Linux course and NEU (eg. Northeastern)

[vince_mchugh at yahoo.com (Vince McHugh)]

--- Bill Bogstad <bogstad at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
> >I found out tonight that the Linux on the Desktop
> course at NEU was
> >unstaffed but had some students registered, so I
> signed up to teach it. 
> >....
> >In light of the Linux on the Desktop, I'd like to
> elicit some ideas on
> >how to set up an 11 week syllabus. In the past,
> I've taught courses that
> >already had some previous syllabus, but on this
> one, I may need to
> >develop from scratch. 
> 
> Was there ever a description of the course or did
> people sign up for it
> based solely on the title?  What to teach really
> depends on whether the
> students expect to learn how to manage a bunch of
> Linux desktops or how
> to use a Linux desktop.  The first type of student
> should probably be
> told how to network install systems, use rsync to
> update machines, etc.
> 
> The second type probably should be taught about KDE
> and/or GNOME, maybe
> how to do based sysadmin using the GUI tools, how to
> use OpenOffice (or
> some other replacement), (maybe) GNUcash etc.  Yeah,
> I know that the
> command line is great.  OTOH, my father-in-law has
> been using Linux for
> about a year now and hardly every uses the command
> line.  He uses
> Mozilla, Evolution, Abiword, etc.  The simple truth
> is that most people
> prefer GUIs.  I think no more then one or two
> lectures should be on
> anything related to the command line.

   The $0.02 that I would add is that you should teach
a segment on "Printing"! If Linux is going to conquer
the Desktop both the Admins and the Users must be able
to print. You should touch on both LPRng and CUPS,
printing from Command line and from GUI Apps.

    For users maybe a simple parallel printing set up
to a vanilla HP printer using the GUI. Foe Admins
Network and local printing, command line and GUI
tools, CUPS and LPRng.

    Printing is essential to The Linux Desktop (any
desktop). Just try to leave your average user unable
to print and see how clear that they make this point
to their Sys Admin.


=====
.           Regards,       
          Vince McHugh
     Systems Support Manager
          NECS\Canon

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