Maximum PC

Ok, I'm currently working towards my bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity - Information Assurance with a focus in Computer Forensics.

I want to try to get a bit a head of the game and start learning Linux and commands that go with Linux.

What version or versions should I be looking toward?

Any good sites out there with Linux help and tutorials?

I had a class in Red Hat (4.0 I think) some 8 years ago when I got my associates degree, but haven't touched anything since then.

Thanks for the help

I had a C programming class about a year ago where we had to learn Unix commands and everything, we used Red Hat also. Red Hat seems to the popular one for business applications, while Ubuntu seems to be the preferred choice for personal use.

As far as basic command line stuff, it's all the same.

If you're trying to prep for a class, I'd probably find who's teaching it and ask them what they do their coarse work with

If you want to try hacking into your own system (don't use as a primary machine or store anything valuable on it!): http://www.damnvulnerablelinux.org/

Otherwise, I'd use Fedora as it uses SELinux by default and the setup is similar to Red Hat

For the other side of the house, I'd suggest using http://www.backtrack-linux.org/. It has a bunch of hacking/security tools pre-installed.

Not really for a specific class. More along the lines that some time down the road I will be a professional witness in a court of law where my forensics work will be on the line and I need to know that I did every thing right as far as recovering the data.

I've had a C++ class, some Java classes, little bit of PERL, Unix, COBOL class, but that was some 10 years ago when I was going for my associates degree.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I will take a look into those options.