learn unix

I have to re-partition my harddisk to instll vs.net 2005. This is a good time for me to install freebsd. I think working on vmware is not enough I should play with real unix. (and suffer from lack of driver supports :(

I am reading Mark Sobell’s Practical Unix something.
A bit thick but it is a light reading. Actually, I like the appendix. It gives more detail than man page.

I am playing with debian in vmware.
So far, the experience is good. The way that debian update the whole system via base-config is good. It is like freebsd. But I still don’t know why I always think about Slackware. It is like the beast that you were lost and you need to go back to conquere it, somehow.

To adapt with my work, I plan to install Cygwin on my Windows laptop.

What should be minimum knowledge?

First, know common unix command
Second, shell scripting
Thrid, perl/sed/awk

Yoh, I just installed DSL with VMWare player.
The linux running on the virtual machine is quite fast.

Currenly, I am developing program to remotely control network server. This lilnux will be used as a test server.

I am going to install VMWare player on my Windows machine so I can tinkle with unix more often.
I will start to test with Browser appliance virtual machine posted on VMWare Web site.
If things go well, I will choose whether I will go with Linux or FreeBSD.
If Linux is the chosen one, Slackware or Ubuntu needed to be choose.

At the end, Thank you VMWare for this greate free program.

I have to admit that I am still using Windows for my programming task. I plan to install Slackware 10.1 to my laptop.
The only problem is the suppport of centrino. I have to look into it now.