(1) As Shannon pointed out, like many other things, it's not what you know, it's knowing how to find out what you need to know (and google knows everything!). That being said, there's just the basic things that people need to know to get started using linux. One of these things would be basic command-line usage. I know we have a great collection of GUI tools available now, but they often can't do everything, especially if your brand new install didn't get your video settings right. Some of the things that a newbie needs to know are the little lifesavers while working in the command line: tab completion, man, find, locate, job control (ps, kill, control-z, control-c, fg, bg), scrolling and command history. Those kinds of things give a new user the power to actually figure out what he's trying to do. He needs to know how to find and read logs, and how to get programs go give more output for debugging. There's no need to go over every command-line program--just enough to get the basics and know how to find what he doesn't know.
I think it's important to know how XFree86 interoperates with the rest of the system. It's a little different compared to Windows, and some talk about the abstraction of the desktop with regards to window managers, themes, desktop environments, and how applications relate to them. Even for non-networked systems, the user needs to know a little about networking. A lot of applications talk to the system through sockets and it's important to know at least a little bit about network addressing and communications. As far as configuration tools, it varies of course depending on the distribution. Finding them on an unfamiliar distribution is the hard part, but that can be helped from the stuff up above. If you're going to be teaching on a distribution, it would be a disservice not to cover the configuration tools that come with it, though. For example, I find the tools written by Red Hat to be excellent, and even though I can do most of the configuration by hand, I often find it faster and simpler just to use the tools available. I don't think that most newbies need a lot of hand-holding with the desktop applications. The workings of a web browser, word processor, email client, or instant messenger application are pretty much familiar. If not, then that should be in the scope of a some other tutorial. (2) For me, it has always been the web sites of the individual applications I was working with. That, and http://www.google.com/linux . A few days ago I posted several links related to Red Hat projects. I use those a lot too. (3) Pretty much answered in (1). It also helps to have someone who can help you with your specific situation. For that stuff, this list is a good start, as are the IRC channels available and other mailing lists or newsgroups. (4) I think it would be a duplication of effort to write something new, but a page with a set of links to where to find help about different topics would be a much more useful tool. -Tim On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 10:03, John Hebert wrote: > Howdy, > > I'm looking for feedback to the following questions: > > 1. What do newbies really need when it comes to an > introduction to Linux? > 2. What are some really good web sites that helped you > to understand what Linux is about? > 3. What have you found to be the most difficult > barriers in learning about, installing, or using > Linux? > 4. If www.brlug.net or the CCCC Linux SIG were to have > a web page to serve as an introduction to Linux, what > would you recommend to be on it?
