Re: Show me some good newbie intros to GNU/Linux

[dman <dsh8290@rit.edu>]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2002 at 08:11:33AM +1000, Alan Davis wrote:

| I have found nothing that explains GNU/Linux adequately to my students.

| I have a four machine GNU/Linux (Debian) net in my classroom, for
| student use.  Many students have gotten to know the basics---which
| consists of how to start up Galeon or Netscape, even how to log on as
| "students".  (I set up one account, so far, for most students, and
| leave the machine logged on to that account.  Comments?)

Comments :
    if you don't need to track which student did something and if
    students don't have any private work they will store on the system
    and if students are happy to all use one configuration, then
    having a shared account is fine

    it is all a matter of what level of security you want/need in your
    environment

A counter example :
    On my dad's win98 machine one of my brother's kept rearranging the
    "start menu" and other things which other users didn't want him to
    do.  I, partially, solved it by creating separate "accounts" (not
    real multi-user, just independent configs) so that he can screw
    with his config as he wishes without affecting others.

| This is a demonstration/proof of concept project.  This is a Biology
| class; I don't have the free reign to spend two weeks on computer
| basics.  I have the students read Sterling's Brief History of the
| Internet, give them a few pointers of web searching, show them galeon,
| and let them search.  Some students do quite well.  

Harley Hahn's Student Guide To UNIX (by Harley Hahn) is quite good,
but I don't recall if it is good for that level of background or not.
It is the book that the CS department at my college recommends for new
students (they use Solaris SPARC in the lab).

| But I CANNOT FIND any single good introduction to GNU/Linux that is
| geared to this leverl.  Here is a typical opening paragraph:
| 
| Linux is a POSIX compliant, UNIX-like operating system, with a kernel
| written by a Finnish graduate student, and etc., etc., etc.  
| 
| Con someone point me to some documents that actually attempt to
| explain what the differences are, from Windoze and the Mac (the two
| computers with which students are obviously acquainted)? 
| 
| I am writing this from scratch.  I am sure someone else has already
| done a better job than I can do---given that unique combination of
| nerd/geek/hacker/teacher?

I don't know if the newbiedoc project has anything suitable for your
use (http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net).  I think most of their focus
is for people who want to install (admin) a Debian system.


Anyways, I commend your efforts to introduce students to Debian.  It
is unfortunate that most people who know anything about computers are
wholly unaware that anything other than Microsoft exists (aside from
Mac).


-D

-- 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to
look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from
being polluted by the world.
        James 1:27