Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
This thread is old, but I've just realized a benefit to already having a lot of unix experience under my belt. I'm taking some online courses and the first week of each course is essentially bringing the Windows and Mac users up to speed. This is a working directory, this is the command line, these are some basic commands, etc. The working environment of the teachers and TAs is linux and the classes are adapted somewhat to Windows and Mac. Were it possible to test out of these sections, I very easily could. More generally, though, Windows and Mac are designed to be easy to use with little introduction. They strive to be simple and intuititve, and are heavily mediated. On the rare occasions when I need to use one of these systems, I can find my way around without any trouble. Just recently, my wife had a problem booting her Windows machine and, with a little google-fu, I was able to edit the registry and fix the problem. Linux (overall) isn't really designed, nevermind designed to be simple or intuitive. Given the longer learning curve, you kinda have to do a cost/risk analysis of learning something you may not need versus not knowing something you do need. I have the heart of a boy scout (figuratively, that is) and I lean towards better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Given the degree to which Linux has penetrated the computer zeitgeist, specifically in open source communities, there's a strong argument to be made to at least familiarize yourself with the basics of Linux. And I mean the command line specifically, since the various GUIs are all trying to emulate and copy Windows/Mac. The best reason, of course, is that it could save your life someday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUlAQZB9Ng /dev On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 11:19 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi Everyone, Thanks for the friendly and helpful comments. I really appreciate the information, and I will check out the linked articles. If you come up with anything else, I'd love to hear about it. Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster -- Sent from my GMail account.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
There are 2 reasons I have learned/am learning Linux: 1. It is cheaper as a web hosting platform. Not substantially, but enough to make a difference. This is a big deal when you are a library with a barebones budget or an indie developer (I am both). Note that if you are looking for enterprise-level support, the picture is quite different. 1a. A less significant reason is that Linux is much less resource-intensive on computers and works well on old/underpowered computers and embedded systems. If you want to hack an Android device or Chromebook to expand its functionality, Linux is what you want. I am running Ubuntu on my Acer C720 Chromebook using Crouton, and now it has all the functionality of a full-fledged laptop at $200. 2. Many scripting languages and application servers were born in *nix and have struggled to port over to non-*nix platforms. For example, Python and Ruby both are a major pain to set up in Windows. Setting up a production-level Rails or Django server is stupidly overcomplicated in Windows to the point where it is probably easier just to use Linux. It's much easier to sudo apt-get install in Ubuntu than to spend hours tweaking environment variables and config files in Windows to achieve the same effect. I will go out on a limb here and say that *nix isn't inherently better than Windows except perhaps the fact that it is less resource-intensive (which doesn't apply to OSX, the most popular *nix variant). #1 and #2 above are really based on historical circumstances rather than any inherent superiority in Linux. Back when the popular scripting languages, database servers, and application servers were first developed in the 90s, Windows had a very sucktastic security model and was generally not up to the task of running a server. Windows has cleaned up its act quite a bit, but the ship has sailed, at this point. If you compare Windows today to Linux today, they are on very equal footing in terms of server features. The only real advantage Linux has at this point is that the big distros like Ubuntu have a much more robust package ecosystem that makes it much easier to install common server-side applications through the command line. But when you look at actually using and managing the OS, Linux is at a clear disadvantage. And if you compare the two as desktop environments, Windows wins hands-down except for a very few niche use cases. I say this as someone who uses a Ubuntu laptop every day. (Anyone who has read this far might be interested to know that Windows 10 is going to include an official MS-supported command line package management suite called OneGet that will build on the package ecosystem of the third-party Chocolatey suite.) Josh Welker -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Siobhain Rivera Sent: Monday, October 27, 2014 9:02 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix? Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hi Everyone, Thanks for the friendly and helpful comments. I really appreciate the information, and I will check out the linked articles. If you come up with anything else, I'd love to hear about it. Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On Oct 28, 2014, at 10:07 AM, Joshua Welker wrote: There are 2 reasons I have learned/am learning Linux: 1. It is cheaper as a web hosting platform. Not substantially, but enough to make a difference. This is a big deal when you are a library with a barebones budget or an indie developer (I am both). Note that if you are looking for enterprise-level support, the picture is quite different. 1a. A less significant reason is that Linux is much less resource-intensive on computers and works well on old/underpowered computers and embedded systems. If you want to hack an Android device or Chromebook to expand its functionality, Linux is what you want. I am running Ubuntu on my Acer C720 Chromebook using Crouton, and now it has all the functionality of a full-fledged laptop at $200. When I worked for an ISP in the late 1990s, our two FreeBSD servers that handled *everything* were 75MHz Pentiums that another company had discarded Our network admin bridged my apartment to his using a 386 w/ picoBSD install that booted from a 3.5 floppy (to drive a WaveLAN card, before the days of 802.11) I think one of the P75s was running fark.com for a while before they added all of the commenting functionality. It's amazing just how much functionality you can get out of hardware that people have discarded by putting a system on it that doesn't have a lot of cruft. 2. Many scripting languages and application servers were born in *nix and have struggled to port over to non-*nix platforms. For example, Python and Ruby both are a major pain to set up in Windows. Setting up a production-level Rails or Django server is stupidly overcomplicated in Windows to the point where it is probably easier just to use Linux. It's much easier to sudo apt-get install in Ubuntu than to spend hours tweaking environment variables and config files in Windows to achieve the same effect. If you're going to run Python on windows, it used to be easier to download a full 'WAMP' build (windows, apache, mysql, perl/php/python). I don't know what the current state of python installers are ... except for on the Mac, where they're still a bit of a pain. I have no idea on Ruby. I will go out on a limb here and say that *nix isn't inherently better than Windows except perhaps the fact that it is less resource-intensive (which doesn't apply to OSX, the most popular *nix variant). #1 and #2 above are really based on historical circumstances rather than any inherent superiority in Linux. Back when the popular scripting languages, database servers, and application servers were first developed in the 90s, Windows had a very sucktastic security model and was generally not up to the task of running a server. Windows has cleaned up its act quite a bit, but the ship has sailed, at this point. If you compare Windows today to Linux today, they are on very equal footing in terms of server features. The only real advantage Linux has at this point is that the big distros like Ubuntu have a much more robust package ecosystem that makes it much easier to install common server-side applications through the command line. But when you look at actually using and managing the OS, Linux is at a clear disadvantage. And if you compare the two as desktop environments, Windows wins hands-down except for a very few niche use cases. I say this as someone who uses a Ubuntu laptop every day. For managing OSes, I admit that I haven't played with Windows 8, but I'm still in the FreeBSD camp for servers. (and not what Apple's done to it) Windows might have an advantage if you're doing active directory w/ group policies, but I've heard horror stories from my neighbor about his co-worker who decides to 'hide' his changes to individual people (eg, blocking what websites they can get to), making it difficult for someone else to go in and clear them out because he was too over-zealous. (Anyone who has read this far might be interested to know that Windows 10 is going to include an official MS-supported command line package management suite called OneGet that will build on the package ecosystem of the third-party Chocolatey suite.) Very interesting. -Joe
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
I would recommend learning Linux because it is the key platform for open source software in general, and librarians need to embrace open source in order to take control over their library systems, in order to deliver to their users what they actually need, rather than what can be delivered within the constraints of a system dominated by commercial vendors. Many years ago I used to work in Windows and wrote software which integrated closely with various Microsoft products, including the Windows OS itself. While Windows has some nice features, over time a powerful sense of frustration built up which ultimately led me to consciously spurn Windows in favour of Linux. I still have a Windows VM which I use to run the eTax software from the Australian Tax Office, once a year. The frustration I felt was because the proprietary nature of the Microsoft ecosystem was toxic to good software design. It's not that Microsoft can't afford good software engineers - far from it! The computer scientists working for Microsoft Research are some of the best and brightest. The problem is that Microsoft's business model imposes constraints on their software (and hence on the people who administer and use that software) which are not in the interest of those users. Microsoft's business model relies on locking users into their ecosystem; they engineer their products to have unnecessary interdependencies, and to have proprietary interfaces only conveniently usable from other MS products. Third-party products built with Microsoft tools and infrastructure also tend to be dragged down by this same quality deficit. What administrators and users really need is software which they can deploy freely (I mean, with flexibility and creativity), unconstrained by the arbitrary decisions made by the business managers of software vendors. Of course it is possible to run and develop open source applications on proprietary OSes, but you are always swimming against the tide. On 28 October 2014 00:02, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On 10/27/2014 10:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! It's free! (same reason I've never really bothered with Java due to the historic high entry barrier.) I am assuming here that the alternative is Microsoft Windows ecosystem. The other reason *systemd [0]* notwithstanding it tries to adhere to the philosophy of a tool that does only one thing well held together with pipes. While the second one is a matter of one's taste in solving problems the first one for me is one I continue to take seriously because at the time of embracing UNIX my life was at a fork that could have had me back in Kenya and the thought of paying over US $200 for a tool with a 3 year shelf like just seemed a crime. Cheers, ./fxk [0] http://judecnelson.blogspot.fr/2014/09/systemd-biggest-fallacies.html -- Grabel's Law: 2 is not equal to 3 -- not even for large values of 2.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:02:18AM -0400, Siobhain Rivera wrote: I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! I wouldn't necessarily typecast reference librarians: some of them are the most tech-savvy non-IT types whom I have met. I assume by Unix one means the Unix/Linux command line, and the tools one can invoke from there, which gives a commonality to the environment regardless of the implementation details of the particular OS (which is of more importance to system administrators, who need to understand the dialects in greater detail). The traditional strength of the environment is in manipulating arbitrary textual data: sed, (g)awk, (e)grep and their congeners make some otherwise difficult tasks manageable. All of our archivists are command-line savvy: years ago we moved them off a (home-grown) Microsoft Windows-based solution to creating finding aids to a (home-grown) Unix-based one without a problem. (We use FreeBSD for non-commercial products; for commercial products we use RedHat Linux.) Whether they use Unix ordinarily is less relevant, I think, than that they can when the need arises: the command-line paradigm is not a barrier for them. One cannot predict the trajectory one's future might take. If one day one finds oneself talking to a faculty member working with big data (from the sciences or from the humanities), one is likely to be talking to someone with basic Unix/Linux command-line skills. Unless one thinks that the future of librarianship has nothing to do with such things, then I would recommend learning (not necessarily liking let alone becoming fluent in) Unix/Linux skills, simply to extend one's computer literacy, and to be able to represent the profession capably should the occasion arise. -- Charles Blair, Director, Digital Library Development Center, University of Chicago Library 1 773 702 8459 | c...@uchicago.edu | http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~chas/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hello, Well said Conal. I can't believe that an army of over 100,000 librarians continue to purchase closed ILSs and other software that limits how we serve our patrons yet have the nerve to complain about dwindling library budgets and even the nerve to refer to ourselves as information scientists. I know I sound belligerent when I make these comments but someone has to! We, as a field, must do better. I come across Librarians who struggle creating a Google account. I couldn't imagine them using a terminal! But we allow this to occur when we have these debates instead of practicing modern librarianship. Libraries are paying $4000 for Desk Tracker from compendium and the stats results are beyond reproach! I'm not sure but I believe its $4,000 a year! A series of Google forms could return stats much better and easier. With a little code from librarians it would blow Desk tracker away! But we argue about whether we should use Linux or whether all librarians should know how to code. Maybe something is wrong with me? Thanks, Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 7:21 PM, Conal Tuohy conal.tu...@gmail.com wrote: I would recommend learning Linux because it is the key platform for open source software in general, and librarians need to embrace open source in order to take control over their library systems, in order to deliver to their users what they actually need, rather than what can be delivered within the constraints of a system dominated by commercial vendors. Many years ago I used to work in Windows and wrote software which integrated closely with various Microsoft products, including the Windows OS itself. While Windows has some nice features, over time a powerful sense of frustration built up which ultimately led me to consciously spurn Windows in favour of Linux. I still have a Windows VM which I use to run the eTax software from the Australian Tax Office, once a year. The frustration I felt was because the proprietary nature of the Microsoft ecosystem was toxic to good software design. It's not that Microsoft can't afford good software engineers - far from it! The computer scientists working for Microsoft Research are some of the best and brightest. The problem is that Microsoft's business model imposes constraints on their software (and hence on the people who administer and use that software) which are not in the interest of those users. Microsoft's business model relies on locking users into their ecosystem; they engineer their products to have unnecessary interdependencies, and to have proprietary interfaces only conveniently usable from other MS products. Third-party products built with Microsoft tools and infrastructure also tend to be dragged down by this same quality deficit. What administrators and users really need is software which they can deploy freely (I mean, with flexibility and creativity), unconstrained by the arbitrary decisions made by the business managers of software vendors. Of course it is possible to run and develop open source applications on proprietary OSes, but you are always swimming against the tide. On 28 October 2014 00:02, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster -- Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS Compound interest is the greatest invention in the history of mankind. - Albert Einstein-
[CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Learning Unix is not necessarily the problem to solve. Instead it is means to an end. To my mind, there are number of skills and technologies a person needs to know in order to provide (digital) library service. Some of those skills/technologies include: indexing, content management (databases), programming/scripting, HTTP server management, XML manipulation, etc. While these technologies exist in a Windows environment, they are oftentimes more robust and specifically designed for a Unix (read “Linux”) environment. — Eric Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Couldn't agree more with Eric. Additionally if you are going to be doing any web work at all you will need to know the back end environment which will likely be Linux. Edward Iglesias On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: Learning Unix is not necessarily the problem to solve. Instead it is means to an end. To my mind, there are number of skills and technologies a person needs to know in order to provide (digital) library service. Some of those skills/technologies include: indexing, content management (databases), programming/scripting, HTTP server management, XML manipulation, etc. While these technologies exist in a Windows environment, they are oftentimes more robust and specifically designed for a Unix (read “Linux”) environment. — Eric Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Eric hit the nail on the head, Unix is not inherently needed for many libraries, but it can be useful for more technically inclined librarians to know Linux. I am a digital content librarian at my institution and I actually know neither system, though I wish I had a better understanding of Linux. Yet I am able to do a lot of work on assorted projects due to knowledge in XML, scripting, and other such technical skills. So if you really want to promote people learning Unix, and probably actually Linux, you should help them to see where it will empower them to do more in their work. On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: Learning Unix is not necessarily the problem to solve. Instead it is means to an end. To my mind, there are number of skills and technologies a person needs to know in order to provide (digital) library service. Some of those skills/technologies include: indexing, content management (databases), programming/scripting, HTTP server management, XML manipulation, etc. While these technologies exist in a Windows environment, they are oftentimes more robust and specifically designed for a Unix (read “Linux”) environment. — Eric Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On 27/10/2014, Matthew Sherman matt.r.sher...@gmail.com wrote: Eric hit the nail on the head, Unix is not inherently needed for many libraries, but it can be useful for more technically inclined librarians to know Linux. I am a digital content librarian at my institution and I actually know neither system, though I wish I had a better understanding of Linux. Yet I am able to do a lot of work on assorted projects due to knowledge in XML, scripting, and other such technical skills. So if you really want to promote people learning Unix, and probably actually Linux, you should help them to see where it will empower them to do more in their work. On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: Learning Unix is not necessarily the problem to solve. Instead it is means to an end. To my mind, there are number of skills and technologies a person needs to know in order to provide (digital) library service. Some of those skills/technologies include: indexing, content management (databases), programming/scripting, HTTP server management, XML manipulation, etc. While these technologies exist in a Windows environment, they are oftentimes more robust and specifically designed for a Unix (read Linux) environment. -- Eric Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
oops, ignore the accidental blank but anyway, Linux/unix have a nicer idea of permissions and security so often you get better uptimes, less need for reboots. You can serve apache etc on other OSs but often not all modules are ported to the less popular serving platforms. Dave Caroline On 27/10/2014, Dave Caroline dave.thearchiv...@gmail.com wrote: On 27/10/2014, Matthew Sherman matt.r.sher...@gmail.com wrote: Eric hit the nail on the head, Unix is not inherently needed for many libraries, but it can be useful for more technically inclined librarians to know Linux. I am a digital content librarian at my institution and I actually know neither system, though I wish I had a better understanding of Linux. Yet I am able to do a lot of work on assorted projects due to knowledge in XML, scripting, and other such technical skills. So if you really want to promote people learning Unix, and probably actually Linux, you should help them to see where it will empower them to do more in their work. On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: Learning Unix is not necessarily the problem to solve. Instead it is means to an end. To my mind, there are number of skills and technologies a person needs to know in order to provide (digital) library service. Some of those skills/technologies include: indexing, content management (databases), programming/scripting, HTTP server management, XML manipulation, etc. While these technologies exist in a Windows environment, they are oftentimes more robust and specifically designed for a Unix (read Linux) environment. -- Eric Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hello, I think that all library jobs are and ought to be techy. If they aren't is because the person's working those jobs aren't practicing modern librarianship. In think the culture of librarianship is at fault as opposed to the individual librarians. When it comes to Unix, I'm assuming you are talking about Unix-like systems as well. My reasons would be that information professionals should have an understanding of different systems that allow users to interact with information. The pay walls created by Windows are a hindrance to information professionals, and having knowledge of these systems allows us to not only improve our information practices and workflow but to also teach others how to do so. The speed at which technology moves has to be met with exuberance for learning technology by librarians. Unix and Unix-like systems also provide open systems for exploring computing. Unix and Unix-like systems expands the possibilities when using information. There is more of a since that anything is possible when using these systems. This has to babe peered to the ongoing debate of whether all librarians should know how to code. I think the debate is fruitless. If we shouldn't learn to code, then the word information should be taken out of our degrees, our library schools. This would relegate librarians to a small niche dealing strictly with print material in a hypertext, digital, information society. What happened to ask the scrolls and clay tablets? Thanks, Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS Library Department Chair South Suburban College 7087052945 Our Mission is to Serve our Students and the Community through lifelong learning. Sent from my iPhone On Oct 27, 2014, at 9:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
It really depends on what you mean by learn Unix. I agree with Eric that many tools, particularly open source tools, are more robust on l Linux. This is because most of their development communities are building on Linux, so new features and bug fixes show up their first. I live in the open source, Linux-based development world, as as a service and management tool developer, I never use Linux GUIs. I think that folks who are going to be installing and maintaining services on Linux servers should become comfortable with the command line tools The will be using. Commercial Unix systems are dying out except for specialized industries like banking and airlines. It also hangs on in systems that use the full-boat Oracle suite, although it may be losing ground there. The most popular flavor families of Linux — RedHat (Fedora, CentOS, AWS) and Debian (Ubuntu) — as well as the system that underlies OS X share a common toolset, which makes it much easier to move from one to another than it is to move between BSD and System V based proprietary Unix systems. Cary On Monday, October 27, 2014, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
There is something of a natural symbiosis between *NIX and libraries. If you have not already found it, read Unix as Literature for some background on why those who like the written word are drawn to *NIX naturally. -- Andrew Anderson, Director of Development, Library and Information Resources Network, Inc. http://www.lirn.net/ | http://www.twitter.com/LIRNnotes | http://www.facebook.com/LIRNnotes On Oct 27, 2014, at 10:02, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
There’s also something to be said for the Unix pipeline/filter model of processing. That way of breaking down a task into small steps, wiring little programs to filter the data for each step, building up the solution iteratively, essentially a form of function composition. Immedidately, you can do a lot of powerful one-off or scripting tasks right from the command line. More generally, it’s a very powerful model to have in your head, can transform your thinking. -Tod On Oct 27, 2014, at 9:53 AM, Cary Gordon listu...@chillco.com wrote: It really depends on what you mean by learn Unix. I agree with Eric that many tools, particularly open source tools, are more robust on l Linux. This is because most of their development communities are building on Linux, so new features and bug fixes show up their first. I live in the open source, Linux-based development world, as as a service and management tool developer, I never use Linux GUIs. I think that folks who are going to be installing and maintaining services on Linux servers should become comfortable with the command line tools The will be using. Commercial Unix systems are dying out except for specialized industries like banking and airlines. It also hangs on in systems that use the full-boat Oracle suite, although it may be losing ground there. The most popular flavor families of Linux — RedHat (Fedora, CentOS, AWS) and Debian (Ubuntu) — as well as the system that underlies OS X share a common toolset, which makes it much easier to move from one to another than it is to move between BSD and System V based proprietary Unix systems. Cary On Monday, October 27, 2014, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Siobhan, I teach a course on digital curation tools and applications for the University of North Texas, and one of the motivational pieces I use is the Digital Curation Centre's chapter on Open Source and Digital Curation by Andrew McHugh in the Digital Curation Manual (2005): http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/resource/curation-manual/chapters/open-source.pdf . Most of my students won't go on to be coders -- in fact, I suspect that most of them will interact with systems primarily through GUIs -- but I try to give them enough of an introduction to *nix and specifically bash that they aren't afraid to use it (well, everyone should be a *little* afraid). Danielle Cunniff Plumer Danielle On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
[CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix? and DOS?
As a practicing professional Cataloger and programmer Wannabe, I can say that it is a huge advantage to know how to work from the DOS prompt in Windows. I greatly regret not having had time to gain at least a similar a seat-of-the-pants level of expertise with Unix. There is inevitably some type of file loading or archival data manipulation that needs to be done from the Unix server and it's not just embarrassing, but inefficient to have to ask IT for help, especially when you can't even be sure you've even correctly articulated the request. JJ -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cornel Darden Jr. Sent: Monday, October 27, 2014 10:51 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix? Hello, I think that all library jobs are and ought to be techy. If they aren't is because the person's working those jobs aren't practicing modern librarianship. In think the culture of librarianship is at fault as opposed to the individual librarians. When it comes to Unix, I'm assuming you are talking about Unix-like systems as well. My reasons would be that information professionals should have an understanding of different systems that allow users to interact with information. The pay walls created by Windows are a hindrance to information professionals, and having knowledge of these systems allows us to not only improve our information practices and workflow but to also teach others how to do so. The speed at which technology moves has to be met with exuberance for learning technology by librarians. Unix and Unix-like systems also provide open systems for exploring computing. Unix and Unix-like systems expands the possibilities when using information. There is more of a since that anything is possible when using these systems. This has to babe peered to the ongoing debate of whether all librarians should know how to code. I think the debate is fruitless. If we shouldn't learn to code, then the word information should be taken out of our degrees, our library schools. This would relegate librarians to a small niche dealing strictly with print material in a hypertext, digital, information society. What happened to ask the scrolls and clay tablets? Thanks, Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS Library Department Chair South Suburban College 7087052945 Our Mission is to Serve our Students and the Community through lifelong learning. Sent from my iPhone On Oct 27, 2014, at 9:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster *Shop to Support Queens Library! Buy books, e-books, videos, music, gifts at great prices. A portion of the proceeds benefit Queens Library. http://www.queenslibrary.org/shop The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hello, A reference librarian solves information problems. If I ask an average librarian how to rip a video, how to convert file formats and videos, or why my files and videos aren't playing; should they be able to help? That's the real question. Should reference librarians know how to create online finding aids? Should reference librarians know how to robot websites to find information? These are very serious questions. Should reference librarians know Unix our Unix-like systems? I'm a librarian, an information professional! Unix, Linux, code, XML, SQL? What's that? I don't need to know that stuff to be an information professional. What do these things have to do with information! This is very serious! I think some of us get caught in the idea that we shouldn't force knowledge onto others or make them feel bad about not having it. But if the librarians with the knowledge don't push it, how can we move forward? Hopefully, librarians entering the field will understand that these skills are necessary. If we leave it up to the current culture, I think we will keep making excuses. Thanks, Cornel Darden Jr. MSLIS Library Department Chair South Suburban College 7087052945 Our Mission is to Serve our Students and the Community through lifelong learning. Sent from my iPhone On Oct 27, 2014, at 9:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
A few other readings I use on *nix: - Powers, E. (2012). Why I learned to love the command line. Hack Library School: By, For, and About Library School Students. http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/why-i-learned-to-love-the-command-line/ - Stephenson, Neal. (1999). In the beginning was the command line. http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html - Raymond, E. S. (1999). The cathedral and the bazaar. Sebastapol, CA: : O’Reilly Associates. http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ - Cocciolo, A. (2013). Unix commands and batch processing for the reluctant librarian or archivist. Code4Lib Journal 23. http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/9158 - Phillips, M. 2011. Metadata Analysis at the Command-line. Code4Lib Journal 19. http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/7818 - Coyle, K. (2007). Learning to love Linux. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 34(1), 72-73. The Cocciolo article is good, but I wish the title were different. Danielle Cunniff Plumer On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:17 AM, danielle plumer dcplu...@gmail.com wrote: Siobhan, I teach a course on digital curation tools and applications for the University of North Texas, and one of the motivational pieces I use is the Digital Curation Centre's chapter on Open Source and Digital Curation by Andrew McHugh in the Digital Curation Manual (2005): http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/resource/curation-manual/chapters/open-source.pdf . Most of my students won't go on to be coders -- in fact, I suspect that most of them will interact with systems primarily through GUIs -- but I try to give them enough of an introduction to *nix and specifically bash that they aren't afraid to use it (well, everyone should be a *little* afraid). Danielle Cunniff Plumer Danielle On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Learning UNIX is fine. However, I do think learning SQL might be a better investment. So many of our resources are in databases. Understanding indexing, sorting and relevancy ranking of our databases is also crucial. With linked data being all the rage knowing about sparql endpoints is important. The presentation of the information from databases under our control needs work. Is the information we present actionable or just strings? Or maybe I just like those topics better and find the work being done there fascinating? Dave Bigwood dbigw...@hou.usra.edu Lunar and Planetary institute @LPI_Library
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On Oct 27, 2014, at 10:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? The best reason is so that you can understand the problems you're working with as well as potential solutions better. If you know about cars, you'll have a much easier time when you go to the mechanic because you'll be able to understand and communicate your needs better. You'll ask better questions and understand which proposed courses of action are best for your situation even if you never intend to do the work yourself. Technology is like that. Libraries are incredibly dependent on technology, and it's a lot easier to get things done if you understand what tools/methods the services and people you rely on use. Kyle
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Hi Siobhain, I have a discussion of why learn UNIX in this Code4Lib journal article I wrote a few months back: Unix Commands and Batch Processing for the Reluctant Librarian or Archivist http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/9158 Best, Anthony Cocciolo -- Anthony Cocciolo, Ed.D. Associate Professor Pratt Institute, School of Information and Library Science 144 West 14th Street, Room 604D New York, NY, 10011-7301 +1 212-647-7702 acocc...@pratt.edu http://www.thinkingprojects.org On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu wrote: Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
On Oct 27, 2014, at 12:38 PM, Bigwood, David wrote: Learning UNIX is fine. However, I do think learning SQL might be a better investment. So many of our resources are in databases. Understanding indexing, sorting and relevancy ranking of our databases is also crucial. With linked data being all the rage knowing about sparql endpoints is important. The presentation of the information from databases under our control needs work. Is the information we present actionable or just strings? Quite likely. I wouldn't teach people SQL (and I've done plenty of pl/sql and t/sql programming) unless: 1. They had data they wanted to use that's already on an SQL server. 2. They had a (read-only) account on that server, so they could actually use it. If they had to go about setting up a server (even if it's an installable application) and ingesting their data to be able to analyze, you can get frustrated before you even start to see any useful results. If they have some scenario where they need multiple tables and joins, then sure, teach them SQL ... but over the years, I've had weeks of SQL-related training*, and I don't know that I'd want to make anyone go through all of that if they're just trying to do some simple reports that could be done in other ways. I wouldn't even suggest teaching people about indexing until they've tried doing stuff in SQL and wondered why it's so slow. Likewise, if there were some sort of non-SQL database for them to play with (even an LDAP server) that might have information of use to them, I'd teach them that first ... but I'd likely start w/ unix command line stuff (see below). Or maybe I just like those topics better and find the work being done there fascinating? Quite likely. I still haven't found a reason good reason to wrap my head around sparql ... I guess in part because the stuff I'm dealing with isn't served as linked data. ... On Oct 27, 2014, at 11:15 AM, Tod Olson wrote: There’s also something to be said for the Unix pipeline/filter model of processing. That way of breaking down a task into small steps, wiring little programs to filter the data for each step, building up the solution iteratively, essentially a form of function composition. Immedidately, you can do a lot of powerful one-off or scripting tasks right from the command line. More generally, it’s a very powerful model to have in your head, can transform your thinking. I 100% agree. If I were to try to teach unix to a group, I'd come up with some scenarios where command like tools can actually help them, and show them how to automate things that they'd have to do anyway. (or tried to do, and gave up on). For instance, if there's some sort of metric that they need, you can show how simple `cut | sort | uniq | wc` can be used... eg, if I have a 'common' or 'common+' webserver log file, I can get a quick count of today's unique hosts via : cut -d -f1 /var/log/httpd/access_log-2014.10.27 | sort | uniq | wc -l If I wanted to see the top 10 hosts hitting us: cut -d -f1 /var/log/httpd/access_log-2014.10.27 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -10 If you're lazy, and want to alias this so it didn't have to hard-code today's date: cut -d -f1 `ls -1t /var/log/httpd/access_log* | head -1` | sort | uniq | wc -l If your log files are rolled weekly, and we need to extract just today : (note that it's easier if you're sure that something looking like today's date won't show up in requests) cut -d -f1,4 `ls -1t /var/log/httpd/access_log* | head -1` | grep `date '+%d/%b/%Y'` | cut -d -f1 | sort | uniq | wc -l If you just wanted a quick report of hits per day, and your log files aren't rolled and compressed: cat `ls -1tr /var/log/httpd/access_log*` | cut -d\[ -f2 | cut -d: -f1 | uniq -c | more (note that that last one isn't always clean ... the dates logged are when the request started, but they're logged when the script finishes, so sometimes you'll get something strange like: 12354 23/Oct/2014 3 24/Oct/2014 1 23/Oct/2014 14593 24/Oct/2014 ... but if you try to use `sort`, and you cross months, it'll sort of alphabetical, not cronological) You could probably dedicate another full day to sed awk, if you wanted ... or teach them enough perl to be dangerous. -Joe * I've taken all of the Oracle DBA classes back in the 8i days (normally 4 weeks if taken as full-day classes), plus Oracle's data modeling and sql tuning classes (4-5 days each?)
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix?
Learning UNIX is a dreadful idea. If you think you want to learn UNIX, you probably should learn POSIX. Implementations are transient; if we're lucky standards are durable. cheers stuart -- I have a new phone number: 04 463 5692 From: Code for Libraries CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU on behalf of Siobhain Rivera siori...@indiana.edu Sent: Tuesday, 28 October 2014 3:02 a.m. To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Why learn Unix? Hi everyone, I'm part of the ASIST Student Chapter and Indiana University, and we're putting together a series of workshops on Unix. We've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to have a good idea of why they should learn Unix, particularly the reference/non technology types. We're going to do some more research to make a fact sheet about the uses of Unix, but I thought I'd pose the question to the list - what do you think are reasons librarians need to know Unix, even if they aren't in particularly tech heavy jobs? I'd appreciate any input. Have a great week! Siobhain Rivera Indiana University Bloomington Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization ASIST-SC, Webmaster
