[plug] Linux training for home newbies

[Arie Hol]

On 19 Sep 2005 at 1:54, Mr E_T wrote:

> On Sunday 18 September 2005 21:49, Senectus . wrote:
> > There is a few places.. but they're for RHCE and NCLE type quals.. and
> > _very_ expensive to do (thousands for a few weeks).
> > 
> Maybe Plug should have a think about something.

This was brought up at the 2005 AGM in February this year.

A newbie mentioned it at the meeting, he made some suggestions about 
creating a learning pathway for newcomers to Linux, that way newcomers 
could follow the pathway and only ask for help when they either got stuck 
or ran into problems.

It was politely, made very obvious at the meeting that he should   have a 
go at doing it himself.

He made an attempt to get started at building a web site.

There was much verbal support for his willingness to start the job, there 
were even some offers of help - but when he asked for help and guidance 
he was on his own.

He also received some unpleasant email messages from people unknown.

He became frustrated and despondent with the Linux cause, and has since 
Installed Windows XP, Microsoft SQL Server 2003 and still uses Linux 
(Fedora Core 4) to do things that Microsoft software can't or won't do. 

He is no longer a financial member of P.L.U.G.

Pluggers are excellent at providing help when there is a speciifc 
problem.

But when it comes to general guidance and learning basic skills - the 
user generally is on their own.

Much of Linux use revolves around the self-help principal, go as far as 
you can and ask for help when you get stuck.

Helping a newcomer to Linux can be very time-consuming and to some extent 
frustrating for experienced users (as I have found out) most experienced 
users are reluctant to help newcomers unless they are sure that the 
newcomer has made a concerted effort to learn about the problem and tried 
to fix it themselves. 

Example :

Most experienced Linux users will install Linux on your computer (as the 
sole OS or as a dualboot) but most of them will not explain to the  
newcomer the what and why of Linux installations - mainly because there 
is a lot to understand about partitions and filesystems, especially on 
dual boot systems.

There are a lot of dedicated and talented people at PLUG, I would suggest 
that you get somebody at PLUG to build and configure the PC for the 
applications needed by your friend then get them to learn how to use it.
If they want to tinker with software and configurations make them 
understand the consequences of what they are doing.

Over the years I have built several PC's using Linux and they are still 
running today without problems, because their owners switch them on - do 
what they need to do and switch them off. 

One PC is still running Redhat 5.## faultlessly and there has been No 
tinkering - No updating - No optimising since it was built - the owner is 
very happy - because it NEVER  crashes and always works as expected.


Regards Arie
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