[conspire] Question about Unix Class

[Jeff Maley]

> - My college is offering a "Unix Operating System" course this summer.
> I'm wondering if I should take this course or not.
>
> Here is the description of the course:
>
> This is an introductory course in the UNIX operating system, including
> basic UNIX commands, advanced vi features, file and directory
> manipulation, and UNIX mail, write and talk. This course includes
> shell command line, set-up, customizing the shell environment, alias
> mechanism, pipes, I/O redirection and text manipulation and an
> introduction to system administration.
>
> The fee for this class is $88. It starts on 06/01 and end on 07/06.

for $88US, you can get one or two really good books on linux/unix and
teach yourself, thereby providing both experience and self-paced learning.
while the phrase 'really good books on linux/unix' will likely invoke a
religious war, two books i've found handy are:

unix in a nutshell (oreilly) - general command reference, good bits on sed
and awk. there's also linux in a nutshell; its probably equally good (and
potentially more appropriate), but i've not used it and therefor cannot
comment empirically.

unix administration handbook (prentice hall) - this tome is a little
dated, but much of the basics are still the same and its got decent
coverage of most major unix derivations, so it provides a nice window into
how the other unices work. again, there is also the linux administration
handbook, but having not read it, i can't comment.

on amazon, those two books will run ~90US, so its comparable to the class.
if you're someone who learns well in a structured classroom environment,
the class may be a better choice. if, on the other hand, you are someone
who just needs to get in there and start mucking around, the books and a
couple of spare weekends are well-worn path.