Finding Educational Materials For A Linux Class?

Doug Carter asks: "I am a senior Linux developer/system/network guy at a rapidly growing startup. Part of my resonsibilities is to help educate new aspiring Linux folks and otherwise evanglize the use of Open Source within our company. I thought a great way to do this would be with informal brown bag sessions, once or twice a week. The only thing I'm missing is some generic Linux class education material that I can talk to. I could write it myself, but I hate reinventing the wheel and I'm sure there are some useful materials out there already. I've been searching the net for weeks now and the only stuff I've found is online tutorials (that can't be downloaded) and Linux materials that people are actually charging for! In the wonderful world of open source software, where are the open source education materials?"

Comments

Try rute

[buttfucker2000]

Rute, the beginner's guide to Linux

Re:Try rute

[dolphinuser]

From the Terms and Conditions:

[1. This work may not be reproduced in hard copy except for personal use. Further, it may not be reproduced in hard copy for training material, nor for commercial gain, nor for public or organisation-wide distribution.]

So, it looks like he can't use it after all.

John

Feel free to create some content, my friend :)

[Number6.2]

It's been my experience that "free" tutorial/introduction materials are in short supply. Find a commercial book and talk from that.

I taught a UNIX class, on and off, for about six months. The springboard was an introduction to UNIX book, but the exercises and handouts were developed (and copyrighted) by the continuing education company I freelanced for. Finding the book is easy. Comming up with a "good" set of training/tutorial exercises is "hard".

Think about how much time you want to put into this, too, and the kinds of sessions you want to have. I gave informal talks at a previous employer where I did "illuminated MAN pages", i.e. print the MAN page for the topic de jure (including the MAN command ;) ) and talk about all the crufty little arguments you can throw at any particualar UNIX command.

hope this helps

stirring the pot since nineteen mumblty mumble

linux.com

[selectspec]

Linux.com has weekly newbie articles. Also Linux Journal occassionaly has some worthy newbie articles. Of course, nothing beats handing out RedHat cds and making 'em install linux at home.

Free Linux Training Materials

[davefgbd]

Have you not seen our free Linux Training Materials for professional instructors at http://www.linuxtraining.co.uk?

If our currently released modules don't cover topics which interest you, let us know. There are several unreleased modules in the pipeline.

Dave Fisher
GBdirect / Linux Training Materials Project

Charging isn't evil.

[Crutcher]

Think of the sheer volume of time that must be spent creating the material for a course, then the additional volume of time that must be spent editing and verifying this material, and then the additional chunk that must be spent making sure that this is all taught in a consistent and flowing manner.

Now, consider that individuals who have the skills to accomplish the first, second, and third tasks /well/ are usually found in seperate groups (programmers, editors, teachers); that each group's time is very valuable (in terms of average pay); and that individuals who fall far into multiple of these groups have an even /higher/ value placed upon their time.

People do the hard tech stuff, because it is fun. People write docs because they have to. People edit docs because they are paid to. Noone reorders docs for 'fun', 'cause it sucks, and they could be playing with code.

-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>

Open Source != Non Profit

[gempabumi]

We have a great Linux/Apache course that we run in our training programs. It is geared to the new user, without an 'RTFM' attitude, and it has many useful exercises and links to related materials. We spent two months developing the course, and have had customers for it since the day it was completed.

Would we give it away for free? No chance. Like it or not, we are in the training _business_. Our course materials are our product, and giving them away would mean shutting down our operations.

The idea that everything should be free as in beer, AKAIK, is not the intention of open source (or free software, whatever). Course materials take time and resources to produce, and they bring value to the market. Those who bring value to the market should be rewarded with more than just an ego trip. Let's not get into the mindset that if it's not free as in beer, it's against the spirit of Linux. Open source software needs credible business models to survive. Training materials and books are a large part of that business model. Let's encourage them, and support open source.

Anyway, if you search anywhere for "foo tutorial" you'll find a wealth of information for free.

slairetam esruoc eht ni detseretni era uoy fi di.oc.etutitsni@sugna si liame my

Re:Open Source != Non Profit

[gempabumi]

> So maybe you can continue to provide your
> services at your price, and not worry about those
> of us who want (the equivelant of) an open source
> solution for training. Or even better, you could
> use your income to give back to the community and
> release some introductory materials for free!

<reason style="type:clear;mindset:level-headed;">

Actually, we do just that. We also support open source development projects - see http://phpreactor.org/ for one example.

Now, I have no problem with open source training materials. I learn everything myself from the online documentation, which I get for free. My point, should you choose to accept it, was that there is a place in the Linux world for things which cost money, which was in direct response to the original poster's indignance that people actually wanted money for training materials.

And though we are "making money of the people who created the software," I feel we are doing our part to promote open source in a corporate world. When I started this job it was a microsoft shop. Since then, I have shifted the entire focus of the courseware to open source technologies, which in turn leads to their acceptance by our corporate clients.

</reason>

Linux User Groups

[rwash]

I am President of my University's Linux User Group. A good place to look is on various Linux User's Group's websites. I know my group gives a weekly talk on various topics related to Linux, Unix, etc. and we try to post the slides, etc. of all of our talks on our website. Check out http://cwrulug.cwru.edu/talks/

I also know of one or two other Linux Users Groups that do a similar thing. This is a wealth of information.

Netizen training materials

[srl]

You might want to check out the training materials put out by Netizen at http://bits.netizen.com.au/training/. They're more designed for 1-day classes and such, but you could use them for an overview talk with handouts or something. They're particularly strong in explaining what Perl is and why you might want to use it.

The Netizen training docs are under the Open Publications License, so they're both libre and free.

University class in Linux admin

[gbnewby]

I teach INLS 183, "Distributed Systems and Analysis." This is essentially a class in Linux administration, with an emphasis on software installation, configuration and management.

The homepage is http://ils.unc.edu/inls183.

Strictly speaking, the materials are copyrighted by me and UNC. But help yourself to anything useful, and feel free to ask if you want to make more extensive use.

• Greg

Here's a site you could try...

[Howard Roark]

Here is a site that might solve part of your problem:

linuxcommand.org
--
Howard Roark, Architect

Re:As BSD people say...

[johnnyb]

Actually, a lot of GPL software has _great_ documentation. The GCC manual has about 600 pages of great material, covering a lot of the compiler's internals. The GNOME project likewise has wonderful documentation, including Havoc's book. I don't see where you get the idea the GPL discourages documentation