I'm taking a college Linux Operating System class right now and, boy, do I wish that this was an alternative option. We're on week 5 and the only thing we learned about it is installing Fedora on...
I'm taking a college Linux Operating System class right now and, boy, do I wish that this was an alternative option. We're on week 5 and the only thing we learned about it is installing Fedora on a virtual machine and some of the more basic dnf functions.
Haha, you too? We did some Linux stuff in VirtualBox, but I suppose it's one area in which in-person learning is probably better. My ability to remember terminal commands is almost non-existent in...
Haha, you too? We did some Linux stuff in VirtualBox, but I suppose it's one area in which in-person learning is probably better. My ability to remember terminal commands is almost non-existent in the old age of my late 20s.
It was actually slightly worse than that, because the professor was clearly not that terribly familliar with VirtualBox. So he had everyone set up a new VM with the default settings and was...
It was actually slightly worse than that, because the professor was clearly not that terribly familliar with VirtualBox. So he had everyone set up a new VM with the default settings and was surprised to find out that 8GB is not quite large enough to run a full Fedora Workstation installation. And then he was also recommending everyone to use static disk images that take up all your space at once instead of using dynamic allocation. So two weeks later I found myself trying to figure out how to extend LVM volumes because I didn't want to wait for my classmates to reinstall fedora for the 5th time.
I kid you not, the professor had a 'bonus assignment' (worth no credit) to log into the college's VMs through VMware Horizon and use virtualbox from inside the VM to install Fedora yet again. Needless to say I did not see the utility of doing such an assignment.
When I learned Linux along with the rest of the class from the middle school computers teacher, we all learned to use PuTTY from the school desktops to connect to one shared machine. We covered...
When I learned Linux along with the rest of the class from the middle school computers teacher, we all learned to use PuTTY from the school desktops to connect to one shared machine.
We covered wandering around directories on the command line, communicating with each other with wall and mail, editing text with vi, compressing with gzip, pipes and IO redirection and grep, setting PATH and aliases in bashrc, reading man pages, and I think crontabs and compiling tarballs.
This is I think the right entry point, since it mirrors Linux as it is used in the wild, at least in academia, and as it thinks about itself due to its history as a multi-user operating system. We would not have gotten nearly as far if we were trying to set up VMs on personal hardware (if it were even feasible at the time), or bully X11 into working, and the CLI stuff we were doing worked well on what was even then an extremely old machine. Today you could run that whole class off a wifi router, RasPi, or Amazon Basics Alexa-enabled microwave.
Since we were all on a shared machine, we didn't have to worry about learning administration, and we weren't able to screw things up too much. And concepts like file permissions were actually relevant.
It also helped to get everyone young, when the ability to acquire a new language (like shell) still exists. And that it was basically a period of playing with the computer, rather than a real "class" with slides or tests.
Now you're making me scared, I hope my Linux class won't be like that but CentOS. I have a good feeling it will be though... Especially now with online classes, this will be boring as fuck and I...
Now you're making me scared, I hope my Linux class won't be like that but CentOS. I have a good feeling it will be though...
Especially now with online classes, this will be boring as fuck and I won even be able to talk to someone who's either as bored as me or someone who needs help but can't speak up..
The good news is that I would consider the fact that you're covering CentOS to be a good sign, since that's a bit more common in servers than in desktops. But you might want to do yourself a favor...
The good news is that I would consider the fact that you're covering CentOS to be a good sign, since that's a bit more common in servers than in desktops. But you might want to do yourself a favor and take the Linux Foundation class at the same time. Alternatively, every time you come across a new system or utility, take a few minutes to scan over the man pages for it so you can better understand what the bredth of it is.
I'm already pretty familiar with Linux. I've been daily driving Fedora for 2+ years at least. This is a shared course between 2 specialisations, Programmation and Network & Security, I'm going in...
I'm already pretty familiar with Linux. I've been daily driving Fedora for 2+ years at least. This is a shared course between 2 specialisations, Programmation and Network & Security, I'm going in the former so I doubt it'll actually be anything new to me. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised though. The Windows class was absolutely horrid. All we were taught during class was installing windows, the name of pc parts and how to configure some stuff with like 2minutes of batch scripts.
Coincidentally, I had a choice for my degree to choose a class in either Windows or Linux, and the main reason why I chose to go with Linux was that I figured a basic class in Windows would be...
Coincidentally, I had a choice for my degree to choose a class in either Windows or Linux, and the main reason why I chose to go with Linux was that I figured a basic class in Windows would be exactly as painful as you described. And even if it were an advanced class, it would only really help me become a system administrator, which is the last thing I'd want for my future.
I see others have similar stories to mine. My community college offered a Linux course, but the instructor was clearly unfamiliar with Linux as a whole. Much like others here, the course consisted...
I see others have similar stories to mine. My community college offered a Linux course, but the instructor was clearly unfamiliar with Linux as a whole. Much like others here, the course consisted of:
Install a VM program and create a new VM
Install Debian in that VM
Walk through various point-and-click menus in Debian's system settings
It was basically a course on "how to set up a minimalistic Debian workstation" with a random list of vocabulary-style terminal commands on a handout that somehow never made it onto the final. (Probably because we never actually covered them and they were considered "extended learning")
I was running Mint on the laptop I was using for schoolwork at the time, so once I demonstrated that what I had setup was functionally equivalent to the ideal end goal of the course, I was basically granted a free A. To be honest, that felt extremely disappointing, because what little I'd learned of the kernel and general terminal operation had given me a taste of something powerful, and I was hoping to get together with like minds to explore this space. But since none of the interesting stuff was being taught, nobody in the class (again, a Community College, so all were just there for easy credits for their MCSA degree) was interested in any of that stuff, and it quickly just became a "surf the internet for an hour" period.
Reflecting on things like this makes me honestly mad that I spent $700 per credit to attend that shithole. Sorry, bit of a rant there. Anyway, my point is, get out there and learn it. It's not hard, it will make you feel like a wizard manipulating your computer in ways you never knew you could, and best of all it takes some of the power back from Big OS. Even if you don't go all the way to learning C and writing drivers for custom hardware and whatever, knowing more about how computing works on a basic bits-and-bytes level actually helps tech-minded consumers as a whole take that power back in a market that was (arguably) originally built for them.
Oh, I've learned lots in the intervening years! I even took the leap to set up an Arch system a few years back and that was probably the best thing I could have done at that point in my quest for...
Oh, I've learned lots in the intervening years! I even took the leap to set up an Arch system a few years back and that was probably the best thing I could have done at that point in my quest for Linux enlightenment. I just hope others don't have to suffer through the same runaround and frustration.
This is super awesome and wonderfully cool; a note that the completion rate of MOOCs is usually around 5%, but it's still super cool that ~50k people learned linux!
This is super awesome and wonderfully cool; a note that the completion rate of MOOCs is usually around 5%, but it's still super cool that ~50k people learned linux!
I'm taking a college Linux Operating System class right now and, boy, do I wish that this was an alternative option. We're on week 5 and the only thing we learned about it is installing Fedora on a virtual machine and some of the more basic dnf functions.
Haha, you too? We did some Linux stuff in VirtualBox, but I suppose it's one area in which in-person learning is probably better. My ability to remember terminal commands is almost non-existent in the old age of my late 20s.
It was actually slightly worse than that, because the professor was clearly not that terribly familliar with VirtualBox. So he had everyone set up a new VM with the default settings and was surprised to find out that 8GB is not quite large enough to run a full Fedora Workstation installation. And then he was also recommending everyone to use static disk images that take up all your space at once instead of using dynamic allocation. So two weeks later I found myself trying to figure out how to extend LVM volumes because I didn't want to wait for my classmates to reinstall fedora for the 5th time.
I kid you not, the professor had a 'bonus assignment' (worth no credit) to log into the college's VMs through VMware Horizon and use virtualbox from inside the VM to install Fedora yet again. Needless to say I did not see the utility of doing such an assignment.
When I learned Linux along with the rest of the class from the middle school computers teacher, we all learned to use PuTTY from the school desktops to connect to one shared machine.
We covered wandering around directories on the command line, communicating with each other with
wallandmail, editing text with vi, compressing withgzip, pipes and IO redirection andgrep, setting PATH and aliases in bashrc, reading man pages, and I think crontabs and compiling tarballs.This is I think the right entry point, since it mirrors Linux as it is used in the wild, at least in academia, and as it thinks about itself due to its history as a multi-user operating system. We would not have gotten nearly as far if we were trying to set up VMs on personal hardware (if it were even feasible at the time), or bully X11 into working, and the CLI stuff we were doing worked well on what was even then an extremely old machine. Today you could run that whole class off a wifi router, RasPi, or Amazon Basics Alexa-enabled microwave.
Since we were all on a shared machine, we didn't have to worry about learning administration, and we weren't able to screw things up too much. And concepts like file permissions were actually relevant.
It also helped to get everyone young, when the ability to acquire a new language (like shell) still exists. And that it was basically a period of playing with the computer, rather than a real "class" with slides or tests.
As I said above, this is beyond sad. Take the free Foundation class. It's much better, and did I mention it's free? :-)
Now you're making me scared, I hope my Linux class won't be like that but CentOS. I have a good feeling it will be though...
Especially now with online classes, this will be boring as fuck and I won even be able to talk to someone who's either as bored as me or someone who needs help but can't speak up..
This will be pain.
The good news is that I would consider the fact that you're covering CentOS to be a good sign, since that's a bit more common in servers than in desktops. But you might want to do yourself a favor and take the Linux Foundation class at the same time. Alternatively, every time you come across a new system or utility, take a few minutes to scan over the man pages for it so you can better understand what the bredth of it is.
I'm already pretty familiar with Linux. I've been daily driving Fedora for 2+ years at least. This is a shared course between 2 specialisations, Programmation and Network & Security, I'm going in the former so I doubt it'll actually be anything new to me. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised though. The Windows class was absolutely horrid. All we were taught during class was installing windows, the name of pc parts and how to configure some stuff with like 2minutes of batch scripts.
Coincidentally, I had a choice for my degree to choose a class in either Windows or Linux, and the main reason why I chose to go with Linux was that I figured a basic class in Windows would be exactly as painful as you described. And even if it were an advanced class, it would only really help me become a system administrator, which is the last thing I'd want for my future.
Want to learn Linux for free? Start here and join a million others.
I see others have similar stories to mine. My community college offered a Linux course, but the instructor was clearly unfamiliar with Linux as a whole. Much like others here, the course consisted of:
It was basically a course on "how to set up a minimalistic Debian workstation" with a random list of vocabulary-style terminal commands on a handout that somehow never made it onto the final. (Probably because we never actually covered them and they were considered "extended learning")
I was running Mint on the laptop I was using for schoolwork at the time, so once I demonstrated that what I had setup was functionally equivalent to the ideal end goal of the course, I was basically granted a free A. To be honest, that felt extremely disappointing, because what little I'd learned of the kernel and general terminal operation had given me a taste of something powerful, and I was hoping to get together with like minds to explore this space. But since none of the interesting stuff was being taught, nobody in the class (again, a Community College, so all were just there for easy credits for their MCSA degree) was interested in any of that stuff, and it quickly just became a "surf the internet for an hour" period.
Reflecting on things like this makes me honestly mad that I spent $700 per credit to attend that shithole. Sorry, bit of a rant there. Anyway, my point is, get out there and learn it. It's not hard, it will make you feel like a wizard manipulating your computer in ways you never knew you could, and best of all it takes some of the power back from Big OS. Even if you don't go all the way to learning C and writing drivers for custom hardware and whatever, knowing more about how computing works on a basic bits-and-bytes level actually helps tech-minded consumers as a whole take that power back in a market that was (arguably) originally built for them.
This is so, so sad. The Foundation class is free, take it. You'll learn a Lot more.
Oh, I've learned lots in the intervening years! I even took the leap to set up an Arch system a few years back and that was probably the best thing I could have done at that point in my quest for Linux enlightenment. I just hope others don't have to suffer through the same runaround and frustration.
Are you referring specifically to this one?
That's the one. I highly recommend it.
This is super awesome and wonderfully cool; a note that the completion rate of MOOCs is usually around 5%, but it's still super cool that ~50k people learned linux!
My bet is it's higher than that for this one. I'll pester the Foundation's training people and see if I can get numbers out of them.
I love Linux but only for CLI, I've never been able to get in to GUI versions.