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Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

#11

Post by snori74 »

nakkiel wrote: post #9

I'm currently between two jobs and have a lot of free time. While not really in need for that sort of courses, I might consider giving it a try but I'm unable to find any information on the stuff taught. What are the highlights?

Fair point. It's dark where I am, so sleep is called for, but when I wake I'll add in some extra detail to the launch page.

To give you an idea, here's some headers for the days:

1 Accessing your New Server 2 Basic navigation, cd, pwd etc 4 Installing software, exploring the file structure 5 more, less, nano, tab completion, history and "dot files" 9 cron, contab, /etc/cron.daily anacran and "at" 19 Automation - using logrotate

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

#12

Post by belorn »

It is very good for people to learn how to use specific tools like grep, ssh, tail and the command line interface in general. That said, together with a course like this, one should, really, really find a real world website/group to support.

I have yet to find a shortage of friends, family and hobby groups around me who want someone who can take care of their website/hosting/and so on. Its like learning to cook; there are always someone who want free food. By taking responsibility for a website, one is very much more invested to "get it to work", and learn around 85% of what syadmin really is about.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

#14

Post by snori74 »

belorn wrote: post #12

It is very good for people to learn how to use specific tools like grep, ssh, tail and the command line interface in general. That said, together with a course like this, one should, really, really find a real world website/group to support. I have yet to find a shortage of friends, family and hobby groups around me who want someone who can take care of their website/hosting/and so on. Its like learning to cook; ther…

Absolutely. At least in this case participants do have a working remote server of their own for their duration - a big step up from either a server "just in class" or a Gnome box on their desk.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

#16

Post by s_henry_paulson »

I'm considering signing a couple of my employees up, but I'm reading the description:

you'll be expected to learn and use grep, ssh, apt-get, tail and man

I also see that restarting services is in there.. however I don't see anything that tells me any details about what the course actually covers.

You also don't mention what flavor of Linux you're using for teaching.

Also, launching this, and then starting the lessons only 1-2 business days later? You either don't want a lot of people to sign up... or I can't think of another reason to do that.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course

#19

Post by eranation »

Very much needed and I think it's a great initiative.

But you'll have much higher conversion rates if you

1) have some sort of example lesson / money back guarantee

2) table of contents, course schedule, what is covered in each lesson, 20$ for 20 lessons is great, not ok for 4.

3) use stripe and not paypal, for so many reasons

4) have a nicer landing page, even a wrapbootstrap template for 18$ will do.

5) have the course be online and not in email (like http://tryruby.org and many others)

Great work though, this is the definition of MVP, I think most people don't have the guts to simply start charging right away, but I think it's the right thing to do, you can always offer discounts / free first lesson later if you see very few sign ups.

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