Get cheap hardware and set up a Unix distro on it. Poke around and see how it works. You'll be better off with a distro that tries to use a relatively straightf

Get cheap hardware and set up a Unix distro on it. Poke around and see how it works. You'll be better off with a distro that tries to use a relatively straightforward text-file-based configuration rather than a GUI/menu system. And when I say cheap hardware - the dusty, yellowing box in your friend/relative's closet with 200 mhz, 32 mb RAM, no video card, and a broken hard drive is very much an option. Unix was designed for far less, and flaky hardware will teach you about how to do real backups. :) I really like OpenBSD (and the minimalism and excellent documentation are real advantages for learning systems administration), but since you're using prgmr.com, you would probably be better off using a distro they provide* - Debian, perhaps. While there are probably faster ways to learn sysadmin skills, I learned what I know by just dealing with all the issues that have come up over a decade. (And sooner or later, knowing ed will pay off.) * Though I've found experience with BSD to transfer better to Unix-in-general than Linux. This is probably an even mix of cultural factors and history - BSD is pretty old-school.