Posted on 03/19/2012 7:37:40 AM PDT by ShadowAce
It’s not really that different. All OSes have basically the same stuff they’re trying to do: organize files, apply security, give applications access to the hardware, manage memory. And there’s still stuff to be done in Windows on the command line, just solved an issue on the MILs Windows 7 box from the command line last week.
That would be 110 baud! Most acoustic modems could do up to 300 baud though. But for real fun - 029 Keypunch or 110 baud with a KSR28!
Writing this on a laptop running Fedora Verne; the kiddos run Fedora as well, even the youngest. We homeschool, though. It's very simple: Start teaching command line stuff as needed, and before you know it, you child knows more than you do :)
To be fair, comparatively few people understand the basic rules of grammar these days. Somewhere in the rush to push kids into science and math, we forgot how important it is to be able to communicate.
People balk at Linux for the same reason they’re afraid to use no-contract cell phone service: fear of change and belief of the misinformation they’re fed. Unless we can change human nature, Linux will remain a tool for geeks and the odd free thinker.
Sorry.
Not ready for prime-time.
Nothing like typing in
MAN RENAME
and then having to decipher twelve pages of rubbish.
That’s if you’re lucky and it’s ONLY 12 pages!!
Define "NEED". We didn't "need" to go to the moon or invent cures for diseases, strictly speaking, but we did because we have a desire for innovation and excellence.
Windows is the minimum. It's the floor, the bottom.
If we want to produce engineers and scientists, we need to teach Linux. Students need to know how their computers work and how to manipulate them.
If we want to produce critical thinkers, we should encourage the use of operating systems which require critical thinking and problem solving.
Nah - Sentence Number 1 is a true statement - more accurately, The Linux GUI is not a hard thing to learn.
Sentence number 2 is merely an indicator that the author is a follower of Richard Stallman who got apoplectic about the fact that HIS BABY got renamed, and he didn’t get all the credit.
For the record - from someone who has been using Linux since BEFORE the SLS distribution - Linux is both the Kernel AND the collection of tools on top of it that make it a useable computing environment...it’s not gnu/linux.
As for the original article’s point. Uhm - he forgot that most schools are actually Apple territory! And now-a-days that is Unix too!
How about Lubuntu?
The ELISP variant of LISP is used to customize EMACS and Xemacs and I use it a fair amount.
I actually answered that question in the very next sentence, perhaps you should have read the entire post.
Students DO NOT need to know how their computer works. You’re in the old pre-appliance thinking, we’re in the appliance age of computing. The computer is just a tool people put data into and get data out of, the average person doesn’t need to know how they work anymore than the average person knows how microwaves, florescent lights or the internal combustion engine work. They need to know how to USE it, but you don’t need to know what’s behind the buttons to use something.
Not teaching OSes that the students will almost certainly not encounter in adulthood isn’t preventing critical thinkers. If they want to go learn other OSes they can, nobody is stopping them, and you don’t need to know ANY OS at all to be a critical thinker. It’s just an OS, not a religion, in spite of what some Nix-weenies and Mac-heads want you to think.
God, we sound like old guys sitting on the front porch. My career has 15 more years. Talk about a business that has just grown like a damned weed.
Well, that was a waste of time and a DVD. I downloaded Ubuntu 10.04.04 and burned it to a DVD on my main Dell laptop. At reboot, it recognized my wireless card. But, I’d want to run it on my Toshiba which is about 6 mos newer than the Dell, and still in warranty.
I booted the disc on the Toshiba. It does not recognize my wireless card, a Realtek RTL8188CE, 802.11n PCI-E NIC.
I’m now downloading Mint and will put that on a stick, so if it doesn’t recognize the card as well, I’ll not be out another DVD.
This is what I meant in my remarks about Linux.
Kermit forever!
>>>Driver’s ed teaches only how to (hopefully) safely operate the car;little or nothing is taught of what goes on under the hood.
This analogy doesn’t fit: there are two types of computer classes. One for the majority of students who just want to learn Microsoft Word, etc. (the one that fits your analogy). And another group of eager students who want to learn to program and hot rod their own game computers (the case that doesn’t fit your analogy). For this second group (any programming class) should learn how an operating system works under the covers.
I’m now downloading Mint and will put that on a stick, so if it doesn’t recognize the card as well, I’ll not be out another DVD.
This is what I meant in my remarks about Linux.
Generally speaking, you'll want to look up wireless network cards to determine if they are supported by the distro you want to use. Wireless network cards are problematic because some manufacturers of the wireless chipsets are very unhelfpful to the Linux developers who maintain and develop drivers for them.
I'd put the fault on the manufacturer rather than the Linux developers. I don't buy stuff that's not supported. I figure its best to vote with my dollars.
You probably also want to use Google, as it can really be your friend in such things. From the first link on a google search of "Linux Realtek RTL8188CE", you'll find this...
Both the windows and Ubuntu drivers are at:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...true#RTL8188CE
A little further down the page is this...
After some trial following instructions on this post this is what worked for me:
1) Go to Rhttp://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...true#RTL8188CE and download the tar.gz file
2) open terminal and do 'sudo apt-get install build-essential'
3) Follow the readme file's instructions:
When I logged in again I was on WiFi....
- sudo su
- make
- make install
- reboot
Give PCLinuxOS a try. I had no experience in Linux when I began experimenting with a number of distros last year. PCLinuxOS was the most user-friendly for me. I installed it on six computers — three desktops and three laptops. No connectivity issues with any of the installs.
They have a good support forum also for newbie questions.
But I AM an old guy sitting on the front porch!
The analogy works, because most schools (or school systems; it's not at every campus) also have classes in auto repair. The basic class teaches a basic life skill that everyone should have, the advanced class a job skill that some students may wish to pursue.
Yes, and all those appliances are built by elves. Certainly not by people who were in high school years ago. And the future of those "appliances" certainly won't be built and coded by people who are in high school now.
Besides, it's not like the next generation of code hackers won't be there if they don't learn it in American high schools. They're learning it in Korean, Chinese, Indian and Japanese (and even Russian) high schools.
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