Exactly, and everyone is a beginner at some point. I remember doing a beginners course for Linux when I first started University. Although I look back and it seems trivial, it was very useful at the time.
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Ubuntu - Your experiences?
- Thread starter mrsir2009
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Exactly, and everyone is a beginner at some point. I remember doing a beginners course for Linux when I first started University. Although I look back and it seems trivial, it was very useful at the time.
Don't be silly. The install takes a better part of an hour.Reading the course material and doing the tasks would take a couple of hours each week.
It does ? The install on modern distributions like Arch and Ubuntu takes about 20 minutes. Unless you want to do something silly like install on LVM volumes or on a MD raid mirror, which I do for every install of Linux. Ain't no sense writing to raw partitions these days, talk about not managing your storage...
And reading course material ? You're assuming I would need to.
It's not like utilities like useradd/adduser, groupadd, passwd, chown, chmod and the various shells are complicated to figure out. It's because that's not a beginner's course for IT people. Seriously, if you can't figure out how to create users, set permissions and move files around without course work and labs, you don't belong in IT. Of course, a lot of Windows people don't belong in IT, but that's another topic for another day.
Let's face it a lot of people don't know where to start in Linux and an introductory course can benefit them. I learned a few things that I didn't know and my employer paid for the course.
Yes, that's called a "course for grandmothers". If you work in IT, you know the basics of managing a system. Maybe not the commands, but you know the tasks. Commands is a simple Google search away. That's how I personally recognize good IT people vs bad IT people. A good IT person knows what he needs to do and can figure out how to do with provided documentation. A bad IT person requires constant training on "basics" by vendors. I hate vendor type course work...
I got thrown into HP-UX like 3 years ago, and coming from a Linux background, nothing about it seemed familiar. I didn't need a course to administer it, HP has got plenty of documentation for commands. I simply searched around the web for equivalents. "Install patch on HP-UX" gave up the info that SD-UX was the way to go. "Unattended installation" said Ignite-UX was the product I was looking for. "Backup over network" told me Ignite-UX did all that and even automated restores as part of the installation processes. "God damn NFS" told me NFS worked like on Solaris as of version 11.31, and it worked with a basic exportfs like what I used on Linux in 11.11.
So seriously, maybe I'm the wrong guy to talk about courses like this and their utilities, but I don't have much respect for them outside teaching non-IT, non-computing or non-programming folks the ropes. People with a vested interest in these fields don't need such basic courses.
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Actually it took a bit longer than 20 mins, but then again I was installing on VmWare Fusion
And reading course material ? You're assuming I would need to.
Certainly it didn't take long, but if you are new to it doing this, exploring various flavours of Linux, apps and repositories does take time.
Well the Windows guys did seem rather flummoxed by the whole concept of something not being Windows or doing things the Windows way.
I'm not going to argue with you on that point.
Some of them thought the most important thing to do with Linux was load Anti-Virus program.
I think that is rather unfair as there are a lot of everyday computer users whose experience of computing has consisted of them buying a beige box or laptop preloaded with Windows and not using anything more exotic that MS Office. For them to wean themselves off MS and try to learn about Ubuntu is a big step and certain aspects of Linux are not obvious to such users.
The makeup of the students did surprise me - obviously developing an interest in FOSS. I found the course helpful, not too demanding and enjoyable.
I notice you are from La Belle Province. I got my first computer in Montreal in 1991 (an Atari STe) and lived in Quebec City for a couple of years too. We miss the Cabane a Sucres at this time of the year.
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As a total Linux noob i quite like Ubuntu, basic stuff isnt difficult at all and just worked "out of the box" Also very useful to have on a pen drive for USB booting.
I'd only use it as curiosity or in an emergency though right now due to the lack of well known software written for it
I'd only use it as curiosity or in an emergency though right now due to the lack of well known software written for it
Open Office, FireFox et al are hardly unknown and in any case it's whether the software is good that is important rather than well known.
that's a good point, there are alot of good open source alternatives. Although i can see why the lack of commercially available software would put some switchers off
Oh the joys of Photoshop with its Johnny Cash 1951-72 Cadillac interface.
Actually most of the really useful software comes from small software houses or individuals, but a lack of commercial games could put some people off. Mind there are not many of those on computers these days.
Oh the joys of Photoshop with its Johnny Cash 1951-72 Cadillac interface.
Actually most of the really useful software comes from small software houses or individuals, but a lack of commercial games could put some people off. Mind there are not many of those on computers these days.
yep. every time i talk to someone about macs an linux all they say is "but it cant run any games, mac and linux suck". i have given up arguing because the most important thing is that i know the truth if someone wants to use windows the ok.