I disagree- the command line is not necessarily a poor choice for an introduction to Linux, it's just tricky to introduce properly. See this account of an instructor who introduced his students to the command line with great success: http://www.osnews.com/story/6282/The_Command_Line_-_The_Best_Newbie_Interface_/page1/

-Brian

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Daniel Marcus < danielm.nc @ gmail.com > wrote:

It's a terrible introduction.

I hate to say it, but if you want someone to consider Linux as a serious option, they need to learn the basics of the GRAPHICAL INTERFACE first, for the simple fact that if they think Linux is just this command-line thing, they see no point in learning any more about it. After all, DOS could do that two decades ago.

The command line is important to learn once you are ready to move past point.... click.... move.... point.... click... but if we try to introduce Linux by saying "hey, let's learn the command line..." it will hardly be effective. If my teacher had tried to teach me Linux like that back in high school, I would never be using it today. He was smart. He taught us DOS first, requiring us all to make boot disks. Then, he gave me some Linux CD's and said "it's free, think you can install it?".

Sorry... I'm tired... and that e115 curriculum has given Linux such a bad name to so many people.


Positively,
Daniel S. Marcus
Omni Impact Small Business Services
Phone: (XXX) 926 9624
Business: daniel@omniimpact.[redacted]
Personal: daniel@d-site.[redacted]
Website: http://omniimpact.com

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 3:28 PM, Ed Anderson < nilbus@gmail.[redacted] > wrote:

http://courses.ncsu.edu/e115
Home page

On Aug 31, 2009, at 3:24 PM, Alexander Ray < alexjray.ncsu@gmail.[redacted] > wrote:

Is the E 115 handbook online?  (As engineering students) I think that
was *supposed* to be our introduction.  It may have been a bit lacking
though...
~AlexR

2009/8/10 Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] >:

Folks,

I'm trying to pull together some online HOWTOs and articles as well as
relevant books to help system admins get up and running with Linux/UNIX.

I always have requests for this kind of info, especially stuff for folks
that have no un*x experience.  So this needs to start off at basic
terminal commands.  Below is what I whipped up on the spur of the
moment.  I thought it would be a good discussion topic and that you
folks might know of some good articles/books that I should include.

I plan on getting this up on the CLS Wiki at some point as well.

Jack

----- Forwarded message from Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] > -----

Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 17:04:47 -0400
From: Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] >
To:
Subject: Linux/UNIX Intro Material

Guys,

I have some pointers to some various things that might help you guys get
started in the Linux/UNIX world:

Intro to Linux:
http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

Linux Systems Administrator's Guide:
http://tldp.org/LDP/sag/html/index.html

Red Hat's Intro to System Administration:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/Introduction_To_System_Administration_/

Books:

Linux in a Nutshell:
http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Nutshell-5th-Ellen-Siever/dp/0596009305/ref=ed_oe_p

Linux Administration Handbook: (I have this in my office.)
http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Administration-Handbook-2nd-Nemeth/dp/0131480049/ref=pd_sim_b_12

Practice of System and Network Administration (I have this as well,
although its mostly theory):
http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-2nd/dp/0321492668/ref=pd_sim_b_2

HTH,
Jack Neely
--
Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] >
Linux Czar, OIT Campus Linux Services
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
GPG Fingerprint: 1917 5AC1 E828 9337 7AA4  EA6B 213B 765F 3B6A 5B89

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] >
Linux Czar, OIT Campus Linux Services
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
GPG Fingerprint: 1917 5AC1 E828 9337 7AA4  EA6B 213B 765F 3B6A 5B89