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Hacker News Comments on
Introduction to Linux

edX · The Linux Foundation · 89 HN points · 7 HN comments

HN Academy has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention edX's "Introduction to Linux" from The Linux Foundation.
Course Description

Develop a good working knowledge of Linux using both the graphical interface and command line, covering the major Linux distribution families.

Linux powers 100% of the world’s supercomputers, most of the servers powering the Internet, the majority of financial trades worldwide and over two billion Android devices. In short, Linux is everywhere. It appears in many different architectures, from mainframes to server to desktop to mobile and on a staggeringly wide variety of hardware.

Moreover, 80 percent of hiring managers reported that they will prioritize hiring Linux talent relative to other skills areas, and 47 percent of hiring managers say they’re more likely to hire a candidate with Linux certification.

This course explores the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux system administrators and end users to achieve their day-to-day work in a Linux environment. It is designed for experienced computer users who have limited or no previous exposure to Linux, whether they are working in an individual or Enterprise environment.

Upon completion of this training you should have a good working knowledge of Linux, from both a graphical and command line perspective, allowing you to easily navigate through any of the major Linux distributions. You will be able to continue your progress as either a user, system administrator or developer using the acquired skill set.

Join the 800,000+ students who are already enrolled in this course and start your Linux journey.

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This course is offered by The Linux Foundation on the edX platform.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this url.
I recommend the free Linux Foundation courses on EdX:

Introduction to Linux https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-linux

Introduction to Kubernetes https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-kubernetes

Disclosure: CNCF funded the Kubernetes course development.

Coursera actually offers several classes that can be done at your own pace. It's gradually expanding, and will eventually offer a wide range of courses. There's also plenty of courses that aren't closed after their completion date.

EdX has done the same with their Introduction to Linux course: https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...

joshontheweb
I didn't know that. Perhaps I will have to revisit it. Thanks.
SiVal
That's good to know, because my complaint is the opposite of his, yet the solution is the same. I don't usually want to crash through it all in one weekend, though if that were the best timing, I might. My usual problem is that if I'm too busy to work on the class during the period they have designated as the only time Assignment 4 can be worked on, I have essentially dropped out of the class instead of just pausing it. It's like a TV mini-series shown for two hours every night for five days in the days before consumer video recorders. If something came up at work that made you miss two episodes, you may as well skip the rest, because the series is ruined.

Contrast that to just putting up all five episodes on YouTube and leaving them there. What a relief! Skip a couple of days, and you're still watching the show, as far as you're concerned.

I can't fuss too much about such great courses that are offered to me for free, but it would be nice if they could routinely post the entire course and just leave it up. Each assignment could have its own forum thread, all of them in parallel, and reading back over these threads would probably clear up anything you were wondering about.

I know some courses are already of this sort. I hope more will move in this direction.

Thank you so much for all that. I took a great introductory Linux course by the Linux Foundation over at edx[0] which really filled me in on a lot of stuff about Linux one misses out on when they learn on their own. Sadly, the subsequent Linux Foundation training courses are way out of my price range. Even the intro course offered I took for free on edx is offered by the Linux Foundation for thousands of dollars.

The good thing is I can mostly learn stuff on my own but have a hard time figuring out what I should be learning. Your comment helps a lot on that department. Even if I don't quite understand how to do some of the stuff your saying e.g. segment the network? Sandbox? Isn't eth0 my primary port to connect to my server? Which logs should I be monitoring (I've only heard of auth.log)?

Thanks.

[0] https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...

Aug 13, 2014 · 3 points, 0 comments · submitted by robotcu
Partially related, if somebody is interested The Linux Foundation together with edX MOOC platform are offering a free Linux course since few days[1]. It seems to be quite basic (I've just started it, knowing already something-but-never-enough of Linux) but considering that is provided by The Linux Foundation, "sponsored" by Linus Torvalds and it was normally done in real/virtual classroom for 2400$, it's probably worth doing it ;)

[1] https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...

Aug 01, 2014 · 7 points, 0 comments · submitted by pajju
Jul 31, 2014 · 1 points, 0 comments · submitted by stasel
Jul 29, 2014 · 3 points, 0 comments · submitted by fraqed
May 20, 2014 · 61 points, 11 comments · submitted by FredericJ
jestinjoy1
Intro video is by Torvalds :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmDricQGK6w

Good to attend courses with lectures given by creators themselves and great teachers.

jordigh
I'm a bit bothered by how Linus is deified as the sole creator of Linux. This phenomenon of course is not unique to Linux and Linus, of course. We routinely look for heroes and lone wolves whom we want to believe did all of the work by themselves, but the reason I single out Linux is because it was "just" the missing component of the GNU operating system.

Whatever the relationship between GNU and Linux nowadays and despite the examples of GNU without Linux and Linux without GNU, for many years in the beginning they were inextricably tied together and would have never succeeded without the other. To say that Linux is by Linus and nobody but Linus is not fair to all the work that Linus based Linux on top of.

jestinjoy1
Course title should have been Intro to GNU/Linux
Joeboy
It's not just unfair, it's really confusing. Judging from the course description, the "Linux" that Linus Torvalds wrote / maintains (the kernel) is not the "Linux" that you learn about in this course (the UI/userspace).

We will probably arrive at a consensus about what to call Linux + GNU + everything else around the same time we agree what line endings should look like in text files.

Swinx43
This looks like a good starting point for people from a predominantly Windows background that want to make the jump to Linux. Does anyone know if it is worth doing the Verified Certificate? I would be more than happy to sign up to it if it has any worth in the job market.
krat0sprakhar
Getting your way around the command-line is, IMO, a great skill to have. With more and more companies using Amazon and other cloud services to host their apps knowing linux is very handy even as a developer. Most of the job listings, especially for startups do require the developer to have linux / command-line familiarity.
Swinx43
I definitely agree. The question I have is if it is worth paying for a verified certificate? It is $250 for the certificate and if it does not really count towards anything I would rather take the course for free and then go write a Linux certification instead.
brudgers
The reasons to get a verified certificate from any of the MOOC's seem to be:

+ Gaining additional motivation.

+ Someone requiring it.

+ Adding formal credentials to a CV.

+ Supporting the institution, because you can.

+ Confirming the accomplishment.

All are valid reasons, and in a particular person's unique circumstances each may have great value. There's no universal benefits or detriments.

sten
That's a nice way to frame the real question. Does this adequately signal what we've learned or are other methods like certifications required. I'm sure the people behind edx are looking to push legitimacy as strongly as possible but I believe ultimately any of this will boil down to personal projects and portfolio building.

I'm going to try and get my employer to pay for it either way.

incision
>'The question I have is if it is worth paying for a verified certificate?'

I'd say that depends on what you want to get out of it.

I have a couple of verified certificates. I haven't had the chance to put them on a resume yet, but I fully intend to for a number of reasons. I'm already pretty well established in my career, I believe in what these programs are doing and I'm plainly proud of my accomplishment.

That said, I expect people will look at them the same way they do technology certifications or most degrees - worthless.

I understand where they're coming from as we've all encountered incompetent people with such credentials, but I think it's a bit unfair to toss these certificates in the same bin.

Reason being, these certificates have no established value.

Logically and anecdotally, people sign up for these courses because they want to learn something. If someones goal is scamming their way into a job they'd be better served by shopping at a diploma mill than slogging through an edX course.

It's an interesting problem.

How do you popularize these courses while establishing and retaining value for them - goals which are to some degree at odds with each other.

None
None
incision
I'm a little surprised at the $250 minimum for the verified track.

While that's a tiny fraction of what one could expect to pay for a typical certification prep class and likely less than a single credit hour at an accredited university it's quite high relative to the norm on edX.

I've taken some very good courses on edX, primarily from MIT and Berkley, none of which have required even half as much as a minimum.

Still, I intend to give this a look when it launches.

May 15, 2014 · 2 points, 0 comments · submitted by jonbaer
Mar 23, 2014 · 4 points, 4 comments · submitted by sgy
OWaz
Has anyone already taken this course or know specifically what it covers?
sgy
Check the link above
OWaz
The course description seemed vague to me that's why I asked if anyone knew specifics. "This course explores the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux programmers, system administrators and end users to achieve their day-to-day work in a Linux environment." Various tools and techniques could be bash, sed, awk or it could be anything else in the vast capabilities of a linux system.
sgy
https://training.linuxfoundation.org/linux-courses/introduct...
While I appreciate the intent behind this move, I'm curious who are the people who were paying $2400 (that's a serious amount of money) for what appears to be an introductory course that imparts no work skills (it's usually easier to convince people to pay for courses when they feel it will have a positive impact on their careers or resumes)?

https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...

> This course explores the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux programmers, system administrators and end users to achieve their day-to-day work in a Linux environment. It is designed for experienced computer users who have limited or no previous exposure to Linux.

> Upon completion of this training you should have a good working knowledge of Linux, from both a graphical and command line perspective, allowing you to easily navigate through any of the three major Linux distributions.

jotm
Probably companies paying for their employees' training... Expensive if you ask me, but when you have 500 employees who need to learn some Linux basics, you can't just tell them to learn it themselves at home (and organizing their own training would be expensive).
frozenport
That is 1 million dollars!
theorique
Agreed, I'm wondering what this $2400 course will give you that you couldn't get from installing Linux on a partition or a VM and messing around with it in your spare time.

Maybe the course structure is helpful in ensuring good learning outcomes, but developing the hobbyist / enthusiast habit is a good one for any Linux user.

Mar 07, 2014 · 8 points, 1 comments · submitted by kercker
gdiocarez
Thanks for the link.
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