What Should be Included in a Linux Crash Course?

Olivier Van Acker asks: "Since I started working at my current job a year ago I've installed on average one (Gentoo) Linux machine a month. Included are developer desktop machines, development servers, router/firewall, web servers, video server, MPEG encoders, etc. (It's a platform for interactive television). Since I'm the only one who is able to maintain them I want to train two of my colleagues. I've got three days dedicated time, three computers to work with and they are both Linux/Open source newbies (A technician and a programmer). What should this crash course include, what is the best learning method and what resources are available online?" "My background: I'm a programmer, a systems engineer and I used to give IT training. I have been using Unix-based operating systems since 1995.

My list so far:

Linux system Installation

Software installation

General Linux system administration

Network administration

Web server configuration

Database administration

Video server administration

History of Unix and Linux

Philosophy of open source software"

Comments

Automated installs, packaging managers

[SgtChaireBourne]

Are you covering desktop machines or mostly servers?

Either way, show them how to make a kickstart disk or other ways to automate a custom installation.

Packaging managers are a must. Whether it's dpkg or rpm or yast, show them the different tricks and options. Also, if show how to roll a custom package, but choose one of the simpler ones.

For servers, cover iptables, tcpwrappers, inetd/xinetd, sshd, sudo and apache. System log file analysis is another must.

For desktop machines, cover KDE/Fluxbox/Gnome. Kiosk mode might be useful for some parts of your work environment.