Open Source Comes to Campus/Curriculum/Saturday

Note well: This is just a draft; work in progress.

Linux and the command line

Pre-requisites: Have some Linuxy distro and a terminal open, or Terminal on a Mac, or GitBash on Windows.

Learning objectives: Have a general understanding of what paths mean (/usr /usr/bin /home etc.). Understand the purpose and basic use of package management tools. Understand how to "cd" and "ls" around in a terminal. Have familiarity with passing arguments to CLI programs (e.g., tar). Preferably, understand that a text terminal can display "graphical" (e.g. via ncurses) programs. Understand enough history of the command line to know it came "first", before GUIs. Have enough understanding of the command line to succeed at the rest of the day's activities. Become familiar with different ways of quitting command-line programs.

Group discussion

• Use a photo of teletypes connected to a serious UNIX server to explain what a "terminal" means.
• Ask people what their experiences with the command line have been so far. (If necessary, skip pieces of the discussion.)
• With a diagram of a directory hierarchy, discuss different paths like /home and /usr.
• Explain the concept of "PATH". Point out that "." is usually not in the path by default.
• Split the screen into half Nautilus, half Terminal, and show how they are different views of the same thing.
• Explain that programs like "apt-get" install software, and to demonstrate this, use apt-get on the presentation machine to install something. Demonstrate where the resulting files went with dpkg -L. (Try to include a surprise /usr/sbin program.) Try executing a binary that got installed, and point out its location. Use apt-get remove to remove it. Point out that "yum" and "port" are similar tools.

Individual work

• Have students go through the "tar" training mission, which shows them mkdir and moving files around and tar.
• It would be nice to have a training mission called "Six ways to quit" that showed you ^C, ^D, q (for less), :q (for vi-like), ^X (for pico-like), C-x C-c (for emacs-like)

Assessment elements

• The "tar" training mission includes elements of running programs.
• The "Six ways to quit" mission includes its own assessment.

Possible problems

• Some students might already be extremely familiar with this material. It'd be nice to have some "extra credit".

Communicating as a user: finding the community and getting help

Pre-requisites: IRC client installed. Web browser installed.

Learning objectives: Know about the common real-time-ish communication tools used by projects (IRC, mailing lists (including Google Groups)). Be able to join IRC channels. Have a sense of etiquette on IRC channels and mailing lists. Be able to read mailing list threads and find answers embedded in them. Understand that idling is a good thing, especially when waiting for an answer. Understand how to search pipermail/mailman archives. Understand that most projects have a -users and -devel separation in mailing lists, and know when to use each one. Understand how to find answers to e.g. Ubuntu programs via Googling and finding them on e.g. a StackExchange-type site. Learn about Linux Users Groups and any existing ones in the community.

(Generally, be able to ask questions the smart way.)

Group discussion

• Start by showing a program that doesn't do what you need. Overall idea: where are the humans on the planet who can help?

• What are mailing lists like?
  • Share a story of getting serious help on a mailing list (e.g. reiserfs+lkml in 2001-ish, or Dovecot, or something else)
  • The list is often just the actual developer
    • but that person's presence is actually somewhat remarkable
  • Show mailman and Google Groups archives
  • Share a story of excellent humor on a list
  • Explain digest mode
  • Show an example of inline replies
  • Show some mailing list spam, and then explain that you must generally join to post

• 5 min digression: Debian's OpenSSL patch, or "How this can all go horribly wrong"

• What happens on IRC?
  • Sometimes fast-moving...
    • (animated GIF of unreasonably fast channel)
  • User questions
  • Developer discussions
  • Sometimes slow-moving...
    • screenshot of super slow moving thing
  • Explain existence of separate networks

• 5 min: How you can help yourself
  • Googling the problem
  • Searching bug trackers for the issue, and discovering workarounds
  • Showing up on IRC and just listening

• 5 min: General help communities
  • linuxquestions.org
  • Local groups! (LUGs, computer clubs, etc.)
    • Show an example of people in other countries posting to SF groups
  • The Gentoo and Arch Linux wiki (even though they're supposedly specific)
  • Stack Overflow, and how it influenced Debian and Ubuntu's "ask" community

• Cultural example: Debian's emphasis on email for development over IRC

Individual work

• (Does not exist yet) IRC training mission, or an equivalent suggested run-through of how to use IRC
• Rank various email help-request subject lines in quality, and compare with the student next to you
• Find the website of the local linux users group (e.g. Philadelphia's PLUG) and join the IRC channel for it and say hello

Assessment elements

• The IRC training mission has its own assessment elements.
• We can idle in the IRC channel of the local LUG
• Student next to you discusses rankings