What are the operational differences between Linux and UNIX? Why would a programmer choose one over the other? What about software selection and ease of programming (with already basic knowledge of programming, and wanting to dive in to open source)?

In terms of Linux, what makes things like Red Hat cost money and things like Ubuntu not? Is pay-for OS based on Linux better quality than freely distributed OS? What is the best choice for Linux-or-Unix OS for a budding programmer?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_diff..._Linux_and_Unix

That is a lot of questions within 2 paragraphs.. hehe

Google and wikipedia would be your best place to start reading, paste all those questions into google ...

Do tell us what programming language you wanted to learn ?

Open Source ,just download the source codes, read it, try to understand what the code does, read it again... and modify it to your liking, if they are useful to the rest of the community, do contribute your codes / modules / plugins back ...

I've used different types of unix : linux, aix, digital unix, solaris and now mac ox (Darwin) as my laptop.. once u know unix, all those variant should be quite similar... just learn the differences.. but the unix concept is still the same same..

The differences between paid OS and freely distributed, as far as I know, is their customer services & support.. If you're using free OS such as Ubuntu or Fedora, the only support you'll get is from the distro's community. But if you're using the paid one, you'll the support from the vendor..

Correct me if I'm wrong

yupz .. and normally paid OS e.g. redhat enterprise OS are used for servers rather than workstations

if u r going for all round programming OS, fedora would be a good startup since it has all the packages required to install the IDEs and related software u need. However, depends on what kind of programming language u r aiming at.

Most of the time any linux distro should do fine so depends on ur choice of KDE / GNOME / XCFE .... or even pure terminal environment

In term of programming, any distro should do the jobs. But, for a beginner in Linux/*nix, IMHO, do consider using a popular & n00b-friendly distro such as Ubuntu due to their large community. So, if we stuck on something, chances are, there's already (or will be soon) a solution posted out there. And, as far as I know, there's a lots of tutorial related to Ubuntu on the Net at this moment. I'm also rely on this bunch of tutorial since I got nowhere to turn when I got stucked on something.

So, its a matter of n00b friendly and community, IMHO, when its your first time trying a Linux, ALONE! Unless you've already got a teacher or some-sort-of-guru friends, than thats another story

p/s: I'm not an Ubuntu council members or anything, even not a members of local Ubuntu group (most of them too SOMBONG & BERLAGAK even bukan semua la..). Its just, by Ubuntu I gain my experiences on Linux/*nix

OOT: woot ? there's local ubuntu group? as in msia based?

wohoho... ubuntu users are sombong and berlagak? luckily I am the suser

yeap.. there is.. and if i'm not mistaken, every single country got their own local group (and its the official one)..

not the user in general la.. but the members of the group only..
hey buddy, do opensuse got a gnome desktop environment ?
i'd love to try but dont like kde

yup there is .. have a look here : GNOME - openSUSE

During first installation you'll get the prompt what DE is going to install either KDE, Gnome bla bla. KDE is the default but this time (opensuse 11.3) I choosed Gnome over KDE due to some reasons. Gnome desktop is solid as usual. Opensuse has altered it's Gnome where the taskbar is at the bottom as opposed to conventional Gnome at the top.

annotated in BLUE

yes. they have a forum IIRC

I'm just a lurker there though

will try OpenSuSE when my streamyx arrive..

Like ubuntu is default nice with gnome, openSUSE is just nice with KDE. I've been try to use gnome at openSUSE but no ok...

yea kinda agree with u .. tried Fedora with gnome b4 .. it just doesn't feel "right" with it >.<

Hehe, I am curious why you said that...

I use ubuntu too ... but for non-GUI I use debian...

But lately I read news saying that ubuntu (or the company behind it) is not contributing back to the open source community....

Anyway, let not go into a "my linux distribution is better than yr linux distribution" debate...

I heard that the company does not contribute back to the kernel.org

btw, hehe no distro flame here otherwise until the end of the day nobody wins.

i dont see any "my distro is better than yours" type of guy here (yet).. so, we better keep it that way..

err.. is fedora default DE is KDE ? i thought its GNOME..

/me is GNOME's kipas-susah-mati..

you called??

YEAH!!! SLACKWARE IS THE BE..

*b!tch slapped by mods for posting offensive word in RWI*

i find most of the distribution would stick with KDE, and sometimes i find them a bit odd... might be gnome having too much dependencies that force them to choose KDE? or issit KDE with it's window-ish interface actually drag user closer compared to gnome mac-ish layout??

for me... i just hate the foot logo...