Helping Students and Linux

any advice would do

[iconpomona]

Well I currently run a windows server 2003 and my license is out of date. And so i am tryingt o switch to linux. Also my computer lab teacher is helping students learn how a computer works, by giving each student a used old system and then they are to load linux on their systems that they build(nice class right, although all the systems arent all high end, just handed down systems) Well anyways im always expanding my knowledge on networking and computer related issues. I just set up a Linux Server and now i need help getting a quick and better understanding of it, such as the basics: users and shared files/permissions......i want to at least get that much up and running asap this way the students can get a breif understanding in networking through Linux instead of Windows. Also im not sure how to get a windows client to see/recognize a linux server, does anyone have any advice on this. Sorry if this wasnt the greatest topic but any help will do, thankz

[graeme_p]

What sort of server are you trying to get running? If you want a file or print server for Windows clients you probably need a piece of software called Samba.

Obviously any sort of internet server (Web, mail, ftp) should "just work".

You will also probably learn more if you use a Linux desktop as well as the server - I like Kubuntu but there are plenty of good Linux distributions out there.

You might also find it interesting to try some of the things that Linux is good at that do not work well (or at all) on Windows. My favourite example is that X-Windows is completely network transparent, so it is easy to remotely run a GUI application remotely or to use old PCs (even diskless ones) as terminals for a server. You CAN do it with Cirtix or whatever on Windows, but it is built in and works very reliably on Linux - and there are no licensing issues to worry about either.

[wheel]

When I switched from MS to Linux, I didn't find any one size fits all tutorial. It was simply a year or two of slugging everytime I ran into a problem.

The problem(?) with easy-docs for linux is that the basic linux OS isn't really much of anything. It's like DOS, you get a command prompt. Just about everything else you're going to do - including system stuff - is really a seperete entity from the OS. So you're stuck learning individual apps and their idiosyncrasies.

For example, even the GUI in Linux is a seperate app - and different people use different gui's - they're hot-swappable and they've all got their own idiosyncracies. Web server? seperate program. Database? seperate program. mail? seperate program.

I learned by trial and error. Everytime I needed to do something, I read and experimented. Many times this was frustrating. But eventually you should be able to become proficient, maybe not with linux overall, but with how to run programs and diagnose problems (finding the right place for logs, learning how programs and services run, etc).

Tough and very frustrating it was for me. But worth it? Absolutely. I've got more control and less problems than I've ever had before. We're an MS free shop now other than one MS server we keep for testing...and I'll be darned if I can figure out how to run stuff on it :).

[MattyMoose]

To Wheel: That was an excellent description of the UNIX philosophy ("Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface."). I found absolute joy in learning the way that all these apps talked to each other, either through UNIX pipes or through streams.

and I'll be darned if I can figure out how to run stuff on it :)

LOL, I feel the same way. I run FreeBSD, with Fluxbox both at work and at home (much to coworker's and wife's disappointment), and I find it next to impossible to use a windows desktop anymore. I find it ultimately the most time-wasting and frustrating environment to work in, what with disappearing taskbar icons, balloons reminding me of everything that I haven't done and things I don't care about to windows that don't shade. I'll stop there, since I don't want to start a war. ;-)

At any rate, I would also add to iconpomona's post that it's a long and arduous route, and it's not "quick" for the most part. Things may be easier and "clicky" in Linux these days and easier to set up than editing config files, but they are still not perfect. Expect to get your feet wet, it's a fun trip. :-)

As for your direct questions, basic file permissions are easy to learn about (read chown and chmod manuals by running "man chmod" and "man chown" at the command-line), for basic networking, look up things like "man ifconfig", and for making a windows "see" a linux/*NIX system, like someone already mentioned, Samba is the way to go. read up on it at [samba.org...]

Cheers!