You can take this course on Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX platforms.

You can download the Red Hat Linux operating system for free from ftp.redhat.com. But be warned: the Red Hat servers stay pretty busy. If you can not connect, or want a site closer to you, try one of the many mirror sites around the world.

Alternatively, if you would rather not make decisions about which components to download, a process that is time consuming and requires intimate knowledge of the hardware environment into which Linux is to be introduced, you can buy the CD-ROM, and have it delivered to your doorstep.
There are several advantages to purchasing a boxed set of the Red Hat Linux operating system. They include the following:

1. Service and support: This comes in a variety of options
2. Software: This includes both the Red Hat Linux CD and the Red Hat Linux source code CD
3. Documentation: This includes the Official Red Hat Linux Installation Guide and the Official Red Hat Linux Documentation CD

This part describes the duties of a system administrator. Module 1 explains some of Linux is a multiuser, multitasking operating system from the ground up, and in this regard the system administrator has flexibility and responsibility, far beyond those of other operating systems. Now, Red Hat has employed innovations that extend these duties even for the experienced Linux user. In this chapter, we look at those requirements.
Linux involves much more than merely sitting down and turning on the machine. Often you will hear talk of a "steep learning curve", but that discouraging phrase can be misleading. Instead, Linux is quite different from the most popular commercial operating systems in a number of ways, and while it is no more difficult to learn than other operating systems, it is likely to seem very strange even to the experienced administrator of some other system. In addition, the sophistication of a number of parts of the Red Hat Linux distribution has increased by an order of magnitude, so even an experienced Linux administrator is likely to find much that is new and unfamiliar. Fortunately, there are new tools designed to make system administration easier than it has ever been before.
In the next lesson, the course resources will be discussed.