Introduction
The Linux 101 course runs for approximately five and a half hours and provides a comprehensive introduction to Linux operating systems. It is presented by Brent Eskridge, Ph.D. and is available through TCM Security.
The Course
The course is presented in a lecture format and offers a ton of practical exercises and examples to work through. Brent delivers the course in a way that is easy to digest and will provide resources for topics if you want to dig deeper.
At the start of the course, the goals and objectives of the course are laid out:
- Focus on the command line, not the graphical user interface (GUI)
The course almost exclusively lives in the command line and will allow students to become familiar with the different commands and tools that are available.
- Focus on using, not administration
The course is not designed for those who will be administering Linux, but does scratch the surface of some admin topics.
- Learn by doing, not reading
The number of slides in the course is minimal, allowing the student to follow along with Brent and get hands-on experience.
- Foundation for average user
This is an introductory class that covers what an average user might use in a day to day environment.
There are eleven different modules covering the following topics:
- Virtual machine setup
- Linux distributions
- Command line basics
- Files and filesystem
- Users and groups
- Package management
- Shell basics
- Redirecting I/O
- Searching text
- Common utilities
- File editors
- Process management
- Regular Expressions
- Shell scripting
These topics are fundamental and all Linux users should have a basic understanding of them.
Once the course is completed, students are awarded a certificate of completion.
Summary
The course is an excellent starting point for users with little or no experience with Linux. It walks the student through key topics and encourages them to dive into the practical examples so that they can get a deeper understanding of each of them.