[Techtalk] New to the list...new to linux

[Rachel Herold]

I thught I would jump in here and give my opininos on the questions asked
below.  Yes, if there was a simple guide available it would be cool, but how
to design it...
My thoughts embedded below.
Rachel
..another brand new unix user
----- Original Message -----
From: "Magni Onsoien" <magnio+lc-techtalk at pvv.ntnu.no>


> So, a challenge to you: how should materials be presented to YOU in
> order for you to understand it, besides being told exactly what to do?

1.
I think tactile learning works best for quite a few people.  installing SuSe
taught me quite a bit.  I also found an on-line sysadmin "teaching" site
that though I dind't understand it when I read it thru the first couple
times it was much clearer when I started the install and messing around with
setting it up.
MY first article would be to list, if there are such differences, versions
of unix/linux with good install programs (SuSe has YaST that is very newbie
friendly) and some lists of online sysadmin (teaching) sites.  I've been
using http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/usail/ as it has a decent basic theory
section and the more involved sysadmin section.

2.
I still believe in tactile learning and would love to get on the system and
poke around but if I am a brand new user I don't know the basic commands.
How do I list my files?  How do I find the man pages?  Basic user commands
are very difficult (or were for me) to find on the net. I would love a guide
that lists maybe 10 of the most basic commands.  ls, cd, man, with the most
basic, say maybe 2 or 3, attributes.  So, -l with ls, and isn't there a
command something like "more" that you can use with ls to present one page
of files at a time?  stuff like that so a new user can start exploring their
new system.
(note: I installed SuSe by myself, found my files, found my man pages for
"ls" but they were all in german! ack!  talking with other people this is
apparently common because SuSe is a german version of linux and there is a
command to change the option there, yes, the OS was installed in English,
it's just the man pages that are in german.  So if there are wierd things
like that that are potentially fatal to the learning process it might be
nice to put in a note about how/where to find the solution for that)

3.
Once I've got a handle on the system, or feel that I do, then I am ready to
start reading books and finding more.  Since I then feel that I have
something to build on.  This is where I'd love to see a list of books with
maybe a short line of who there intended audience is.  I assume that some
books are targeted towards window's sysadmins while others may be targeted
to grandma pearl who's never had a computer in her life, while others,
probably most, may be targeted to your general windows or mac accomplished
to super-user.
That is where I would go to learn how to copy 3 files instead of just two
files.

> Then the challenge: how should materials be presented? What's wrong with
> today's presentation? Is it too complicated, even when explaining the
> most simple things, is the progression to big, isn't there any
> progression at all? Where do you look for files, are you afraid of doing
> something wrong, to break something, where do you look for documentation,
> what is the logical way for you to do things?

see above for my preferred order of materials.  as to how, I like the
personality of the author to show thru, but that is not always possible I
suppose.
Complicated.. if you're used to point and click then the command line with
36 letters and symbols can be intimidating.  How about writing out a command
line then taking each individual piece and very shortly explaining that
piece, with a note to see pg. whatever for further info or a note to look up
"ls in the man pages for further info" or some such if needed.
This not only teaches a new user what the basics are but also teaches them,
possibly unawares, where to go for more knowledge so when they have further
questions they will have an idea of where to find the info.
files- for me, it's more a matter of "what do I do with it?"  I would love
to get my modem set up but to do so I have to figure out if my modem is
supported.  There are not any driver files up on my modem's support site.
Does linux need certain drivers like windows does?  I don't know, I haven't
found that information yet anywhere.  Once my modem is set up I'd like to do
web-browsing so I could do my study on the system I'm studying, instead of
having to boot into windows and doing my studying there.  So no, it's not
really that I'm afraid to use it, it's that there are parts that I haven't
figured out how to do yet so have difficulty using it like I'd like to.