htmlize {Old ideas for a crash course on Linux} {

[P Install Linux\; the first steps are described in lots of places
(links?), I won't repeat them here. Make a swap partition with 128MB
(you won't need more than that), a bootable Linux partition with at
least 500MB, a secondary bootable Linux partion with at least 300MB
for experiences, another big partition for things that will be shared
between the two boots, and another big partition that will be made
read-only. Use Debian if at all possible\; RedHat is too buggy and too
disorganized. If you want to start with RedHat because it's slightly
easier to install, go on, but leave a partition for Debian. Don't
bother too much with warnings about partitions with more than 1024
cilynders because it's easier in the start to boot from a floppy disk,
and floppy boots don't have problems with that.]

[P Make sure you install emacs, info, strace, zsh, lynx, mtools and
dosfstools.]

[P [Q Learn the bare minimum about man, ls, less, cat, info, find,
grep and locate/updatedb, ps, ps -ax, kill and kill -9. Learn how to
use the mouse (with gpm) for cut and paste and how to use the alt-Fn
keys to switch terminals. If a terminal becomes blocked because of a
control-S ou ScrollLock, use control-Q ou ScrollLock (again) to
unblock it. If something very weird happens with a terminal run
\"reset\" on it, log out and log back. Control-\\, control-D and
control-C are three diferent ways to abort programs. Take a look at
/proc.]]

[P Learn the basics of Emacs (link)\; it is the most important tool of
all. If someone tells you to learn vi, ignore him\; vi is just an
editor, and Emacs will be hundreds of times more useful than
everything you can think now, combined. You'll realize it yourself
really soon.]]

[P Edit your /etc/passwd and create a root account with zsh as shell
and /home/root as root. Unpack the package with my .zshrc, my .emacs
and my escripts. Take a look at the escripts. Learn strace.]

[P Mount the CD and the partitions by hand. Edit your fstab.]

[P Recompile a simple package. Recompile the kernel. Make your own
boot floppy. Install ppp.]

}