>all I could find was BSD fans making completely false claims about Linux

and

>I'm asking why BSD has users other than the licensing given that linux exists

Sounds pretty flamy to me. But I also don't want to give a bad impression of the community if you are here to legitimately learn more about the wider operating system landscape.

The reason for my frustration is this sub is almost half composed of Linux fans swooping by to drop FUD bombs, and it sucks. Granted, this sub is also little-used by the BSD communities, as there are other long-standing methods of interacting within the community (mailing lists, forums, etc).

I'm also touchy about trolling because I WANT the BSD and Linux communities to get along. The late 80's and early 90's saw the infamous UNIX Wars, where while the various UNIX vendors squabbled about who was better, Microsoft swept the entire market.

I would recommend you check out The Daemon, the GNU, and the Penguin, which covers a lot of the history.

FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD all come from BSD, which started as a fork of UNIX at the University of California Berkeley in 1977. FreeBSD and NetBSD were founded in 1993 as community forks of BSD for the PC platform, around the same time as Red Hat and Slackware. At that point, the BSD system was about 16 years old.

BSD provided the original TCP/IP implementation, and the modern systems continue the tradition of providing high performance, stable, feature-rich TCP/IP.

FreeBSD originated the containerization concept with Jails, which were perfected shortly afterwards by Solaris with Zones. Most of those improvements have since been brought back into Jails. Linux containers showed up much later, and don't quite tackle the same problems as Jails and Zones.

FreeBSD got ZFS from Solaris and has tightly integrated the software. FreeBSD is heavily involved in the OpenZFS project. Linux can have ZFS as soon as they feel like it, but for the time being they are stuck in a far-downstream situation. Btrfs is no substitute.

On that note, storage management is probably the area where I find FreeBSD in particular to be excellent. GEOM is amazing. No Linux software can even compare.

On the virtualization front, FreeBSD has bhyve, OpenBSD has vmm. These are both new, and under rapid development. They will not reach the stability and usability of KVM for a bit of time, but I have found them to be quite good.

The FreeBSD Ports tree (OpenBSD also has a similar infrastructure, and NetBSD has pkgsrc) was perhaps the earliest implementation of software management, with automated fetching and dependency resolution. Today, it provides both a means to custom compile software easily, fetch source code, build package sets, and tweak dependencies and compile-time options. And the pkg utility is a fantastic binary package manager with some awesome capabilities.

90% of the software ecosystem available for Linux is also available for the BSDs, and the remainder is only the result of the developers being too ignorant or lazy to implement portable software. BSD is not the only system in that boat, Solaris/Illumos is also suffering in that way. That changes when the development community decides to recognize that Linux is not the only viable system available.

The availability of source code is also a huge plus. Linux does provide source, of course, but with FreeBSD I can have the entire system source code at my fingertips in a single command.

The project structure also lets me choose what kind of upgrade path I want, and whether I want bleeding edge or stable. I can run the generic RELEASE system with binary updates for security, I can compile RELEASE from source with customizations, I can run the STABLE branch for my release version, or I can run the minute-by-minute bleeding edge CURRENT version. The choice is mine.

This is just a short list. I have never found FreeBSD lacking, and I run it on almost all of my systems (servers, desktop, etc). I run OpenBSD on my laptop, and am loving it.

OK, the easiest way to learn *nix is to get your hands dirty and try it out. You've got a bunch of options here.

• If you're totally committed, blow away your Windows installation and install Ubuntu.
  
  If you still want to use Windows, the following options shouldn't harm your existing Windows installation:
  
  
• Install Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration (existing Windows partition will most likely be resized).
  
• Install Wubi, the Ubuntu Windows installer. Disclaimer: I've never used this, but I understand it installs Ubuntu like a Windows application.
  
• Burn a Ubuntu CD and use it as a 'Live CD' i.e. nothing will be installed. This is kind of like a 'try before you buy' deal.
  
• Install Ubuntu on a virtual machine. See VirtualBox for free virtualisation software.
  
  I should add, all of these options have the potential to break your system. Backup your data beforehand.
  
  When I first started out with UNIX, I enjoyed reading The Unix Companion but honestly, the vast majority of my knowledge comes from just trying things out and googling to fill in the blanks.
  
  Good luck!

Senior Level Software Engineer Reading List

Read This First

1. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment
   
   

   Fundamentals
   

   
   

2. Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
   
3. Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
   
4. Enterprise Patterns and MDA: Building Better Software with Archetype Patterns and UML
   
5. Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail
   
6. Rework
   
7. Writing Secure Code
   
8. Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries
   
   

   Development Theory
   

   
   

9. Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
   
10. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
    
11. Introduction to Functional Programming
    
12. Design Concepts in Programming Languages
    
13. Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
    
14. Modern Operating Systems
    
15. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
    
16. The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
    
17. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
    
    

    Philosophy of Programming
    

    
    

18. Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It
    
19. Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think
    
20. The Elements of Programming Style
    
21. A Discipline of Programming
    
22. The Practice of Programming
    
23. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
    
24. Object Thinking
    
25. How to Solve It by Computer
    
26. 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
    
    

    Mentality
    

    
    

27. Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
    
28. The Intentional Stance
    
29. Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine
    
30. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
    
31. The Timeless Way of Building
    
32. The Soul Of A New Machine
    
33. WIZARDRY COMPILED
    
34. YOUTH
    
35. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
    
    

    Software Engineering Skill Sets
    

    
    

36. Software Tools
    
37. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language
    
38. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development
    
39. Practical Parallel Programming
    
40. Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems
    
41. Mastering Regular Expressions
    
42. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
    
43. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C
    
44. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book
    
45. The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
    
46. SOA in Practice: The Art of Distributed System Design
    
47. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques
    
48. Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and more.
    
    

    Design
    

    
    

49. The Psychology Of Everyday Things
    
50. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design
    
51. Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty
    
52. The Non-Designer's Design Book
    
    

    History
    

    
    

53. Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality
    
54. Death March
    
55. Showstopper! the Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft
    
56. The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
    
57. The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad
    
58. In the Beginning...was the Command Line
    
    

    Specialist Skills
    

    
    

59. The Art of UNIX Programming
    
60. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
    
61. Programming Windows
    
62. Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
    
63. Starting Forth: An Introduction to the Forth Language and Operating System for Beginners and Professionals
    
64. lex & yacc
    
65. The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
    
66. C Programming Language
    
67. No Bugs!: Delivering Error Free Code in C and C++
    
68. Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied
    
69. Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
    
70. Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit
    
    

    DevOps Reading List
    

    
    

71. Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart
    
72. The Practice of Cloud System Administration: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services
    
73. The Practice of System and Network Administration: DevOps and other Best Practices for Enterprise IT
    
74. Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale
    
75. DevOps: A Software Architect's Perspective
    
76. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
    
77. Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
    
78. Cloud Native Java: Designing Resilient Systems with Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Cloud Foundry
    
79. Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation
    
80. Migrating Large-Scale Services to the Cloud

10000 limit again. Reserving this comment for the Programming section:

PROGRAMMING
Gray Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Reverse Engineers
Beginning Python
The Python Standard Library by Example (Developer's Library)
Shell Scripting
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach
Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, Second Edition
Wicked Cool Shell Scripts
sed & awk (2nd Edition)
The Ruby Programming Language
Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional
Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example
Agile Web Development with Rails
Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0
Pragmatic Guide to Subversion
Programming Perl
C++ Primer Plus
The AWK Programming Language thanks sjhill
Modern Perl thanks three18ti
High-Order Perl thanks three18ti
The Art of Scalability thanks mr_chip
Scalability Rules thanks mr_chip
Continuous Delivery thanks mr_chip
The Varnish Book thanks mr_chip

I personally like having books around, but to be honest, I don't look at them too often. When I was trying to learn my way around linux though, they were indispensable. I think that it was primarily because reading a book helped me to understand well enough to be able to use the right terminology in a search. With that said however, there are two books that are always on my desk, one is the camel book ( Programming Perl ) and the other is Unix Power Tools

It sounds like the second one would be perfect for you.

I started with no linux knowledge on this book the unix bible. It's got enough information to help you understand how your linux system actually works. From there it's easy to find information on your own by knowing better what to look for and having a better understanding of the information you find. The Orelly bash book is the only other one I've picked up, and it helped me a lot with scripting and has come in handy several times for reference. After that, you'll pretty much know enough to google and find the information you need pretty quickly.

I believe the "dinosaur book", Operating System Concepts, is more popular, but it is not the one I cut my teeth on, so I could only assume it is similar. It is aimed at the same audience.

To go on a soapbox for a moment, my absolute, absolute favorite book on OS's is the somewhat dated and out-of-print, The Magic Garden Explained: The Internals of UNIX System V Release 4. Not a book for beginners, but if you want to know about the intricacies of how Unix/Linux systems work, it is a great reference.

I feel your pain mate. I hope this will help you be an excellent sysadmin. G/L and keep us updated!

Eli The Computer Guy - Youtube

Oh and for your reference I would suggest you check out the following in the programming area:

• Windows - Powershell
  
  
• Unix - Bash shell scripting or ksh scripting
  
  
• Web - I think most sysadmins enjoy PHP, however I would highly recommend python if you move to the web space
  
  
  One last thing is if you're in the UNIX space I would recommend this book (as a hardcopy reference): UNIX System Administration Handbook

Here is the vroom i used to learn Linux commands in college back in 1997. https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-System-Practical-Guide-3rd/dp/080537566X/ref=sr_1_19?crid=3TRSPWP5F25OH&keywords=mark+sobell&qid=1574770680&sprefix=Mark+sob%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-19

The commands are similar and i still use it to look up commands I forgot the options on.

Don’t use it. Use something written in this millennium and actually for Linux, not an old version of Unix. But any Linux command line book should help you out.


I’d run Debian if I were just learning Linux today. It’s intermediate level. If you want easy, buy a Raspberry Pi and play with that. There is a huge community that supports them and the knowledge is scalable. And you can’t really permanently break a Raspberry Pi.

Lemme start with a 600+ page tome which was worth it. I found it to be a great reference and one I used for many, many years both as a hobbyist and a professional.

Programming Perl, 2nd Edition, 670 pages

It was replaced with what turned out to be one of the best reference books I found for the language that toppled Perl in my toolbox.

Python, Essential Reference, 317 pages.

This is a pretty solid book for beginners that has gone under everyone's radar so far: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Modern-Unix-Comfortably-Environment/dp/1484235274/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=beginning+modern+unix&qid=1573610363&sr=8-2

In all honesty ... personally I always found that one of the nicest things about any BSD is that any old UNIX book still applies, at least for the most part.

> The unix command line is not something you learn by actively studying.

There are many books (such as Douglas Topham's First Book of UNIX) that guide through the process. I actually recommend reading one of such books. Can be quite relaxing reading for evenings. Most importantly, they will make your knowledge less patchy and you will come across various things that you would not have considered otherwise.

Eric S. Raymond's "The Art Of Unix Programming", hands down. Despite the title, it is more about UNIX culture than UNIX programming, and it'll give you a deep insight into the foundations of classic UNIX (the spirit of which today lives on in BSD, GNU, Linux, and the Open Source movement in general).

The original System V manual is also good reading; it describes what is considered the "canonical" UNIX by many, and while much of it doesn't apply as-is anymore, it is amazing how much still does, 30 years later.

Link for the curious: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1793390096/

Pretty awesome print, tbh.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


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

amazon.fr

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, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DB3G8KY/) is also great, though not Linux specific, more traditional Unix APIs

This is the book I normally point folks to. It has, in my opinion, some of the best explanation for regular expressions that I've run across, and hits on basically all the behind the scenes stuff you'd want to know.

Edit: Unfucked my formatting.

ok, is this book is good to master bash ?

thanks for the quick response! it was exactly what I thought. I will probably also buy 9front book :D

Grab a copy of Think UNIX, it's a good read with quality info. Really helped things click for me.

Think Unix is the book I started with. It's works as a grammar book would teach you how to string together words to complete a thought. It was an enjoyable read and started me on the road to Unix over a decade ago.

I leant it to someone and never got my original copy back. I need to order another...

You got your URL and link-text swapped, should go like this:

This is the book I normally point folks to

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-Addison-Wesley-ebook/dp/B00DB3G8KY/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=unix+programming&qid=1557633707&s=gateway&sr=8-3

​

or if you're on specifically linux,

https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook-ebook/dp/B004OEJMZM/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3Q06MI8R2WQP5&keywords=linux+programming+interface&qid=1557633730&s=gateway&sprefix=linux+prog%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-3

​

If you want a more general idea of how operating systems work, look at https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operating-Systems-Andrew-Tanenbaum/dp/9332575770/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Andrew+S.+Tanenbaum&qid=1557633792&s=gateway&sr=8-3 or any of Tanenbaum's other books. He's one of the most prolific writers for OS theory.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by Stevens and Rago.

No mention of lex & yacc?

Software engineering usually starts with a grammar or describing the language in a meta-data way.

Run that meta-language through a program that builds a program that understands that language (lexical analysis and parsing) and attaches a back end on it to generate code for a particular machine.

Ta-da. New language.

Scratch that itch - because it's really interesting but then throw it away.

Now you have 11 problems. Someone already has thought of it, there is no uptake because there are a million of different languages that do the same thing, and the world does not need another C derivative