Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 26 posts

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#11

Post by Spittie »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9
Spittie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think CentOS, Ubuntu and openSUSE, as specified in this page: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/ways-to-train/general-in... >The System Administration courses are written for CentOS 6, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and OpenSUSE 12 (as the edX course should be the same as the course from the Linux Foundation, I'm assuming this applies as well).

While I understand the choice...I'm confident Debian is more popular than OpenSUSE at this point in history, at least in every market we work in (web hosting, mostly). We have tens of thousands of installations (or 1+ million, if you count Webmin, but we have much less OS data for that). OpenSUSE installs can be counted on a couple of hands. Historically it was pretty popular; SUSE may have even been the second most…

I think they just decided to go with the distributions that have a commercial backing behind them (or, at least, their "free" versions). But I agree that Debian should be on that list.

P.s. happy openSUSE user here :)

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#13

Post by barrkel »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9
Spittie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think CentOS, Ubuntu and openSUSE, as specified in this page: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/ways-to-train/general-in... >The System Administration courses are written for CentOS 6, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and OpenSUSE 12 (as the edX course should be the same as the course from the Linux Foundation, I'm assuming this applies as well).

While I understand the choice...I'm confident Debian is more popular than OpenSUSE at this point in history, at least in every market we work in (web hosting, mostly). We have tens of thousands of installations (or 1+ million, if you count Webmin, but we have much less OS data for that). OpenSUSE installs can be counted on a couple of hands. Historically it was pretty popular; SUSE may have even been the second most…

I think choosing distros from slightly more diverse backgrounds makes sense. Ubuntu includes most Debianisms including dpkg / apt-get, CentOS includes most RedHatisms including rpm / yum, while openSUSE is a third way (that I know little about).

Replacing openSUSE with Debian wouldn't be sufficiently differentiated from Ubuntu, IMO.

The inclusion of something inheriting from Linux From Scratch might be warranted for didactic purposes - just for understanding what bits a Unix is made out of, fundamentally.

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#14

Post by galago »

barrkel wrote: post #13
SwellJoe wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I understand the choice...I'm confident Debian is more popular than OpenSUSE at this point in history, at least in every market we work in (web hosting, mostly). We have tens of thousands of installations (or 1+ million, if you count Webmin, but we have much less OS data for that). OpenSUSE installs can be counted on a couple of hands. Historically it was pretty popular; SUSE may have even been the second most…

I think choosing distros from slightly more diverse backgrounds makes sense. Ubuntu includes most Debianisms including dpkg / apt-get, CentOS includes most RedHatisms including rpm / yum, while openSUSE is a third way (that I know little about). Replacing openSUSE with Debian wouldn't be sufficiently differentiated from Ubuntu, IMO. The inclusion of something inheriting from Linux From Scratch might be warranted for…

When I first clicked the link, I was hoping it would be something like Linux From Scratch. That however, would be a completely different class. More like math-for-future-mathematicians vs. math-for-future-engineers. I wonder if LFS could be adapted for EdX?

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#15

Post by rafaelm »

This definitely interest me. I've used Linux for hobby projects for ages now (I remember messing around with slackware and fighting to get sound and my winmodem working), but I've never seriously learnt how to really use it.

I've been thinking about starting my own Linux From Scratch project, but I don't know how much of a learning experience that would be. Has anyone here got any experience with LFS?

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#16

Post by charlieflowers »

rafaelm wrote: post #15

This definitely interest me. I've used Linux for hobby projects for ages now (I remember messing around with slackware and fighting to get sound and my winmodem working), but I've never seriously learnt how to really use it. I've been thinking about starting my own Linux From Scratch project, but I don't know how much of a learning experience that would be. Has anyone here got any experience with LFS?

Yeah, I went through it years ago. It was very helpful. Makes you realize just how much of the non-kernel aspect of the Linux world depends on open source. Most of LFS is about downloading the source code of non-kernel programs, and then learning to build them.

It's not necessarily optimized to make you productive as a user or system admin. But it's a systematic journey through building the OS and tools, and therefore it makes you aware of what's available and gives you a glimpse of what's under the hood.

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#18

Post by rz2k »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9
Spittie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think CentOS, Ubuntu and openSUSE, as specified in this page: http://training.linuxfoundation.org/ways-to-train/general-in... >The System Administration courses are written for CentOS 6, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and OpenSUSE 12 (as the edX course should be the same as the course from the Linux Foundation, I'm assuming this applies as well).

While I understand the choice...I'm confident Debian is more popular than OpenSUSE at this point in history, at least in every market we work in (web hosting, mostly). We have tens of thousands of installations (or 1+ million, if you count Webmin, but we have much less OS data for that). OpenSUSE installs can be counted on a couple of hands. Historically it was pretty popular; SUSE may have even been the second most…

Think along the lines Debian/Ubuntu/Mint and Fedora/Redhat/CentOS.

However, I've never used OpenSUSE or its related distributions, and know nothing about it.

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#19

Post by r0h1n »

While I appreciate the intent behind this move, I'm curious who are the people who were paying $2400 (that's a serious amount of money) for what appears to be an introductory course that imparts no work skills (it's usually easier to convince people to pay for courses when they feel it will have a positive impact on their careers or resumes)?

https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...

> This course explores the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux programmers, system administrators and end users to achieve their day-to-day work in a Linux environment. It is designed for experienced computer users who have limited or no previous exposure to Linux.

> Upon completion of this training you should have a good working knowledge of Linux, from both a graphical and command line perspective, allowing you to easily navigate through any of the three major Linux distributions.

Re: “Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer

#20

Post by theorique »

r0h1n wrote: post #19

While I appreciate the intent behind this move, I'm curious who are the people who were paying $2400 (that's a serious amount of money) for what appears to be an introductory course that imparts no work skills (it's usually easier to convince people to pay for courses when they feel it will have a positive impact on their careers or resumes)? https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx... > This cour…

Agreed, I'm wondering what this $2400 course will give you that you couldn't get from installing Linux on a partition or a VM and messing around with it in your spare time.

Maybe the course structure is helpful in ensuring good learning outcomes, but developing the hobbyist / enthusiast habit is a good one for any Linux user.

Post reply on HN