Re: [seul-edu] First day on Linux Class

[Emilio Gerardo Milian <egmilian@gene.com>]

Report for the first meeting of the Linux class at South San Francisco
Adult Education.
Thanks to Matt G. from Red Hat for his help in installing RH 6.2 on the
school's computers.
FYI: The class web pages are on the web at:
http://www.smcoe.k12.ca.us/ssfusd/as/linux/linux1.html
Remember this is a Windows NT class to which I am introducing Linux for
the first time.
Emilio

Hello Students:

There were 25 students present.
Well, yesterday we tried twice to install Linux over the network to
multiple computers simulateneously, but
the video driver got corrupted and the install was stopped.  We then
tried to do a regular install DIRECT from the CD and that worked, so we
got one more PC with LINUX installed now.  It has a dual boot, Windows
and Linux partitions.  Thanks to Matt G from Red Hat for his help in
getting Linux
installed on those computers. Matt also had installed Linux on the 3
PC's that I brought, which I will bring back next week for your use.

Next week I will come over early and install it on more PC's in the
classroom.  If you come early, say about 5:45 pm next Thursday you can
get some experience by installing Linux on the other PC's.

Red Hat donated Getting Started Guides and the Users reference manual
for Red Hat Linux for each of the students.
For next week we will cover the chapters in the book , page by page, to
be sure that you become acquainted with navigating the Linux desktop.
Please refer to the Red Hat "Getting Started" manual that was handed out
to everyone that came to class. The manuals are also available on the
CD's under a folder called doc. They are in HTML format so you can read
them with any browser. (Of course, you will need a PC with a cd drive to
read it)

Everyone had a chance to make a copy of the Red Hat boot floppy from the
image on the CD. You need to use the command "rawrite" under DOS. Please
bring it next week for the install on the other PC's.

A hand count showed that 6 students have already installed Linux on
their PC at home. If you follow the instructions for a regular CD
install, Linux should recognize most of your devices, and if you copied
the device settings from Windows you can add the others so that it works
under Linux. If you are using Win NT, you can get the device settings
under the NT DIAGNOSTICS.

I expect that the Red Hat 6.2 CD's that I ordered will be here early
next week so I will hand them out to the students that have paid for the
class. (Not to visitors or extra copies for your friends.) 
Please note that Linux is "open source" and under the terms of the
copyleft you can copy it and give copies to your friends. You can
install the Red Hat lINUX version 6.1 that you have and then upgrade to
RH 6.2 next week.

Again, I wish to emphasize that in 4 weeks we will only scratch the
surface regarding the learning of Linux, you must signup for the ON-Line
course which has 16 lessons in order to learn more about it. Refer to
the links on the class web pages for your guidance:
http://www.smcoe.k12.ca.us/ssfusd/as/linux/linux1.html

If you would like to buy the book, it is available at the San Bruno
COMPUSA store, id does not have the Linux CD's, but I have handed the
CD's out to you.

The user called "Administrator" under Win NT is called root under
Linux.  The Linux root user has all the power to make any changes to the
operating system, so you are a very powerful person, and you get to
decide what rights to give to other users.  When installing Linux, you
will get a chance to add computer users so take this opportunity and
create an account for yourself in addition to the root account. (Of
course, you need to specify a password for each user, don't forget the
passwords) The password for the classroom root user is "letmein".
You should not use the PC as a root user unless you are doing some sysop
work. For regular work, login as a regular user not root.

The next step after you have LINUX installed is to install LINUX
applications.  You can freely download the STAR OFFICE suite from Sun
Computers at: http://www.sun.com/software/shop/
it is about 52 Megabytes so unless you have a fast T1 connection, expect
to take 10 or more hours to download from home. (No, you cannot use
WINDOWS applications under Linux, unless you run an emulation software)

You can buy Wordperfect for Linux at COMPUSA for about $30 or the
Applixware Linux Office Suite package.

Linux already comes with Netscape and to connect to the internet, you
need to configure the modem and your ISP settings.  This is a free ISP
for Linux: http://www.freewwweb.com/pricing/pricmain.html

While you are at Compusa, get a good Linux command reference book.

Let's continue to have fun while we learn, see you next week for the
next exciting chapter!!!

Here is a web page with more information about Linux, I suggest to
bookmark it for future reference.

Emilio

http://linux.nf/stepbystep.htm
http://linux.nf/child2.html