Network mouse??
Yeah, I've found Ubuntu to be much improved. Maybe go with 10.04 LTS, which is still available (no Unity interface).
Posted on 03/19/2012 7:37:40 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Linux. It’s really not a hard operating system to learn. In fact, that very first statement is wrong. Linux is not an operating system. Linux is a kernel which is used as the very core to build an operating system around. But these are the things that children of today are not learning. Not in public school systems anyway.
When I was a teenager, I was very interested in computers. I looked forward to and really enjoyed my Information Technology classes. But it wasn’t just the computers that I was interested. The more I got involved with them, the more I wanted to know about what goes on to make them work. Or to be precise, the operating system.
It’s a long time ago now, but I remember when I was talking to my teacher one day he briefly said something about Unix. A term that I had never heard until then. But after that one time, nothing more was ever mentioned. At the time, I really didn’t know anything about it. But I was intrigued of what this ‘Unix’ could be. It was some years later before I got my first glimpse of anything to do with Linux-The accepted modern alternative to Unix. My first encounter with Linux was SUSE 8, which came free on a magazine at the time. I might mention, the magazine was not actually meant to be giving the OS away on the front cover as they were. But anyway, that’s a story for another day. But ever since my first experience with SUSE 8, I never let go of Linux and have always been involved with it in one form another.
Now as you all know and are well aware, Windows is basically the only operating system taught in our public schools these days. I understand that Windows is the industry standard and I can accept that. But I don’t believe teaching children how to use Windows, solely, is the way forward to a positive IT future. Or if Linux even got a mention, it would be progress. My high school years were well into 15 years ago and it is now 2012 and nothing has changed. Public schools are still teaching children Windows and (unintentionally) presenting it as the only operating system you’ll ever need to learn and use.
There arises many issues and setbacks with the aforementioned. One of the primary reasons, being the IT teachers themselves having no concept of how to use Linux or even being aware of it. There are many issues from many different angles.
We are very lucky in some ways that we live in a world of fast broadband access where anyone can download and install Linux for free. When I was in high school, a 56k dial-up internet connection was a true privilege and there was only one computer in the whole school that had internet access. I’m probably still on that list to use that computer as the list was always a mile long.
But all my 10 years Linux experience that I have today has all been self-taught. I have put myself through free courses and done plenty of tinkering, configuring and certainly my fair share of breaking systems. And my wife yelling at me because I’ve broken the computer once again! And that continues to this day. Why? Because Linux offer endless learning capabilities. And despite being a 10 year Linux user, I am still learning things on Linux on a daily basis and still intentionally break things to see how they work in detail. In fact, I am currently experimenting with Arch Linux. A very different experience from the usual mainstream Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora. But that is my point. There’s endless possibilities of learning when it comes to Linux. And perhaps that’s the problem when it comes to public schools and teaching Linux. It is such a large scale eco-system with so many different facets, where would one begin to teach. I see that as an excuse for not teaching it. And not a valid reason. Because even giving children a glimpse of Linux in their high school studies will no doubt have a flow-on effect to further private studies and courses.
Linux must be taught to future high school students. Otherwise we are going to experience a severe shortage of knowledgeable Linux administrators in the near future. We are already seeing the first signs of this problem. And unless we start arming the young nerds of today with the knowledge they require to make up their own mind, we are going to have problems. If things don’t change soon, I can only hope that today’s students come out of schooling as open-minded as I did and choose to at least give Linux a try and see for themselves the true raw power of free and open-source computing that is modern Unix, Linux.
When I learned LISP (does that even still exist?) in college, the % was key to finding the matching parentheses. I seem to recall using it often at work when my C nesting got a bit out of control, as well :)
I always thought it was like alchemy, pounding on lead trying to make gold. You never got very far but it did build character. You learned how to deal with frustration, disappointment and failure. Success was fleeting but the small rewards were appreciated.
No kidding. My “first” computer was half a building.
If you haven’t dropped a tray of cards, you haven’t lived.
Internet....ha ha ha ha
“Only Microsoft knows how to make the computers of the last 15 years or thereabouts look slow.”
I’m an old timer, computer wise.
I’ve messed around with Linux from the time where the install was near torture, to now, when it’s almost painless.
Windows is brutal at times, and packed with mistakes. I can see the huge task that Windows is for Microsoft, given the need for usability for novices, backward compatibility, and device support. Windows 7 is fairly impressive. One day they may get it right!
Remember also that the present Apple OS system is run on a unix system, OS X, in all the various wild cats versions.
Played around with Linux (Ubuntu, Mint) a few years ago. Gave up pretty quickly due to its inability to easily detect network settings and wireless routers. Also, the need to use command line instructions to install some software was ridiculous.
Has that changed? If I had an old PC, I might give it another look. But my Windows 7 machines run well, and I can’t see a reason for changing.
“Only Microsoft knows how to make the computers of the last 15 years or thereabouts look slow.”
That is by design and agreement with Intel. Intel gives tons of money to developers of slow software (CPU intensive). They call it taking adInstead of square corners on frames and windows, use curved, instead of solid opaque use transparent. (Aero anyone?) All of this costs cycles. When was the last time you heard of someone optimizing code for a general purpose program? Look at the slow Visual Studio. It is full of neat tricks and whiz-bang programmer assists...all of which takes tons of disk and cpu cycles.
The problem MS and Intel face today is the proliferation of alternatives to their strategic alliance of the 90’s. It used to be everyone waited with baited breathe for the next great CPU so your computer would be faster. Today...well I don’t even know what or when the next processor is coming and neither do 90+% of all users....whereas a decade ago a much larger percentage knew and cared what Mhz or Ghz they had.
With cloud computing, most used apps being at least partially web based, the speed of the connection or the server farm tends to be more important than your laptop/desktop/handheld.
It will be interesting to see where we will be in the next decade.
A co-worker and I just had this very conversation because of a question posed at a User Group meeting. It really boiled down to getting students at the HS and College level more Unix/Linux exposure. I really think that Unix/Linux has been the bedrock of a 24/7 business operation forever (in computer terms) and it is a crying shame it isn’t being taught more in academia.
We were also talking about all this because the database we use that runs on AIX is called Universe and it is a very solid and fast/flexible database that needs more exposure in academia in order to make a run at a larger market share.
What ends up happening is that the “new generation” business leaders are easily swayed by the “new shiny object” and do not give system stability enough weight not realizing the cost of downtime at all levels.
The End User Keyclick.
Linux is just as vulnerable to "click here for your malware embedded e-card/tax return/bank warning/cute puppy" type attacks. For that reason, even Linux users should still run a scanner.
Also, depending on driver support for your hardware, Linux can be "klunky" too. Win 7/8 run a lot better than their predecessors. OSX Snow Leopard/Lion run well on newer hardware, but bog out older Intel iMacs.
Too bad Mac's idiotic EFI won't let me drop Linux on those old Intel XServs. Even with rEFIt on it. The hardware would be perfect for running a VM cluster.
“Has that changed? If I had an old PC, I might give it another look. But my Windows 7 machines run well, and I can’t see a reason for changing.”
Very much. You can make a bootable cd of ubuntu, fire it up, see if you like it. It won’t touch your hard drive. Then, you can install it if you like it.
An even more fun and painless option is to get VirtualBox and install the distribution of your choice in a virtual machine.
These are products. Might as well advocate teaching kids to drive various cars or to learn to use different toasters.
VBox works great on a Win 7 machine. I’ve been using it to go through a bunch of Linux distros and seeing how far I can tweak them before they break.
Even worked well for a Win 8 test virtual machine. I was surprised it ran so well. I still hate the new interface in 8, but it ran really smoothly.
The majority of Desktops are still Windows and those that support them don't require Unix experience. Desktop support is typically a good percentage of IT departments.
The majority of Desktops are still Windows and those that support them don't require Unix experience. Desktop support is typically a good percentage of IT departments.
I installed Xubuntu on this Thinkpad 390E PII300, 256mb ram a few years ago replacing Win 2000 , it installs and updates(every day) like windows, it found all my hardware ,I don’t use an anti virus, runs great. It has a software centre Where I can click and install tons of free software. Linux is now a geeks OS anymore .
ee used here...noob on FreeBSD,but making progress
Arch is simple by comparison
Network mouse??
Yeah, I've found Ubuntu to be much improved. Maybe go with 10.04 LTS, which is still available (no Unity interface).
A knowledge of Linux or Unix will also be helpful if you use OSX (Apple Mac), which is itself, a Unix derivative.
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