5 replies to this topic

[Tonyg1]

I have a question, I am currently a computer science student. I need to choose an elective. One of them is a unix class, my question is, is it worth learning( i know very little about unix/linux)? I mean is it a useful thing to know.Just curious if i should take it or not.any advice is welcome

Edited by Tonyg1, 15 April 2010 - 07:16 PM.

[WingedPanther]

Most web-servers run Linux.

[Tonyg1]

well then i suppose it could be useful to take this course. Only reason i ask is registration is upcoming and wasn't sure

[Tonyg1]

woops double post

Edited by Tonyg1, 16 April 2010 - 10:29 AM.
double post

[DarkLordoftheMonkeys]

The majority of web servers, as well as a large portion of supercomputers, embedded systems, smartphones, and enterprise systems run some form of Unix. It's definitely worth learning. It's fairly easy to learn the basics of Unix, and after that there's a whole new world to discover. I've been learning it for several months now, and almost every day I learn something new.

Even if you aren't planning to run a server or go into system administration, Unix opens up a whole new set of doors. Here are some of the things it gives you:

Compilers and interpreters for 20+ programming languages.
vi and Emacs, two of the most useful and powerful programming environments in existence.
Utilities for scheduling tasks to run at certain times.
The ability to connect to servers through FTP and SSH.
The ability to do things only a root user can do.
Access to hidden files.
A host of networking utilities.
Scripting languages for doing quick edits on large files almost instantaneously.
Access to hundreds of open-source software programs.

[WingedPanther]

I use Ubuntu as my primary OS at home. I like the fact that it just does what I want, and I have far fewer issues than I get with Vista/7.