: Don't despair. Be honest about what you know and don't know. Be prepared to present in what particular technical things you have some experience.

If you want to read on Linux and Unix system administration, I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.de/Unix-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

(DM me for tips on how to get it)

Linux From Scratch is a little head first, trial by fire, but if you are willing to spend a lot of time getting your system to work, it could be cool. Another distribution to think about is Arch Linux and Gentoo. No matter which distribution you chose to learn on, read through all of the installation instructions, as these will explain why the defaults are as such. Don't just keep hitting enter, you have to read.

In addition, pick up a good Bash reference, like this one or this one (O'Rielly makes good books for this kind of stuff) and learn some Bash as the Bash shell is one of the most powerful aspects of linux.

Another thing that you may want to try is setting up a LAMP stack without following a step by step guide. LAMP meaning Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. This is a common configuration for a Linux webserver.

Finally, once you have gotten comfortable with Arch or Gentoo, mix it up. Try debian, or fedora. See and learn how every distribution does things in a slightly different way. Keep trying new things, you will never be done learning.

I have the UNIX and LINUX System Administration Handbook It's awesome and has a pirate boat on the front, so you know it's good. It's great for best practices type stuff, and there's a little bit of sysadmin humor mixed in.

I also have the Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible which is good for CLI reference.

Other than that, you can find a ton of stuff on the web. Is there anything in particular you are looking for?

> I really would love to hear if anyone has any thoughts on whether spending the time learning VIM is a good idea in this context.

When you ssh into a server and try to edit a small script, what will you do? Install a desktop environment to open up beloved VsCode or fire up trusty old Vim which is installed by default? Knowing basic Vim commands for text editing is a must have for any serious developer (you don't have to be expert, you just have to know enough to be comfortable with using it for small editing, for anything else use your main editor - as mentioned in the comments VsCode + Vim plugin is pretty awesome).

For learning bash I would recommend you The Linux Command Line

The fact is that there aren't that many things to learn IN DEPTH that are specific to Manjaro aside its package manager (which came from Arch btw).

But you can, of course, learn IN DEPTH GNU/Linux itself, and you'll be able to apply this knowledge to every distro you'll end up with any time soon. There is a book, which can help you understand GNU/Linux better: How Linux Works. I can't recommend it enough, it's just so good.

But if you want to learn something for free I recommend Linux Fundamentals series. It's one of the best introduction articles out there, but even if you are experienced user, you may find it useful anyway. These 4 articles will help you understand the system much better.

And, of course, don't forget about ArchWiki.

First, read our Wiki. It is very thorough and answers a lot of these common questions such as

day to day? The Practice of System and Network Administration
And the topical reference books listed below.

Books to help in shaping a sysadmin? The above &:
The Phoenix Project
Time Management for System Administrators


Topical Books I see mentioned often and have been very helpful to me:
Powershell in a month of lunches
Learn Python the hard way
Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook
Windows Server 2016: Inside Out

Group Policy
AbsoluteBSD
FreeBSD mastery:ZFS
CCNA
RHCSA/RHCE
Pro Puppet
SSH Mastery

On my docket:
FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS

Michael W. Lucas and Thomas Limoncelli are very good sysadmin writers, you can't go wrong with a topic they have chosen to write about.

Most of the *nix stuff assumes a baseline knowledge of how to use a unix-based system. I learned as I went but did pick up an old copy of Unix Visual Quickstart Guide not too long ago at a used books sale, which seems like a good starting place for someone overwhelmed with sitting at a terminal and being productive.
I notice I don't have any Virtualization books, perhaps someone else can fill in good books. Most of my knowledge regarding virtualization and network storage has been a mix of official docs, video training, and poking at it. Seems innate but it isn't.

cc him on code reviews for your day to day scripts and proactively go over the small ones with him, line by line, a few times a week.

I have a list of exercises(pm me if you are intested) from: http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057 -- I assign 4 of these exercises weekly and go over it in 1:1s. Buy him a few books, and explain that you can't send him to a conference because of budget issues this year, but you want to invest in his career development -- it will go along way to building the mentor-mentee relationship.

The thing I like about this book, its age does give a good historical perspective, but the questions at the end of the chapters are easily adapted into good questions to fit a particular environment.

I've used this approach to bring up 3 jr linux sysadmins so far.

ATLien325's comment explains that terminology in a pinch, but it's not really going to get you very far on your way to learning how to hack. Your best bet would be to pick up books like this, this, and this. Then you'll have an idea of how programs, file systems, and networking work behind the scenes and you are much better situated to begin to learn how to hack them.

You're also going to need to learn how to effectively use a search engine.

If you have a good sized library, they may have this book.

In totality it of course isn't about the n10-006. But the networking chapters took me that extra mile to pass the exam. It walks you through how to read a routing table, provides enough history (though not too much) to remember features of networking technologies via developmental necessity through time.

While it is still very much overview, the way it was written truly offered something more than all the usual exam prep.

Also, I found messer's study group videos invaluable. Many of them you can listen to on drives, as I did. Though some do require you to look at an image, he is kind enough to read off questions and the possible answers before diving into the solution. Also, subnetting in your head is good for you.

Best of luck.

>Any good books you would recommend?

I never really read any technical books on Linux. Most of my training on Linux has come from working for various vendors and institutions as well as a fair bit of hands on experience (both on the job and off in my lab at home).

I've seen the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook mentioned in this subreddit a few times so I assume it's gotta be decent. I remember reading the sample of it somewhere and confirming that what was inside was exactly what I would expect from such a book.

If you're looking for online help then I can help you a bit more with that. First off, the Linux From Scratch project is really time consuming, tedious, and probably over your head (it's still over mine, don't get discouraged). I went through the project once and didn't even come close to finishing it. Towards the end of my attempt I was really just skipping large sections of text and going through the motions of compiling things. However, I still learned some good points about the inner workings of a GNU/Linux system and recommend the project to all people who want an advanced understanding of it; Even if you abandon your lab of it or fail it miserably, I'd wager you'd still walk away with something of value.

The Arch Linux Wiki, or "ArchWiki" as it's referred to on their website, is a surprisingly informative community information repository. It has its faults: You won't find everything you're looking for, some tutorials are little more than hastily pasted step by step guides with absolutely no explanation, and as expected it's written for the Arch Linux distribution. However the utilities and programs Arch uses are the same that every other Linux distribution uses and, much like the Linux From Scratch project, visiting and poking around a bit my steer you on the way to a stronger understanding.

Finally, The Linux Documentation Project is a good bookmark to have (though I don't go there much any more).

I will take a stab at this one.

Personally, I started by reading Ansible: Up and Running but I would also take a look at Ansible for DevOps: Server and configuration management for humans by /u/geerlingguy who is very active in the community and keeps the book up to date.

I don't think I ever actually finished even half of the book though. It pointed me in the right direction and Ansible was easy enough that I just started creating my first Playbooks and haven't turned back since.

If your company is willing to sponsor training take a look at the relatively new Automation with Ansible course (DO407) which is the official training for the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Ansible Automation. I've been running through the Lab guide lately and have been really happy with it so far.

I just bought "How Linux Works" published by no starch press.

Excellent so far, and while I was familiar with all the topics in the book to begin with, I still learn something new every chapter. It's listed as an "Intermediate" level book, but there is a wide range of topics from absolute beginner to some more advanced stuff, all with easy to understand explanations. The topics build on themselves nicely, so you aren't just dropped into a chapter having no idea what the author is talking about.

Supposedly most of the no starch press books are great. /u/C0rn3j mentioned "The Linux Command Line" as well.

I recently got a job as a junior admin and found Unix and Linux System Administration to be really good. There is also a nice CBT Nuggets series on Linux which is a great overview, especially when watched while reading LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell as the book complements the videos.

If he already knows another programming language Dive Into Pythion is great for getting up to speed quickly.

> had any tips for solidifying the foundations.

I strongly recommend the book How Linux Works by Brian Ward, at No Starch Press. 392 pages.

Update: Here's a sample chapter Disks and Filesystems

While published in 2015, most of it is still very relevant. Page for page, it's the best Linux book I've encountered. Topics range from simple to complex, and intuitively organized as well. I found it applicable, of course, to most of Arch.

Good luck.

• FreeBSD Handbook - The best place to start for FreeBSD
  
• OpenBSD FAQ - Nice FAQ covering lots of topics
  
• The Book of PF - Great way to learn about the pf firewall - Applicable to Open and FreeBSD!
  
• Michael Lucas has an IT Mastery Series. Many of the books are about FreeBSD. Storage Essentials | Specialty Filesystems | ZFS and of course FreeBSD Mastery (a bit dated, released 2007)
  
  Also check out their IRC channels, forums, and mailing lists.

Get the Unix and Linux Administration Handbook, 4th Edition, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent Hein and Ben Whaley.

This book covers both Ubuntu and other Linux flavors, along with traditional Unix. It is my defacto go-to when I need to look up a topic, and goes into incredible detail about not only how to do things, but also some of the theory behind them. A good example is that it explains how to set up a DNS server, but also details how DNS actually works.

For something cheaper - just google the Rute Manual. This also details a wide array of OS concepts and how they are embodied in Linux.

And while your learning - i'd like to throw this tidbit that I absolutely love from the Rute guide:

>Any system reference will require you to read it at least three times before you get a reasonable picture of what to do. If you need to read it more than three times, then there is probably some other information that you really should be reading first. If you are reading a document only once, then you are being too impatient with yourself.

>It is important to identify the exact terms that you fail to understand in a document. Always try to backtrack to the precise word before you continue.

>Its also probably not a good idea to learn new things according to deadlines. Your UNIX knowledge should evolve by grace and fascination, rather than pressure

I found this book in a thread and I've gone through the first four chapters so far. I only got it a little while ago but I really do like how it reads, and the amount it covers is nice. Check out the table of contents on amazon and you'll see what I mean about the coverage.

Other than that we're looking at the same kind of stuff. Let me know if you get any good leads :P

This book is freakin awesome, i've used it and it's an amazing start and teaches you all sorts of stuff. I don't know how much information you actually know about the command line but this has helped me a lot. This book I have heard was pretty good but I unfortunatly haven't made my way to reading it. besides those two and actually installing and forcing yourself to use it everday there isn't much else you can do.

You learn linux by using it, and trial and error. No joke. Just dive in when it comes to Linux. Get a book like http://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-Superuser-Should/dp/1593275676/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418113534&sr=1-4

Use it as a reference at first, or even start reading if you like. Then whenver you have the opportunity, take the hard road and try to accomplish your task using command line tools.

As far as networking, check out securitytube as someone mentioned, maybe go for network+ to get the basics.

You may want to read the more in-depth answer I gave a similar question here: http://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/2oljm2/looking_for_a_good_starting_point/cmokwtg

Good luck!

I learned from this book which is old now and uses a P2P git model, but I felt it gave me a very, very good understanding of how to integrate Puppet with git.

When we went live, it was simple to go from a P2P git model to a centralized git server model.

It's for Puppet v3, but he's released a v4.1 and v5 book as well.

The reason I enjoyed it, is because you immediately start writing code - there aren't pages and pages of dry reading.

I'm reading "The Linux Command Line" book by William E. Shotts, Jr. A good primer for when you want to get into Linux. It reads well and it doesn't dump a ton of information on you at once.

​

Huh. It's a "Best Seller" now, lol. https://amzn.to/2zgHrzV

Working at a company that owns millions of dollars in private cloud infrastructure, I can tell you now systems engineers are gunna be working there for a long time.

Why learn strait programming though? Your skills are far more relevant and applicable to swapping over to a dev ops role.

Why not learn ansible, puppet, or chef? Pair that with learning how to stand up a hashi-corp/kubernetes/docker style scheduler/service-discovery/deploy framework from the ground up, and you'll be well on your way to owning the dev ops role.

Pair that with learning how to use software like logstash and kibana, get more familiar with a scripting language like python or javascript for quick and dirt automation, get familiar with any kind of deploy pipelines (github/jenkins/ocotopus, that kinda thing whatever you're feeling).

You could probably start at a more senior dev ops role, honestly, than having to relearn a career as a programmer.

https://learn.puppet.com/

This is a good place to start with puppet. https://www.amazon.com/Puppet-Cookbook-Third-Thomas-Uphill/dp/1784394882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487416890&sr=1-1&keywords=puppet+cookbook Here's a book I recommend if that's more your style.

https://learnpythonthehardway.org/

I personally feel this is the most "complete" experience for learning python online.

This has been one of my favorite books: http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Bible-Christopher-Negus/dp/111821854X/

And I read through this entire book: http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/

They are both great!

Edit: I can't type much because my internet is going out regularly at the moment, otherwise I'd love to elaborate further.

https://debian-handbook.info/ is super high quality (and free! although if you have the money I think it's well worth donating and / or purchasing a hard copy)

I also like https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554/ and https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676/

Agree with the comments posted by others. I would suggest the book bellow, which will give you a really nice all round grounding into all thinks *nix.

Gets the fundamentals and you can tackle any system from a good level of base knowledge. Also a great bible for the shelf.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unix-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314652961&sr=1-1

Tanenbaum's textbook is par for the course THE best low-level exploration of the fundamental concepts of operating systems. It is, however, HIGHLY theoretical, and requires a solid base of knowledge prior to even starting it. It also is not useful for learning specifics about every day tasks.

This is a phenomenal introduction to the concepts and some of the practice of Linux:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-Superuser-Should/dp/1593275676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454103950&sr=8-1&keywords=how+linux+works
And here is a practical-first exploration of how to use Linux:
http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Line-Complete-Introduction/dp/1593273894/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1454103950&sr=8-3&keywords=how+linux+works

I would highly recommended reading these two books, then picking up a copy of Tanenbaum's, and finally this:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=unix+and+linux+system+administration+handbook&sprefix=linux+sys%2Caps%2C204&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aunix+and+linux+system+administration+handbook

If you actually study and practice implementing the topics discussed in these four books then you will have a far better understanding than 90% of the Linux users I've interacted with.

There is a very good reason why it has a 97% savings right now.....

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/5mysmp/any_good_resources_for_learning_linux/dc7bqsp/

Great list from /u/va_network_nerd and +1 on Linuxacademy as I use it all the time for learning

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1491330548&sr=8-5&keywords=unix

I love this book

Some info on distro differences:

• List of Linux Distributions (the chart is particularly useful)
  
• Comparison of Linux Distributions
  
  A few book recommendations: (books are generally the way to go)
  
  
• The Linux Command Line
  
• How Linux Work
  
• Linux Bible
  
  A few online resources:
  
  
• Introduction to Linux
  
• Tecmint's Beginner's Guide For Linux
  
• Linux Insides (advanced, but free)
  
  Videos/courses:
  
  
• Learn Linux In 5 Days (wait until Udemy has a $10 sale, they always do)
  
• Introduction to Linux
  
• Linux Tutorial for Beginners
  
  Some great past reddit threads I've saved for reference:
  
  
• Troubleshooting Commands
  
• Commands To Run On Unfamiliar System
  
• How Did You Get Your Start
  
• The Dark Corners Of Vim Your Mom Never Told You About

I find reading books is the best way to expand ones horizon on a certain topic. UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook should be an excellent read for you.

The ZFS technology is that require ECC. You can use non-ECC hardware at your own-risk, but you can still use it with a relative safety.
OpenMediaVault do not have ZFS technology. So you can use standard hardware.

ZFS have several advantages. You want to dig into more information read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/FreeBSD-Mastery-ZFS-IT-Book-ebook/dp/B00Y32OHNM

OpenMediaVault is a good option too.

Honestly, this book is absolutely excellent in explaining the working world to you. It's Unix/Linux centric, however gives you awesome tools to tackle your day to day job.

Can you program? If not, learn it! Start out with an easy to learn programming language like Pascal or Java and move on to the more complex C++ and eventually Assembler. Once you've understood the basics of programming (variables, loops, functions etc.) it is a matter of 2 weeks to learn the syntax of a new language.
Get familiar with Linux/UNIX. Learn how user rights work, how the run levels and shell scripts work. Read a lot of code and man pages. The definition of a hack is making a system do something it is not supposed to do. So you have to find a weak point by reverse engineering. Sometimes programmers make mistakes in their code, like a wrong variable type you can then exploit. Learn how a buffer overflow works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow Also I'd recommend these books: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Intrusion-Intruders-Deceivers/dp/0471782661 http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Nutshell-Ellen-Siever/dp/0596154488/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345626761&sr=1-1&keywords=o%27reilly+linux http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Experience-Technology/dp/1598633740/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345626801&sr=1-1&keywords=learn+programming Have fun and good luck!

First thing first, there is nothing you can do with Linux that you couldn't do with Windows or a Mac. And similarly they can be made to do everything that Linux can. It's just a matter of how you go about getting those things done.

Learning sysadmin stuff will help with dev work (in my opinion as a former Linux sysadmin and current Java/Linux dev), but I'd bet you probably won't end up caring about setting up sendmail, bind, nfs, etc. which is a good chunk of the content of that book. I'd leaf through it and see if any of it seems interesting, but it'd probably make sense to return it.

If you're just looking to try to understand what linux is all about, it's tough to go wrong with http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

It's free, but if you prefer dead tree versions like I do, you can buy it in a variety of places. Here it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Line-Complete-Introduction/dp/1593273894

A lot of the command line stuff builds on itself, so don't feel bad if it doesn't make sense at first. Once you get comfortable with the shell, you can start dabbling in whatever else tickles your fancy.

Going through a linux book, like this one, will get you over your linux hump. But otherwise, just doing stuff in Linux will get you going, like:

• How do I make this linux box host a website?
  
• How do I configure SSH accounts?
  
• How do I change the swap settings?
  
• How do I use xterm from another machine?
  
• How can I samba share a resource?
  
• How can I map a windows drive at home from SSH from outside my network like at Starbucks?
  
• Can I add a route/port-fwd/limit-allowed-IP's through it?
  
• Configure IPtables
  
• Run a cron job or bash script that scrapes your favorite reddit for new comments about some topic and saves it as a web page on a server, so that you can read it from anywhere (like creating your own RSS feed), have the script monitor the file, and when the file changes (compare the hash), the script will tweet/SMS you that there is stuff to read.
  
  Once you get going, you're limited by your own imagination!

The Linux Bible looks good. I would highly recommend the Linux System Administration Handbook as a wonderful resource as well.

>What are the biggest differences between these two ?

Yeah, that's gonna be a lot. It's easier to ask where they differ specifically. But generally, for me, Linux Mint feels more open and under my control than Windows ever did. Also, it's hella faster.

​

>How long will I have to use Linux Mint to "get the feel of it"

Impossible question to answer. I've been using Mint for about a year now, and I still don't have the "feel of it", per se. I'm comfortable using it and know where most things I need to know are...but I'm by no means no expert any in any meaningful sense.

​

>Where can I learn more about Linux Mint and how to use it ?

r/linuxmint exists and is really helpful. Resources on linux in general of often helpful in my experience, too. I bought "The Linux Command Line" and it helps me a lot.

​

>Do I need an Anti Virus ? How is Linux Mint different from Windows in terms of privacy ?

I mean...I don't use one...and, as far as I know, I don't have any problems (at least that aren't caused by me). Frankly, I'm not even sure which anti viruses exist for linux.


One word of warning: watch out for the desktop environments. Unlike Windows, you have options when it comes to your desktop environment. And those options comes with a billion more options to customize it how ever you want!

I was recommended this book, and in my opinion it's quite good. I could link you to a torrent full of every book you could possibly need for stuff like this, but PM me though.

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057 <-- Great!

I found the book The Linux Command Line to be very useful. Good luck on your CEH!

When I was beginning to learn Linux back in the day, I used The Linux Command Line and have only good things to say about it. It must be one of the simple best books to introduce yourself to the command line and to how to use a modern Unix like system.

I'd like to humbly suggest the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook for your new admin. It's starting to show its age a bit (published 2010), but still communicates many of the core responsibilities of administrators in a clear manner with historical context.

Also, take a look at the Linux System Administration and Linux Web Operations LiveLessons, which are more current and may be helpful if the new guy learns from video tutorials.

Disclaimer: I am the author.

Here are a couple books I have. The author of the first one was a teacher of mine a while back. She really knows her stuff. That book in particular is good for explaining all the protocols involved and how the packets are put together.

http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321336313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132562&sr=1-1&keywords=tcp+ip+illustrated


This second book is more general networking stuff. Still some really good reference material.

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Network-Modern-Kaufmann-Networking/dp/0123745411/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132562&sr=1-7&keywords=tcp+ip+illustrated

And for operating system basics, this is a good all-rounder:

http://www.amazon.com/Operating-Concepts-Seventh-Abraham-Silberschatz/dp/0471694665/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132818&sr=1-4&keywords=operating+system+concepts

And for *nix because it is important and nobody thinks about it:

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382132917&sr=1-1&keywords=Linux+System+administration

The Unix and Linux systems administration handbook is also worth it’s money. https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057


If you are doing more with virtualization and automation have a look at vagrant, it will help you get an environment up and running quicker.


As soon as possible also try out other virtualization stacks as kvm, xen and lxc. These are some of the most used and free ones. VMware is the paid contender in most places.

This is a wonderful beginner's linux book. I loved it.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Command-Line-Introduction/dp/1593273894

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

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amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Read this, found it amazingly useful and packed full of knowledge, I recommend this book even to Linux noobs that are trying to get a better feel of the system for desktop use... once they have the basics down that is.

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

Sounds like your the Dev side of DevOps. I'm going to save you having to go buy a mac or run Linux as your base OS.

First go download Virtual Box

Next grab the latest version of Vagrant

Install both and sign up for a free account on Vagrant Cloud

Grab yourself cygwin/mysysgit or similar. You are going to need git eventually and you need an openssh client. Install one of those.

Start > Run > cmd

cd %userprofile% #This should drop you into your home directory.

mkdir $dirName

This can be anything you want. I call mine vProj.

vagrant init hashicorp/precise64

This is going to create a file called Vagrantfile in the directory you are in when you call the command. This file is what Vagrant is going to use to build a box.

vagrant up

Vagrant is now going to go out to the internet and download an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit vagrant box and use vBox to provision it.

vagrant ssh

You are now in your very own Ubuntu 12.04 Virtual Box. :) You don't like it? vagrant destroy will get rid of it. vagrant up again will rebuild it. vagrant halt stops it. Their are plenty of base boxes on the vagrant cloud. Companies like puppet even put their own boxes online for devs to use. The beauty is that you didn't have to open vBox one time. You didn't have to play with the network settings or setup some weird bridge. Vagrant does it all for you. You can, of course, open vBox and run it as normal but really you don't need to.

As for books.

Linux in a Nutshell

Vagrant Up and Running

Already good responses in here. If you're interested in a good book to learn a bit more, the concise Linux Pocket Guide is very handy. A longer book is The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction.

I am a beginner too and just finished this book TLCL.Another one i would recommend is shell scripting bible.For most part use google to learn about commands and man page is your friend. I am more of a book kind of guy so never used video resources. Most important you should know where to look for help when stuck.

I would recommend getting a few "Linux" for dummies books. They provide a really good base of knowledge.

This is one I've read before, highly recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Line-Complete-Introduction/dp/1593273894

Very much not a recipe book, but I think a good fit for deeper understanding: How Linux Works

For Linux: The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

For Python: Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners

For R: The Book of R: A First Course in Programming and Statistics

These are all from No Starch Press, and I really like how they all function as complete introductions to their subjects. I've tried a number of programming books, but these have remained my go-to books for recommendations due to how well they build up basic principals for each concept or language. That said, I feel as though The Book of R is the weakest of the three, and maybe look into other recommendations for R if you get more replies.

EDIT:

Just realized that you asked for courses, not sources, my bad. Either way, I do encourage you to consider the above as alternatives to learning these concepts from online courses, as I've found them to be just as good if not better than some online courses I've seen.

ss64

NixCraft

[LinuxCommand.org]
(http://linuxcommand.org/)

[The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction]
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Command-Line-Introduction/dp/1593273894/)
Also William E. Shotts Jr.'s book is good too.

Hey, Scripting Guy! A Powershell genius, Ed Wilson. I will always be greatful of his wonderful Powershell examples.

edit: fixed links.

Best thing there is to do is learn the basics of the operating system and how everything works first, that is if you really want to know how everything works and have a chance of doing something in linux.

Check out http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

I used it when i got to really learn linux and it really helped me understand exactly what everything was.

2nd this.

The Linux Command Line. Author offers free PDF for download or you can support and buy from amazon.

http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

 

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Line-Complete-Introduction/dp/1593273894/r

How Linux Works 2nd ed. is a great book for learning the overall concepts. It also goes into enough depth so that it’s a great read for those who already have a good bit of Linux experience but want insight into what’s going on underneath the hood.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676/

I would get a little more comfortable with the command line before you start any of this. I would recommend taking a look at The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction
It's extremely informative and very easy to follow along with.

• "The Practice of Systems and Network Administration" by Thomas Limoncelli, Christina Hogan, and Strata Chalup
  
  
• "Time Management for System Administrators" by Thomas Limoncelli
  
  
• "Getting Things Done" by David Allen
  
  
• "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, and Ben Whaley
  
  
• "Essential System Administration" by Æleen Frisch
  
  Even more formatting fun!
  
  By the way, thank you for this list.

For that purpose I can highly recommend the book How Linux Works. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it'll give you plenty of info.

Just to stack hands and echo what was said before, reading about will keep it in your brain for a day. Doing it keeps it there forever though.

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422411384&sr=8-2&keywords=Linux+Administration Yes, its older but the theories and practices are the same, even if the details have changed some. Plus tools like vmstat, iostat, top and du are still the same years later.

This book has saved my ass countless times. It has a bunch of great knowledge and gives you a chance to catch up on things you might have forgotten. I highly recommend you purchase this and keep beside your desk/cube, at least until you become familiar with the job duties.

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

”How Linux Works” is one of the better in depth explanations of Linux I've read.

It's written in a way that anyone can read and understand it, but it gets pretty deep into Linux under the hood.

C, C++, Assembly are best suited for the purpose. For managed code rootktis part, learn Java and/or .NET.

For Linux programming, have a look at (http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450511098&sr=1-1&keywords=LINUX+Programming). In fact, this is a must read book IMHO. Apart from this, you can try these too:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Linux-Programming-Neil-Matthew/dp/0470147628/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450511098&sr=1-2&keywords=LINUX+Programming
   
   
2. http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Programming-Talking-Directly/dp/1449339530/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450511098&sr=1-4&keywords=LINUX+Programming
   
   
3. http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Example-Arnold-Robbins/dp/0131429647/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450511098&sr=1-5&keywords=LINUX+Programming
   
   EDIT: Formatting

I would try CLI the hard way first. Pretty good intro to command line. Then I would read The Linux Command Line or study for Linux+.

If you want to get into sys admin, or a linux job never hurts to go Linux all the way. I would say Linux+, Network+, RHCSA, and CCNA can help you go a long way. If you like Linux getting RHCE will open more doors. You don't necessarily need to get all of these certs but it helps your knowledge and what people will quiz you on the phone. At one point I was doing about 2-3 phone interviews a week that would just ask about 20-30 random Network, Linux, Windows, and basic trouble shooting questions.

Might be good to keep this book on hand.

This book https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-2nd-Superuser/dp/1593275676 seems pretty good.

That right there will probably get you in the door. I would also recommend getting into scripting. I don't write many scripts at work, but I find myself reverse-engineering scripts that run on servers to figure out "Why did my server just restart" for customers.

Good books:

• How Linux Works
  
• Mastering The Command Line

This is a very good book. Debian-isms you can learn as you go, but system administration concepts are useful throughout many distributions.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

Other than that you have to set goals for yourself. Have you tried starting up 2 virtual machines and had them communicate with each other?

Learn how to access all service guides and manuals.... Learn unix/linux basics. Maybe build a small home lab, you can buy cheap servers and networking equipment online. Never say "I don't know" say "I will have to do some research". Nobody knows everything... Google is your friend.... When you are at work do not browse this sub.. Start reading up on that things they want you to work on now.......I am not an admin but work in data centers every day fixing servers. Been in the industry for 13 years.... still get worried about people finding out I have no idea what I am doing lol

Great Guide
UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook

Fundamentals is what you need to know to get through some first round interviews. Explain the boot process in detail from pressing the power button to getting a login prompt -- how does init work, how do run levels work, how does systemd differ? What is getty? pam?

DNS is so much more than just what that rap covers, so if you put it on your resume you better damn well know it. Tell me about the concept of glue records, what is a root hints file, know how to use dig at the very least, how do you switch the order in which the resolver library checks it sources? What is the truncated bit in a DNS packet for?

Know debugging and tracing beyond the usual "top" or "sar" to get real detailed data on what a process is doing. Strace, ltrace, tcpdump, gdb (how to take a stack trace and dump a core), sysdig, perf events, dtrace4linux, vmstat, slabtop, pmap, etc

DHCP is another one like DNS that people like to say they know, but you should know about DHCP relay/ip helper, pxeboot, the actual protocol order of events. Check it out in wireshark.

How do processes and threads differ, really? Lots to talk about here even down to shared memory space, system calls, etc

What is swap, really? What are page faults? How does kswapd behavior change when you don't run with swap?

Know Netstat/ss. Know that tcp is a state machine. What does a bunch of SYN_SENT in netstat imply? Difference between tcp's RST and FIN?

Stateful vs stateless is more than just a tcp/udp difference, it's a fundamental concept to so many aspects of technology.

Basically know what's in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

I have 3 semesters left so my plan has been to seek an internship next summer closer to graduating. Do you think it's unwise to wait that long? My independent study could be better but I've become proficient with Linux using Arch as my daily driver and reading through The Linux Command Line. I'm also going through The Basics of Hacking and Pentesting which had me set up a "lab". Just finished the recon chapter. Also proficient in Python/Java/C++ ("proficient" might be a bold claim, rust considered).

>nice error message

Oh yeah, reminds me of those gems:

ERROR: Root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist.
Bailing out, you are on your own now. Good luck.

Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 20.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Linux is good and informative when something screws up and you can usually debug and fix most issues using a combination of google/documentation/logic/common sense barring incompatible/broken hardware, but the general public doesn't want to study ULAH to be able to use their computer, thus the downvotes.

If you want him to get a firm grasp on it, There's this book as well: http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

A friend of mine works for one of the guys who wrote it and my understanding is that it's teaches you more than you thought you knew about linux.

I found the first version of the sys admin book by Evi Nemeth et al helpful years ago. I know a couple people who have found newer versions helpful too. Here is a link to the latest.. http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

also if you determined to use Linux/Ubuntu w/e I highly recommend the following references, they have been invaluable to me.

• https://www.amazon.com/How-Linux-Works-Superuser-Should/dp/1593275676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469055946&sr=8-1&keywords=how+linux+works+what+every+superuser+should+know
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Bible-Christopher-Negus/dp/1118999878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469055968&sr=8-1&keywords=linux+bible

I was always pretty competent when it comes to windows, however I was a complete newb with Linux. So I read this book, The Linux Command Line and it answered the basics for me. It gave me enough knowledge to navigate with SSH and set up my SFTP server. Also helped understand what i was doing, instead of just reading mini tutorials here and there...Try it out.

I recommend this book to everyone I taught Linux to. As some people have already commended on learn to program first. Linux knowledge will come.

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

How Linux Works was suggested on another thread. I picked it up, and while I am only on chapter 2, it seems like a good primer.

Fair point, but it's not the window manager that keeps me away from arch, I just don't want to have to constantly be using the command line with a touchscreen keyboard, and my experience with Arch is that it's very command-line dependent and I'm just going to keep installing stuff that'll bring it closer to mint than it would be arch.

Plus, in between my calc, physics, and engineering classes, I don't really have the time to be learning a brand new operating system. But I did buy this book and when I have a little time I'll sit down for a few days and give Arch a good try.

Ext4 has sort of just been around for forever (since it's revisions of Ext3 and Ext2) and I always just accepted it as "there". Sort of like NTFS for Windows, it's the thing you use with Linux.

For ZFS, I did come across this ZFS on Linux admin guide a few months back and it's been really useful in getting to the nitty-gritty. And of course, there's always Michael Lucas and Allan Jude's book on ZFS for FreeBSD.

I've heard that this is the best handbook for UNIX/Linux administration:

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057

Here's one of the best books that I've used. Immersing yourself in it and using it daily will go a very long way though.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Command-Line-Introduction/dp/1593273894

This is the best book. Sets a firm foundation that you get nowhere else.

How Linux Works, 2nd Edition: What Every Superuser Should Know

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593275676/

If you're looking for more of a learning book I'd go for the Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook 4th Edition. Covers most of the basic to advanced stuff and crosses distro's quite nicely.

I would highly recommend you check out the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook.

It not only goes over a baseline of technical sysadmin (especially linux) concepts, but really shows you how to be a good admin. There is more to it than technical know-how. I'd recommend picking this one up.

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057 is a great resource for picking up the basics.

(The Docker Book) is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Docker-Book-Containerization-new-virtualization-ebook/dp/B00LRROTI4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469811388&sr=8-1&keywords=the+docker+book#nav-subnav

I second this one

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/

It could be a good idea to check which books some well regarded universities are using.

~]$ uptime
12:03:29 up 441 days, 20:31, 2 users, load average: 0.52, 0.37, 0.30

This is a huge advantage in terms of SLA's.

Cost of ownership and operation

Web servers, databases, vpn solutions, proxy servers, analytics, sftp servers, esxi whiteboxes, so on and so forth.

There are many sites out there that can provide information.
I still use this on occasion: Linux SysAdmin Google to find the pdf.

Many HowTo websites out there too. Pick something and just build it out.

As rdkerns stated, linux admins do make more $$$

First off, what are you doing now?

Here is some advice from a 20-year sysadmin who does devops and hobbyist development stuff:

Buy this book. You won't get better advice from anyone anywhere. It's expensive, but BUY THE FREAKIN BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

Install some VM system like VitualBox and start playing with either Debian OR Ubuntu, AND CentOS. Install both numerous times and give yourself some extra partitions to format and play with. Read about some feature or thing and then go mess with it.

Eventually go after RHCSA/RHCE.

Learn the bash shell. Learn how to write real scripts with while/until loops and if/thens, arrays, and other stuff. That'll take time, but put some focus on it.

Don't get overwhelmed. Just start learning one thing, then the next, and go from there. The rabbit hole goes deep.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057

Here is a start. It is a big book and has been sitting on my shelf unread since I bought it, but it gets good reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Command-Line-Introduction/dp/1593273894/ref=pd_sim_b_1
This is an excellent read if you are brand new to the command line.

OP Linux Command Line book, is an excellent place to start.

I also really like The Docker Book: https://www.amazon.com/Docker-Book-Containerization-new-virtualization-ebook/dp/B00LRROTI4

Paper or Kindle. Worth the $8 for a succinct carrythrough.

The Linux Administration handbook. It's simply fantastic. https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057/

If you're talking about this book, it's one of my favorites. It's the book I've recommended as a supplement to everyone I've taught thus far.

Good information! I also have a wonderful 1200 page book I just bought to start reading too!

• The Linux Command Line
  
• Explain Shell
  
• Apple Developer Bash Reference
  
• Take Control of the Mac Command Line
  
• Command Line Crash Course
  
  Also, install homebrew for package management. Mac uses its own version of bash with some stuff slightly different than most linux distros, but they are pretty much the same.

The Linux Command Line Its available for free (pdf on that site or here directly).
Also see the amazon reviews of it.

I enjoyed this book (from local library)

The Linux Command Line, 2nd Edition: A Complete Introduction https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1593279523/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2It4CbP5PDWNK

I hear good comments on this book:
Linux Administration Handbook

or

UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook

One book that helped me get the meta was the unix and linux system administration bible seriously . Very good overview of the relevant technology and a lot on how the admin should approach things and think about things. From the software, to the hardware, to politics and policies

http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Command-Line-Introduction/dp/1593273894


I bought and read this book as a before taking OSCP, and it's been one of the most useful books I've read.

This is a really good one for monitoring from a conceptual standpoint:

The Art of Monitoring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GU387MS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p.T-BbG5C2YTQ

I recently picked this one up, it's been pretty good so far, but I'm not too far in yet.

The Art of Monitoring
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GU387MS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_j1puzbAZS5BSF

Read Books: I recommend this, this and this.

1. use VirtualBox
   
2. Consider OpenBSD, it's sweet
   
3. read The Art of Unix Programming http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/
   
4. read this too, for sysadmin tasks: https://www.amazon.ca/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0131480057