Starting with Linux
Last week I started using Linux - still very cautious, not messing with my Windows-installation. But off of my USB-stick it works quite well, I must say. So first I had to choose “which kind of Linux” I would like and I first decided to go for Debian, then choosing the stable variant and a GNOME desktop environment.
Most things were working quite intuitively, but in the end I did need help with some hardware configuration (for example wireless network access). And apparently I didn’t pay enough attention as when using it on a second laptop I need help again getting wifi started.
Next to “learning by doing” I also joined a 1st years Bachelor course on Linux, which they teach here at the University of Groningen. Well, I don’t attend the lectures, but do read the slides and do the exercises. The course started by teaching some basic Linux commands and later focuses on “Tekstmanipulatie” (that’s the title of the course), that means using Linux for linguistic purposes, namely working with texts.
I’m afraid that this new ‘ambition’ will hinder my Ruby progress, but I guess it’s worth it. Maybe it was a little bit weird anyway to start with a programming language before using Linux… And who knows, maybe I can still find some time for Ruby as well, as, thanks to Chris Pine, who wrote the great book ‘Learn to Program’, learning Ruby is more fun than work!
Written by Dörte de Kok, 14 Sep 2010 View Comments