Updates! - Assignment 3, New Discussion, and Your Accounts

Assignment 3 has been posted, also your account id's are now available. Refer to the Assignment 3 instructions for your account information and login directions.

This week's discussion is following up on last weeks, except think about hardware. Here's an op-ed piece from Wired which illustrates the thought.

If hardware were equiped with an opensource OS - developers would be able write any app for any device and market it themselves - what would be the repercussions? What would be the benefits? With the impact opensource software is having on Microsoft, do you think Apple would see a similar impact with their iPhone?

Please post your discussion posting to Angel by next Tuesday, 07/07/2009 11:59PM.

BTW - your discussion posts from last week were great - Good job guys!

Discussion 2.

We all have an idea of what kind of impact the open-source community is having on the world. I'd like you guys to read this article: Linux World - Free Software will kill Redmond

Think about how the open source community and the Internet is changing our software applications paradigm, how do you think this will affect companies like Microsoft or Oracle? How do you think these companies will respond to on-line application suites? Do you use any on-line suites?

Sorry for the late discussion topic, for this reason you will have till next Tuesday (07/01/2009), 11:59pm.

User accounts will be ready next week.
Thanks guys.
Charlie

Assignment 2 is posted!

Check Angel for instructions.

Accounts coming soon!

I have procured us some Linux accounts on the Parkland Linux server - details coming soon. We'll be playing w/ the command line for the next couple weeks to get ourselves accustomed to the the command syntax. We'll then go on to installing Wubi on our personal machines, and dive further into the Linux world.

For the time being, please flip through Chapter 1 of your book, familiarize yourselves with the following concepts:
1. The History of Linux - plenty of resources online, as well.
2. Overview of Linux - try to understand Figure 1-1 on page 9. This is a great diagram of how Linux (and other OS's) integrate with Software and Hardware.
3. How Linux handles multi-user/multi-tasks
4. The Filesystem, and how the root directories are organized - Figure 1-2, page 10.
5. What a shell?
6. What is X windows?
7. What is the Graphic User Interface?

It might be useful to not only review the Chapter, but also look for on-line resources to give you more insight. You'll be amazed at the Linux Community.

Stay tuned - More to come.
Charlie

Joys of Linux - Assignment 1

In modern times, an Operating System (OS) is only as good as the applications it supports. Look at the major OS's, they've all been able to thrive because of the applications developers have been able to build - the Microsoft Office Suite being a major player - in fact, industry experts have pinpointed Microsoft Office as a major contributor to the success of Apple's Mac OS (we don't hear that on Apple's Mac vs. PC commercials).Unix isn't the main reason behind the grass roots success of Linux, sure it is a driving force - CS majors who had gotten used to Unix in their computer labs now have the power of a Unix workstation on their desktop - but the average end user could really care less. The open source community behind Linux is the main reason. For those of you unfamiliar, the Open Source community develops and distributes applications with their source code. If they choose, the end user has the ability to view/modify/redistribute any application licensed as Open Source. This license is the main driving force behind Linux. People can view the source code for any paticular component of Linux - want to write a 3D game engine? Review the code for the device drivers that control the video card. Want to write a sound mixing station? View the mp3 player code and the sound card device drivers and write your own.Most users, though, prefer to just go out buy the necessary software they wish to use instead of writing their own. With Linux and the Open Source community, there's no need to *buy* - you scour the net, find what you need, and download it. No worries about spyware or viruses - why? Because, you have the source code, you can review it to be sure there is no malicious intent.So for our first assignment, we're going to have a scavenger hunt on the Internet.

On Angel, under Content (Angel->Content->Assignments->Assignment 1:Scavenger Hunt, there is a list of software applications I have installed on my Windows box, see if you can find Open Source equivilants for Linux.

Discussion One's been posted.

One of the driving points of Linux is the sense of community among it's users and developers. Take a moment and introduce yourself to us - likes, dislikes, whatever you feel like sharing, also answer these questions:

Why Linux?
What drew you to this course?
What are your expecting to get from this course this summer?

Also, please leave a comment on someone else's post.
This is your first discussion post, as stated in the syllabus, this is worth 5 points.

Head over to Angel->Discussions, look for the discussion forum, and make your post. Please contact me if you're unable to hit the discussion forum. You my also be able to hit by Angel->Content->Discussion Forum.
Thanks guys...
Charlie

Welcome

Hey Guys - Sorry for the confusion. Decided to make this our temporary home for the summer. Most everything will be posted off of the blog site. We'll use angel to hold our discussions, and for you to drop off assignments and take quizzes/tests and such. I'll post the discussion topics and assignment info here, though - as well as post news stories/blog articles about anything cool going on in the linux related world. If there's anything you wish to add, feel free to leave comments here.

If you haven't done so yet - drop me an email to my gmail account above, put CSC128-940 in the subject line so I can tag you properly.

Stay tuned - Discussion 1 and Assignment 1 are coming soon...

Here's to a good summer...
Charlie