What help is available for beginners?

Training materials for new users has been a topic of discussion lately... especially with the renewed claim that, "2008 will be the year of the Linux desktop" and the seeming rise of Ubuntu as a distribution for new users.

Judy recently wrote to us:

Learning Linux

I just wanted to thank, I believe it was Scott and Warren for turning me to Chess Griffin's Podacsts. I have listened to the first 12 so far and am understanding more with each one. Sometimes I have to listen to a podcast twice to get it. I am very computer illiterate, however I am beginning to understand some of the jibberish Ken used to talk about. Bodhi is doing an adult education class in January as well. With what I am learning from Chess will help me with that class.

Thanks again for you help and patience,
Judy

You are welcome Judy. Thanks to Charles Griffin for the Linux Reality podcasts. The rest of this posting deals with what training materials are out there and discusses an opportunity for us to give back to the Linux community.

So what training materials are out there?

There are a lot of books, that's for sure. Just do a search for Linux on your favorite online bookstore to see what I mean. The only problem with books is that a lot of new users would rather use books for reference material rather than training material. People these days seem to want online video training... especially with the rise of YouTube and clones.

I did a cursory search for online video training for Linux and here's what I found:

Ubuntu Screencasts Site
Free

I Learn Linux Video Tutorials
Three free sample videos, $49.95 online, $59.95 on CD.

VTC's Introduction to Linux Tutorials
First three topics free, $30 month subscription for all content, or $99.95 on CD

VTC's Ubuntu Linux Tutorials
First three topics free, $30 month subscription for all content, or $99.95 on CD

An Opportunity to Help

I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of additional videos to be found by searching the online video warehouse sites... but what I'm wanting to find is a somewhat comprehensive series of videos that cover a range of topics for beginners. While the handful I mentioned above are a good start the dominant commercial nature of them is a limiting factor.

I see the lack of video training materials as a big opportunity and a way to give back to the community. What I would wish for would be the formation of a Special Interest Group within our community, the development of a series of written lesson plans, and then the creation of a series of video screencasts that would be freely available.

What Screencast tools are available for Linux?

I covered the basics of screencasting on Linux at the last BozemanLUG meeting but for those who missed it, here is a list of the software tools that would be useful for creating and editing screencasts:

Screen Recorders

recordmydesktop
Available as a standard package in may distributions

Istanbul
Available as a standard package in may distributions

Byzanz
Available as a standard package in may distributions

vnc2swf

Video Editors

Kino

Cinelerra

Audio Editors

Audacity

Ardour

Jokosher

Some of the software mentioned above is very easy to use while a few of the packages are quite complex and complicated... so your mileage may vary.

Are you up for the challenge?

While the goal of creating comprehensive video training for Linux beginners is quite grand and would surely take a lot of time and a lot of work... just getting started is sometimes the hardest part. We could start with one or two videos, see how those turn out and then decide where to go from there. Anyone interested?

The first two topics I think would need to be covered are:

• What is Linux and why would you want to use it?
• What is a Linux distribution and which one should you pick?