Why should we teach students Linux??

[Bob Hemus]

On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 08:17 -0500, Voigt, John C. wrote:
> On , Roger Oberholtzer [roger at opq.se] eloquently noted:
> 
> <disclaimer>
> Apology in advance for MS Outhouse formatting - or lack thereof - I'm
> required to use it. Sorry for the length.
> </disclaimer>
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > We were looking for a newly educated person so that we could
> > form their opinions on how we want things done :) Just about
> > every applicant said that, instead, they knew ASP, .NET,
> > Excel, Access. If it did not have a GUI, they were lost. They
> > had heard of Linux, but were surprised to encounter a real
> > user. It took a very long time to find someone. There is
> > simply more to using a computer than what familiarity with MS
> > OS brings to the table.
> 
> I'm a little late on this thread, sorry. I view the M$ vs. *NIX
> comparison as the difference between training and education. I have two
> BS degrees in the natural sciences, but I consider those mostly
> training. I don't have a traditional liberal education; I didn't do much
> study of the great books ie. philosophy, law, Latin, rhetoric, etc.
> (excluding music). In many cases, I am severely lacking in the
> traditional arts - I'm not very educated, but I'm reasonably well
> trained ;-)
> 
> Learning Windows is basically training. Training works now, education
> works always. Learning Linux (any *NIX or others) in addition to
> Windows, gives one the opportunity to receive a more "well-rounded IT
> education". My *NIX knowledge is self-taught, and lacking in areas in
> which I haven't needed to delve so far. Having had to generate and tweak
> config files from the old Slackware (whichever version had kernel 1.0.9)
> days, through CND, Caldera, RedHat, SuSE, IRIX, Solaris (blech), etc. I
> now have a better understanding of what's going on than most Windows
> people in our organization who are "running the show". It was necessary
> at that time to understand what was happening, just to get everything
> working. 
> 
> I can now mostly understand what our "overlords" are trying to do, and
> why it does or doesn't work. In many cases they just want to "buy a
> solution" without really understanding why they need it in the first
> place - it's easier that way, but if something breaks, they generally
> don't know what to do, other than call the company who sold them the
> "solution".
> 
> Point-n-click is training, is useful to a degree, however, a
> well-rounded IT curriculum is IMHO infinitely more beneficial.
> Teach/Learn all you can.
> 
> There's a difference between re-training and continuing education ;-)
> 
> L8R,
> 
> John V.
>  -- 
>   _/- John Voigt - K9GBO -----|- Registered Linux User #38558 --_/
>  _/- Reclamation Specialist --|- IN Dept of Natural Resources -_/
> _/------------- jvoigt at dnr.IN.gov - (812)665-2207 ------------_/
> 
> I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
> 
Well put.
Bob