GNU/Linux for Windows Users

The And Bytes Computer Club is holding a series of workshops on Linux for Windows Users. These are notes for a potential curriculum.

Goals

• To get people familiar enough with Linux to use it as their every-day operating system
• To instill a degree of self-sufficiency
  • Each participant should acquire permanent skills to perform daily tasks such as
    • Browsing the Web
    • Reading and sending e-mail
    • Creating written documents
    • Creating a greeting card
  • Each participant should have sufficient knowledge to
    • Acquire additional software
    • Recognize when something isn't working correctly
    • Know where to turn for answers
    • ...but not necessarily apply the fixes
  • Each participant should experience these skills (but it's OK if these skills are not retained past the course)
    • Creation of bootable media (DVD or USB)
    • Installation of Linux
    • Set up a printer
    • Configuring desktop appearance
    • Traversing the file system (/home, /var/log, /etc )
    • Use a terminal and run commands (ls, lsblk, top)
• To understand the culture of Linux, Free Software, and the community (or at least be exposed to it)

It is not a goal to understand Linux at any deeper level than "I turn on my computer and get work done". If we get into file systems, mount points, load averages and shell scripting we've gone off-track.

Challenges

We're deeply technical geeks. We'd like nothing better than to instill that knowledge and reverence for Linux in our disciples. We live for pedantry and arcana. We don't understand people who consider computers as just another tool, and who just want to get on with it.

Buying a computer with a pre-packaged operating system is easy. Converting your computer from something you know to something you-don't-even-know-if-you-want-it is difficult. Unfortunately, the most difficult parts about learning a new operating system (the installation and configuration) occur at the beginning, when people have the least familiarity the things they're installing. While it would be convenient for the instructors to do all the preparation ahead of time, that would deprive the participants of a valuable learning experience. It's good for people to see the complexity under the hood, because they will be less likely to believe that it's their fault for not understanding Linux. Sometimes, learning a new skill seems difficult because it is difficult, and there is all the more satisfaction in mastering that skill knowing how difficult it really was.

I (Bob Jonkman) am willing to perform Linux pre-installations
for people who don't want to sit through the sessions of creating
a bootable USB key or the Linux installfest.  For $75 per computer
I wil set up Linux as a dual-boot system, so that people can start
the course with Lesson 3.