Where, how and why are you using Unix?

Greetings everyone, today’s post is going to be a bit different from the usual technical tips and tricks I share. This time around, I need a bit of help myself – and I hope many of you will be able to answer my questions. Bear with me: it’s a lengthy post, but any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Why am I asking these questions?

As you remember, a month ago I have offered invited all of the Unix Tutorial readers to learn Unix together. Everyone benefits from this – you get a chance to ask the questions which you always wanted answered, and I get to refresh my mind or even conduct a research on new topics just so that I can share the answers and solutions in the easiest to follow form.

I’m currently working on a members area for Unix Tutorial, which will eventually have a number of self-paced courses to help you improve your knowledge of Unix and get to the next level of productivity when solving technical problems.

Update: if you’re interested in becoming a member, subscribe to the Unix Tutorial waiting list!

But guess what? Without knowing what exactly you do and why you ask the questions about Unix, it’s extremely hard to address some of the topics. I would like to give the fullest coverage to everything I present, but at the same time it probably wouldn’t make sense to spend much time explaining some concepts most of you are familiar with already.

With this in mind, I’d like you to please take a few moments and help me out by sharing a bit about yourself and your experience with Unix-like operating systems so far. Please feel free to leave comments or use a contact form – any form of your help will be greatly appreciated.

Where are you using Unix?

More likely than not, you have arrived at one of the Unix Tutorial pages while searching for an answer. Webserver logs give me a pretty good idea about your interests and challenges, but they don’t reveal one important piece of information: where do you use your Unix?

Are you a home user with Ubuntu desktop?
Do you have a RedHat Linux desktop at your workplace?
Is the hospital you work for using Unix-based equipment?
Do you have Linux on your PDA or MP3 player?

These and many more questions are the ones I’d really like to have answered – the nature of my technical tips so far had been rather basic, but some of the comments (and especially the email questions submitted through Unix Tutorial contact form) are so technical that it’s obvious their authors have many years of Unix experience.

How are you using Unix?

This is another question which really interests me. Recent years saw many Unix-like OS distributions rapidly advance to take up new positions in business solutions of all fields. You can find Unix-like OS in storage and network appliances, desktops, servers, laptops and netbooks, MP3 players and book readers. It’s hard to imagine a technological niche which cannot benefit from using a Unix-like system.

So how do you use your Unix?

Do you manage Unix servers in your hosting startup?
Do you develop software on a Linux platform?
Are you using Unix in your finance department?
Is Unix-based solution behind your compute grid used for some kind of research?
Are you a professional artist or photographer working in Unix?
Do you compose music or produce podcasts and vidcasts?

Let me know about all the ways you’ve found Unix to be useful so far – I’m quite often surprised to discover new ways people manage to use the most unusual operating systems, so there’s bound to be plenty of interesting ideas about Unix!

Why are you using Unix?

This is the last question for today. Glad to still have you with me, reading this post! I REALLY appreciate your time and willingness to help!

Why are you a Unix user at the moment? Is it because:

it’s a requirement at work
it’s a great family of operating systems which you simply love working with
you’re a hacker or a developer
Unix-like OS is the only option you have for the unique task at hand
you’ve been told Unix is cool
you’ve been told Unix is so not cool, but got curious and simply couldn’t resist

Whatever your reason may be, I’d like to know it – please share your thoughts!

Thank you!