Okay, so maybe you'll all laugh at such a question - Microsoft Windows, or Unix \ Linux?

Is it really such a silly question though? If I look through a newspaper at some jobs I may look into applying for, are there really going to be that many jobs asking for a *nix Systems Administration expert? It's probably just a question of what you're interested in, but for employment sake and as a 17 year old considering further education and\or employment within the next few years, is it worth me learning a different operating system to Windows currently?

I have a huge curiosity about me when it comes to *nix, Macs etc as I've only really ever used Windows as a main OS, and as such, I'd love to learn the ins and outs of a new OS (and as *nix is talked about all over the internet as being far superior to all other OSs, why not have the largest curiosity for that over any other?)... Should I look further into different aspects of general computer interaction (networking, TCP/IP), or should I start learning *nix fairly young?

I'm stuck! :P Any ideas?

Thanks :)

I'm surprised no-ones replied to you. Most UNIX heads hate Windows!

Windows is easier to get into than UNIX, but when you know what you're doing you can be much quicker in UNIX as you're at the command prompt all the time and don't have to mess about with GUIs. Windows has been great for the masses, but as a full-time IT bod I much prefer UNIX. I've also found that those who have been brought up on Windows are often more dangerous than those brought up on UNIX... it's hard to keep a log of what you've done when it's a myriad of clicks on screens, buttons, forms, etc. - in UNIX you just type "script" and all your the commands you've written and their output are recorded to a file.

Have a look on something like www.jobserve.com and www.contractoruk.com for an idea of salaries for various roles and skillsets. I've done a bit of UNIX Admin and am now an Oracle DBA. My personal feeling is that companies can and will outsource a lot of their operational support work (including operational DBA stuff), but that the data itself is too vital to the company. My next steps is to get into data modelling or data warehousing. There's a big difference in salaries between hardware technicians and those that deal with data and applications. My two pennies worth. Do stacks of research fo yourself and decide where you'd like to be eventually and then work towards it. I've got my CV, and written up the one I'd like to have.

Best of luck