LINUX NEWS
Resources & Links From www.CramSession.com
January 10, 2002
7,000 Subscribers WorldwideTABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean M’s Notes
2) Linux News
Misadventures in Linux
German SuSE Fans Can Breathe Easy
RedHat Now Shipping 7.2 for 64-bit Alpha and Itanium
Now THIS Sux0rz...
Chairman Mao to Chairman Gates: Get Lost3) Linux Resources
Pleasure and Pain
Casting PERLs Before Swine
I'm a Dirty Spammer
Practice Safe Hex4) App o’ the Week
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1) Sean’s Notes
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks nosing through my courseware for Sair Linux and GNU Level 1 Installation and Configuration (3x0-101). This course is intended for students wishing to challenge exam 3x0-101 which will earn you Sair Linux and GNU Certified Professional (LCP) status.
The first thing you notice when you open your courseware bundle is that it comes with a serious pile of software. My courseware came with the following Linux distributions:
- Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop v2.4
- Debian v2.2
- Mandrake v7.2
- Red Hat 7.0
- Slackware 7.1
- SuSE 7.0
- TurboLinux Server v6.0
When Sair advertises its certification as vendor neutral, they aren’t kidding. It’s nice to see all the major flavors of Linux getting a boost in the courseware (hint to CompTIA: you should consider the same approach with your shoddy A+ curriculum).
It’s worth noting that my courseware is a bit old (I really meant to get around to it sooner) and that the latest courseware will probably include newer distributions.
My approximately 400-page binder was divided into the following sections:
Certification Roadmap
Foreward
Knowledge Matrix
Module 1 History of Linux/Open Source Module 2 Linux Structure and Overview Module 3 Pre-Installation Issues Module 4 Using the X Window System Module 5 LILO and Dual Booting Module 6 Start Up and Shut Down Procedures Module 7 Getting Help Module 8 Basic System Navigation Module 9 The Shell Module 10 Basic Administration Module 11 Package Managers Module 12 Applications Module 13 Troubleshooting Appendix A Basic Commands Appendix B Questions and Answers Appendix C Glossary
The Good
Given that the target audience of this curriculum is basically the clueless newbie (yeah, that would be me), I’d have to say that the courseware does a very good job of taking complex topics and breaking them down to an understandable level. There is a good progression from one module to the next, and each lesson builds nicely on previous learning objectives.
While there’s no doubt that a live instructor would add a lot of value, this course actually stands on its own pretty well. I found that as I worked my way through it, I was learning at a good pace and continually expanding my abilities.
Even better, I found that most of the software labs in the courseware worked for me. Coming from the world of Microsoft Official Curriculum, I’d have to say that this is a rare and wonderful thing (if you think MS products are buggy, try its courseware). There was only one lab that I couldn’t get to work for love or money.
Finally, there are practice questions at the end of each module. While they’re a bit simplistic, they do a nice job of re-enforcing the material from the module.
The Bad
While I realize this course is aimed at beginners, there were a lot of instances where I wound up grinding my teeth. Some of the explanations at the beginning of each module are obviously aimed at those with NO experience at all, and I wound up skipping pages here and there to get to the meat of the subject.
Another complaint is that although the labs were very good, there just weren’t enough of them. The folks at Sair need to beef up the courseware a bit in this area.
The Ugly
Say what you want about Microsoft Office, but it does come with exceptionally good spelling and grammar checking functions. Whatever application version 2.0 of this courseware was authored in (EMACS?) apparently did not. There were some spelling and grammatical gaffes that bordered on the outrageous. (Note: I’m told that later versions of the courseware have addressed the problem.)
Overall Impression
For the most part I’d have to say that I’m extremely happy with this course. I learned more from it than I have from the many Linux books I’ve purchased, and it helped me complete and troubleshoot more installations than I ever have before. When combined with a knowledgeable instructor who can bring some real-world experience to the mix, I imagine this would be a killer course for Linux newbies like me.
If you’re a renegade Microsoftie like me looking to get your soul back, The Sair Linux and Configuration course is a great place to start.
Sean McCormick Recovering Microsoft User
2) Linux News
Misadventures in Linux
Thomas Green’s toil and tears with trying to install Linux on his “crap Presario laptop” paralleled my own with trying to get Mandrake up and running on my old Acer Travelmate 512T notebook. Do NOT read this if you’re drinking coffee as you’ll probably wind up shooting it out your nose during a laughing fit. (Note to the timid: there are bad words at the following URL.)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23565.html
German SuSE Fans Can Breathe Easy
A ridiculous injunction brought against SuSE in Germany temporarily prevented SuSE from selling or distributing their distro. Happily, the matter has been settled out of court and the injunction has been lifted.
http://www.suse.de/en/press/press_releases/archive01/injunction.htm l
RedHat Now Shipping 7.2 for 64-bit Alpha and Itanium
While I doubt I’ll get to slap this around for a while, those geeks lucky enough to have access to tastier hardware will probably be happy to hear this. I’m kind of glad to see this as I was getting worried about Linux becoming too dependent on x86 architecture.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8419396.html?tag=owv
Now THIS Sux0rz…
I’ve discovered that the absolute best way to get any television show off the air is to start watching it regularly. That being said, I’d just like to point out that I finally got up the courage to try installing Solaris on my beat up old PII 350 MHz last week. Can you guess where this is heading?
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0108sunintel.html
Chairman Mao to Chairman Gates: Get Lost
Red Flag Linux just opened up a big ol’ can of Whoop Ass on MS Windows in China if a recent report from Gartner is to be believed. It looks like the Beijing municipal government is serious about supporting local vendors and keeping Microsoft out. Of course, Windows is still widely used in China, but not by people who have actually paid for it…
http://www3.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd3604
3) Linux Resources
Pleasure and Pain
I’ve decided that I absolutely hate VI. It was designed from the ground up to be annoying and dang near impossible to use. Unfortunately, I’ve been arsing around with scripting and it looks like I’m going to have to learn to like VI if I ever want half of my scripts to work. I finally gave up on using the man pages and found a good tutorial on VI instead.
http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/tracs/vi.html
Casting PERLs Before Swine
I was on Yahoo! chatting with one of my friends the other night, and asked him for some good references for learning PERL. This was followed by a 15 minute lecture on why I really want to learn PhP instead of PERL, as PhP is totally friendly to morons (nice friends I have, eh?). He went on to recommend the following site which turns out to be pretty cool.
http://www.phpbeginner.com/
I’m a Dirty Spammer
But I swear it wasn’t on purpose! During a previous installation of Red Hat I decided to install just about every piece of software that came with my distro, including Sendmail. Big mistake! I clued into the fact a couple of hours later when I discovered that my Internet connection was red-lined and that my Linux box was churning away like crazy. I had inadvertently set up an open mail relay and it only took spammers a couple of hours to find it. Here’s the fix:
http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-2000-09/lw-09-geek_1.html
Practice Safe Hex
After my negative experience with a default configuration of Red Hat with Sendmail, I decided that I needed to get up to speed with other problems common to default installations. I found a ton of good advice on patching up the holes in my Linux boxes here:
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/
4) App o’ the week
It’s not Cool Edit 2000, but the Digital Audio Processor (DAP) for UNIX is not a bad piece of work when you consider that it’s free. If you like messing around with audio, you’ll probably want to add this proggie to your list of must haves.
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~richardk/
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