I concur with the others.  (So why am I posting?)  Solaris experience 
is invaluable.  Until my current gig, my only Solaris experience was
in setting up Solaris on Intel - the rest was Linux.  Of course, it
helped that I had many web pages devoted to Linux networking and 
Linux security.  I paid my dues working really long hours for lower
than average pay, then I upgraded to my current job, which pays
twice as much as before.  It is easier to get a good-paying Unix job 
from an existing Unix job than from an NT job.

Solaris is $75 for the media kit.  The licenses are free.  It comes
with about 12 CDs, including Oracle 8i.  It is really slow on Intel,
compared to Linux, hence its name Slowlaris.  Once I realized Solaris
includes the tools we are familiar with in /usr/ucb, I changed my
path to put them first, and it looked like a Linux box.

Since you can pick up used SPARCs pretty cheap on e-bay as well as 
others, I would go that route as you can still run Linux on them.
Start asking around.  A coworker is going to give me his old SPARC -
all I have to do is pay shipping from his co-lo facility.

If you want to hone your skills, go to this page and duplicate it
without looking at my configuration files:
http://georgetoft.com/network/index.html
Most of those machines are 486's running Linux.

Finally, a degree helps tremendously in the big companies, but that 
is a large undertaking and will take a bit of time (if you don't
already have one).

George

Ronald Ellis wrote:
> 
> Same old story,
> 
> I am an 'in the trenches' NT admin who's been dying to get into Linux
> administration.  My experience in Linux is reduced to what I can (and
> have) set up in my local home network.  I am really looking to get into
> UNIX (any flavor), Linux adminstration.  Problem is, at my current
> skill set in UNIX (basic user, backup, mundane administration skills,
> some scripting) I'm having trouble getting serious consideration for a
> move into a more robust OS.  Of course at my salary level, it's almost
> too late to move over.
> 
> Anyone have any idea how to get into that?  Are there any certifications
> that would be valuable?  Sun?  RedHat?
> 
> Suggestions?
> 
>   -Ron
> 
> Ronaldellis@email.com
> 
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