Learn linux! And Programming!

[DeZmond]

Okay people, you may have seen some of the conversations posted up on the old forums between us techies - probably a lot of discussion about linux and also C programming... well here's some resources that should help anyone out in trying to learn both.

It's the P2T course here at Glasgow uni, and it comes with full lecture notes online in PDF - this is what you're after as they are pretty thorough - starting with the history of linux and analysing how it fits into a system, it's put in an easy-to-understand and concise format that should get you all to the level of competent linux users in no time. To boot, there's also a C programming part of the course, also with full notes.

The course uses the version of linux 'Knoppix', since it can boot from a CD without having to be installed, but any version of linux will do - the course starts with console work before progressing to GUI with the Gnome desktop. (If you don't have a clue what I just said, start reading - it's all there).

In fact I'm finding this stuff so useful I'm reading it in my spare time, so get cracking!

Course info here: http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/p2t/index.html
Find the full lecture notes here: http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/p2t/lectures.html

 

[Haven]

Cheers dezmond, I've grabbed myself copies of all those - I definately need to get down and dirty with the C code sooner rather than later.

*removes his sys-admin hat and replaces it with the 3v17 h4x0r one instead*

 

[fragske]

Yay, I grabbed myself copies aswell
I'm printing them as we speak

 

[thatbloke]

I personally use gentoo Linux, due to the excellent package management system. For a new user I would recommend either gentoo or debian linux as they both have excellent package management systems.

And learn C??? seriously... Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is the way forward!!! So do yourself a favour and learn either C++ or Java instead...

 

[DeZmond]

The C tutorial also features some of the conventions of C++, since it is based on the gcc compiler. Yes, OOP may be the future, but you still need to look to the past if you're going to fully understand it. Besides, there are many projects out there that have been, or are, coded in C.

On the subject of linux, it's just the course that uses Knoppix however it doesn't lean too heavily on it, i.e what it says is pretty much the same for all versions of linux. (By the way, Knoppix is a derivative of Debian)

 

[thatbloke]

In saying what I said i wasn't dissing knoppix! Its damn good for learning to use linux...

The reason Linux is such a good platform for programming is because you can get whatever information out of it that you want... You can DO anything to the OS that you like, unlike windows which attempts to protect you and therefore can cause problems if something crashes as all you get is a message saying "The program has performed an illegal operation and will close." In linux you get error codes, you have very powerful scripting languages that you can use to bring together multiple programs/tools (filters FTW) in one easy text file.

And its command line based... which some people like and some dont. Whereas in windows, the GUI is an integral part of the OS, in linux the GUI that you see (an X server of some sort, normally KDE or Gnome) is actually just a program that runs on top of everything else, so should it crash, the GUI crashes, you go back to a command line and yet all programs/jobs etc. are still running.

It is also a macrokernel system, meaning that all processes and minimum functionality that it needs to run at a basic level all runs in the kernel, and any proceses that go bad other than the kernel do not force a full system crash. Whereas Windows is a microkernel system, i.e. every essential service and process is separate, meaning that if one goes the whole thing goes.

Anyway enough rambling boy!