I've looked around and found that the majority of these types of courses/books tend to jump into the hard stuff far too early, so I've taken it upon myself (mostly for personal interest) to develop a Linux for Beginners/Linux for Home Users course (aimed at Adult Ed, perhaps).

One of the things that I intend on completely dropping is the ol' VI thing. I have gone into slightly more detail than perhaps I should below on my reason for dropping a vi tutorial.

Has anyone got any ideas on what could be covered, and equally as important, what you think should not be covered.

Any input would be great.

Thanks

-- End of message, stuff below is a long rant about why not to include a vi tutorial --

My opinion is that if this is aimed at the home user then they are unlikely to need/want to use vi. As far as I am aware, the usual arguments for including a brief tutorial of vi is:
a) the user may want to go on and edit configuration files on a remote server... ie they will progress quickly through to admin status;
b) the user may need to edit configuration files from a minimalist environment (such as runlevel 1) in order to get their system back to a usable state;
c) the user may be using Linux on a really low-end machine.

Now, my repost to both these arguments:
a) a course aimed at home users should not presume that the user will progress to admin status. That is the concern of admin books/courses;
b) there are many good 'rescue' environments around that can make use of your system to put you in a better environment (Knoppix, for example);
c) that is the choice of the user - most hardware in use these days is more than capable of using a slightly more home-user friendly editors.

OK, that's the end of my rant about vi. If you have any ideas or suggestions, then please post.

Cheers.

A tutor is a great idea - call it the'Linux survival guide'. Post install configuration & basic security are two most important topics on my list. Try & make it as distro independant as possible. Not only will this make it generally useful but more timeless as distro's come & go; the new state of play with Fedora/Red Hat is a good example.

You do need to be able to modify text files from the command prompt sometimes. I don't get on with vi myself, I'm lucky I guess as slackware includes the sublime 'Midnight Commander' which provides a simple console GUI for file handling & includes a great editor. Pico is a good choice for newbies.

Once again the swimming pools of life had been tainted by the incontinent toddlers of fate

Cheers. I was thinking about the whole editing files from a command prompt thing, and the only time I could come up with a genuine reason for an absolute beginner not using a GUI editor was because either a) they couldn't get into X, or b) they were editing the XF86Config file itself... but even b can be done in an X session, it's just not entirely advisable

Thanks for the thoughts on distro independance - I was thinking along the same lines... LPI seems to be a very good example of why distro-specific methods are good.

Cheers again, and keep 'em coming!

From my own very limited experience, configuring the system so that all the hardware does its stuff would be a priority. OK, this could be nothing more than a case of RTFM, but someone else has posted about getting an ADSL modem up and running, which I would be particularly interested in (no support found for mine yet ) and maybe getting a bit more than 2 channel sound from a soundcard which will quite happily do better under Bill Gates' finest. My graphics card is so far rather patchily supported, although there is a generic driver(?) on the chipset mfr's web site. How, as an example, does adding that work for someone who has only been used to installing Windows drivers?

I know I can replace the internal modem with an OS-neutral modem/router and NIC and maybe replace the sound and graphics with more mainsream products, but if I have grasped the point about Linux at all, surely that's not it?

This is my moan! Upto date hardware detected and configured fairly easily with Suse, but essential software apps are a pain in the backside to configure without a knowlege of config file hacking. Your really back in the days of DOS when you try to hack a config file to make your software run properly. I agree, it's all in the manuals and howto's, but it is still a trawl. You've only got to look at the Linux newbie forums to see all the questions from the desperate users out there who want an alternative to Microsoft.

Erm, ok, thanks... are you suggesting that I have a part specifically on how not to get frightened by config file hacking?


Oh, and just a note: Config file hacking is only scary if you see it as complicated. If all the same options were presented to you in a nice GUI with dropdown boxes and the like, would it be any less complicated? Remember, there would be the same number of options, just presented differently. I agree that it can be daunting for the newbie, but it needn't be. It is almost a pure mindset thing: "if I can't do it in a GUI then it must be hard to do". Think of the sheer number of options you could change in your favourite peer2peer/filesharing programme. Do you feel overly daunted by opening up the 'preferences' dialogue window?



The above rant is not intended to be a point of debate. This thread was created to kick about some ideas on what would be good to include/exclude from an Intro2Linux course, and as such I would very much appreciate it if it would stay on topic. Thank you.

I can point and click, or I can type!

If I did just buy a modem/router and the latest Suse/Mandrake/Red Hat did it all for me that would be great, but it goes against the whole "getting under the bonnet" business, which is the same thing that attracted me to working on old motorbikes and more recently building my own computers.

If I can strip and rebuild a old BSA engine (and do a discreet tuning job while I'm at it), or build a PC and get it to work satisfactorily I should be up for configuring my own system, but just as I have retreated from the cold garage into the slightly warmer lounge to play with computers, I have retreated into M$'s warm, suffocating embrace and I don't want to get cold again... Fortunately I'm intrigued enough by friendly-guy's sucesses with Slackware to be reaching for my coat once more!

I included post install configuration as a must for a newbies guide because it is *easy* when you know *how*. I find it much easier to install & configure slackware than I did re-installing windows 98 on my wifes computer.
A good beginners course should remove the obstacles so that Linux will be a pleasure. The ultimate goal should be a stable, well configured machine that does not impede its user in their chosen tasks.
This stability & reliability is where Linux shines.

Once again the swimming pools of life had been tainted by the incontinent toddlers of fate