[ale] Linux "course" at GT?

[Christopher S. Adams]

you calling bsd people oddballs? :)

Chris

----- Original Message -----
 From: Chris Ricker <kaboom at gatech.edu>
To: <ale at ale.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: [ale] Linux "course" at GT?


> On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, Rob Butera wrote:
>
> > When I am setting up or hanging out before class starts, it is
astounding
> > how often I hear students talking about Linux.  What surprises me even
more
> > is a lot of them talk about it, but not many seem to actually have taken
> > that leap to using it, despite its growing popularity.  I have seen
similar
> > situations in the GT bookstore: 2 students browsing the software,
looking at
> > a copy of Red Hat and saying "hey that's Linux. Someday I will get
around to
> > figuring that out."
>
> Actually, I suspect you're underestimating Linux usage at Tech.  People
who
> work with resnet (the GT housing ethernet) have been estimating Un*x usage
> among residents at 30% - 35% for the past two or three years.  That's
almost
> exclusively Linux, though there are the random oddballs running *BSD,
Irix,
> Solaris, NextStep, etc....
>
> > So my question to the GT (or GT affiliated) people on the list: has
anyone
> > offered an Intro to Linux course? Not a class credit course, but some
sort
> > of optional "extracurricular" night class (like the GT Edge program),
say
> > one night/week for 4 weeks, that eases someone into using Linux.  It
could
> > even begin (or end) with an installfest.
>
> Not that I know of.  There has been an attempt, from time to time, to have
a
> GT student LUG, but those have always been informal (eg, not officially
> chartered student organization) so far.  These student LUGs have had a few
> fairly successful installfests--my recollection is that they do one every
> drop day?  If you pop into git.unix.linux some time, that'd be the place
to
> find the people who were involved with that.
>
> I think Mike Kachline's point about one major barrier being the
> non-platform-neutral formatting of stuff by professors was a good one.  My
> undergrad was biology (molecular, class of '98), and there were a fair
> number of Linux users in my major, but all had to either dual-boot, have
> multiple machines, or use clusters / lab computers.  Sure, there may be
> times when it makes sense to demand excel 2000 files from your students,
but
> there are also times when it isn't really necessary--any old spreadsheet
> will do.
>
> In addition to a class, another thing which could help a lot:  GT has an
> "official" bundle of software for students.  You can get a Mac bundle, or
a
> Win bundle.  It's basically Maple, MS Office, Eudora, etc.--the standard
> five or ten programs all (non-management, anyway ;-) majors at Tech will
> require.  Constructing a similar bundle for Linux, either officially
through
> the bookstore (so you could include commercial packages like Maple and
> Mathematica) or unofficially, would probably be of some benefit.  If you
> know someone interested in doing this for an unofficial bundle of all the
> useful academic-oriented free software (WordPerfect, Lyx, StarOffice,
GIMP,
> octave, the GT thesis LaTeX file, etc.), have them get in touch with me
> privately.
>
> As a complementary notion, some schools have customized Linux installation
> discs--they just get, say, RH 6.0, add RPMs of WP, StarOffice, etc., set
up,
> say, Window Maker as the wm with all the useful apps on the menu and side
> toolbar, and then distribute that.
>
> later,
> chris
>
> --
> Chris Ricker
kaboom at gatech.edu
>
chris.ricker at genetics.utah.edu
>