[techtalk] request for ideas

[Samantha Jo Moore]

> >>All suggestions, comments, ideas are appreciated.  

What I have discovered in my encounters with non-unix people is the lack of
understanding of how things really work.  Something explaining how it's put
together and how it really works would greatly enhance a person's understanding
of the big picture.   

For example:  ME: "You have to mount the disk before you can read it."  
HE:  "Huh?  Mount?  What is mount?  It's already in the drive!"

What I see in most of these people is that they really don't have a clue of
what's going on behind the scenes.  Telling somebody how to mount a disk will 
do no good if they have no idea what "mounting" is.  Analogously, people have 
a hard time installing Linux because they are confronted right out front with 
a partitioning scheme.  People need to understand what a partition is and
what it is for.

"Why do I need partitions?  Won't Linux format the drive automagically?  How 
do I access drive D:?"

A lot of new concepts are thrown in the face of the new Linux user without
any introduction and the user has no idea what to do.  What we need to realize
is that anybody who installs an OS on a machine automatically becomes a 
system administrator and without the proper background things are destined
for catastrophe.

"Recompile the kernel?  I don't want popcorn right now!"  
"The scheduler?  My calendar thingy on my Palm Pilot is good enough for me!"
"Cron?  Oh, you mean Tron, the guy that lived inside the computer!"  
"Why do I need a driver?  I can drive, as long as it's an automatic."

In summary, I think that a good intro to Linux should also contain a good,
hopefully illustrated, intro to some of the concepts that are taken for 
granted by people that don't deal with system admin issues, mostly system
architecture, and a more in-depth look at how things work.  

"Daemons!  Oh no!  We gotta spray it with Holy Water!  Quick!"
"PPP?  Can I connect to AOL with it?"

I would be willing to contribute with something.  What is it that you 
need?

Samantha Jo Moore
CTO - The Tahoe Group, Inc.
http://www.thetahoegroup.com
sjmoore at thetahoegroup.com




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