Learning a New OS... and Fast!?

Inexile2002 asks: "I've been asked to assist a consultant on a project using VMS and basically have four days to figure out enough that I'm actually of some use. (We're not doing development, just security reviews, so I'm not totally screwed.) Originally I was going to ask for advice on how to start teaching myself VMS from scratch including best books and support websites when I realized that there is a more generic issue here. What are people's thoughts on learning a new OS and learning it fast? Have people found optimal ways to pick things up quickly, get a familiarity with commands and underlying logic? How about learning the basics when you can't actually install and play with the OS in question?"

Comments

Rule #1

[The Bungi]

Attach yourself like a lamprey to an old fart that knows that stuff and don't let go.

Books will only go so far. Real-world experience is the only thing that counts.

Re:Rule #1

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

1) I was being sarcastic.
2) I respect the nuances and small details of security, even if I'm not an expert.
3) I'm not an expert, I'm at the lowest rungs of IT, and it's taken 3 years to get there.
4) I'm not some asshole faker posting to "ask slashdot" begging someone to help him look good.
5) I know VMS, if only as a hobbyist.

As for whether I could be replaced by a collection of shell scripts, I think you are going overkill. On most days, I could be replaced by a slightly trained chimp. Shell scripts could probably replace 10 of me.

If I meant anything at all by my previous post, it was that this jackass would probably laugh at me too, on any day other than the one he needed to use me to fake skills he doesn't have.

Translate

[linuxwrangler]

The most common things that need to be done are done on all OSs - it's just frustrating to do the translation (I'm sure there's a way to add a user but what is it??). You won't be much, if any, good in 4 days but one useful tool is a book like the "Universal Command Guide" (www.ucgbook.com). Unfortunately while it bills itself as "Every Command, Every OS" that must be for limited values of "Every" since VMS, Plan9, OS370, VxWorks, etc. are not mentioned.

Still, it is a handy, if imperfect, reference if you mostly use one of [Windows, *nix, Netware, Macintosh, MSDOS] but sometimes need to recall how to do something on other than your primary OS.

Re:Check out his email address

[bakes]

I wish underqualified people wouldn't apply for jobs they can't do. This screws everyone else, because they get them sometimes.

You've never worked for a consulting company. The original poster may have never applied for the job himself. He was 'asked to assist'.

I was often bid by my company for contracts in environments in which I had little or no experience. Usually the client knew this, and didn't care because you were (a) on a very low rate and (b) contributing other skills as well. Generally this situation applied to employees who were recent graduates and new to the workforce.

On the whole it worked well enough, except those times the marketing people put you in somewhere having described you as having 'guru' level status for some technology that you saw at a demo once. Bastards.

Watch someone, then jump in and play with it

[Dan B.]

Basically, if you can sit with someone and watch what they do for a good 8 hours, you should get enough of an idea of the main bits you're going to need. A book at night might help you understand what you're doing, but if you need to learn fast, "monkey see, monkey do".

After that, just make sure you're not on any important machine when you start experimenting with your new knowledge, and play around with it.

I've never used VMS, but then again I've never read any books on DOS and (would think) I'm still pretty damn good at the CLI bashing (esp. under NT/2k), so I reckon second hand knowledge is better than any book.