For teaching, covering the fundamental Distros and their package management nuances is your best place to start. Not getting into the weeds of all the sub-distributions unless it is to demonstrate how the fundamentals carry over. I would include Gentoo/LFS as one of these fundamentals because you learn the underpinnings of Linux building them. I don't think enough admins know how the boot process works, UEFI, EFI vs Boot. and MBR/GPT and how they affect boot. On Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 3:17 PM James Mcphee via PLUG-discuss < plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: > Agreed. In a classroom for sysadmins, maybe make them aware of the > distros, but the ones to teach would be a rhel, debian, and aws. Those are > the ones used mostly in jobs. I, personally, found Gentoo and then LFS > extremely useful in learning how to troubleshoot issues and get a better > handle on how to do more advanced things. Doing stuff manually and then > forming a good mental model before adding the distro's tooling on top of > what does what automatically. > > Something I have to do with new sysadmins is having to train them on how > boot works, MBR vs EFI boot, what arch they're on and how x86_64-v2 > requirement in newer rhels means updating that virtual hardware, how rc > scripts and/or systemd work, how to configure a bonded NIC, OSI model and > how it maps to how to troubleshoot in linux, etc. To make them more ready > for employment, that'd be a help. Also, setting up httpd, tomcat, nginx, > haproxy, etc and configure those ciphers! Oh, and automation! Be it > puppet, ansible, chef, whatever. At least some experience with a > state-based configuration system. I will absolutely argue that the need > goes away with proper architecture, but it's a fundamental tool that almost > all jobs are going to have. > > I know with solaris training back in the day we separated it out to > general familiarity and build. Then "advanced" topics like fiddling with > driver settings and doing disk stuff (solaris volume manager was > interesting). Then troubleshooting (broken libs, broken boot, broken > start scripts) and security. AIX training was different, but AIX is ... > different. > > If training for k8s, docker, podman, whatever, it's a different story. A > lot of that is kind of unique to that environment and will often also be > dependent on which of the various bits and bobs are getting plugged in, k8s > especially. Containers aren't new, but the OCI standard has made some > things better defined. > > On Sun, Feb 9, 2025 at 6:51 PM Matthew Crews via PLUG-discuss < > plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: > >> I do not recommend teaching people Void Linux in a classroom setting. >> >> I know enthusiasts tend to like it, but for people that want to learn >> Linux (and potentially use it in a commercial setting), it does things >> different enough from the major mainstream distros that it's actively >> counter-productive to learn it. >> >> But that said if there is going to be a lecture or two on the >> differences between A distro and B, C, D, etc., distros, then it would >> be a good one to include. >> >> Ditto for NixOS, antiX, Alpine, and honestly Slackware at this point. >> >> -Matt >> >> >> >> On 2/6/25 17:02, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote: >> > On Wed, 5 Feb 2025 12:07:15 -0700 >> > James Mcphee via PLUG-discuss wrote: >> > >> >> I'd add that if your students want to learn linux well, they should >> >> use one of the other distros as well. Arch, gentoo, LFS, etc. >> > Please add Void Linux to this list. It's very close to the metal, >> > highly conforming to POSIX, and it's fairly simple (in terms of moving >> > parts and thin interfaces, not in terms of having things done for you). >> > Unlike Arch, the Red Hat biosphere, and the Debian biosphere, it uses >> > the ultra simple runit init system rather than the 1.3 million LOC >> > all-encompassing systemd. Like Arch, Gentoo and Funtoo, it's a rolling >> > release, but Void Linux does a much better job of rolling release. >> > >> > SteveT >> > >> > Steve Litt >> > Spring 2023 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful >> > Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques >> > --------------------------------------------------- >> > PLUG-discuss mailing list: PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> > https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list: PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > > -- > James McPhee > jmcphe@gmail.com > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list: PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. Stephen