- The University
- 26/02/2019
Linux for Dummies
Information Management & Services (IMS) has opened a Wiki-page with the purpose of collecting and sharing information about the operating system Linux. Staff and students can access and, after logging in with a personal TU/e account, edit these centrally operated webpages. The main purpose is to help users of Linux with standard ICT facilities.
“ICT support for Linux at our university is limited, but there is a great deal of knowledge at the faculties and departments. A relatively large number of researchers use Linux, but an increasing number of students are also installing Linux on their laptop.” Patrick van Brakel, IMS staff member and Linux expert, estimates that over three hundred staff members are now working with this operating system. It’s more difficult to estimate how many students use Linux. “A few hundred probably use Linux for specific courses or while working on their graduation project. There’s an enormous difference between faculties,” says Van Brakels’ colleague Reinier Post.
Notebook
In principle, notebooks for staff and students do not come with a Linux instalment. In order to gain access to the TU/e network facilities, users of Linux need certain information. “Such information wasn’t systematically documented yet,” says IMS project leader Susan van de Ven. “It was spread across Intranet and other Wiki pages. The new Wiki provides a secure web environment for this documentation.”
Users united
The project leader hopes to create a platform that will connect users of Linux campus wide, which will make the system more user friendly. “People call or email the service desk with questions such as: ‘How do I use campus printers at TU/e?’, ‘How do I connect to my network drive?’ or ‘How do I setup a VPN connection?’ Because it took specific knowledge of Linux in order to answer them, these questions were forwarded to and answered by our technical staff. But now we have opted to collect the answers to these questions in a central Wiki-platform.”
Like his colleague Van Brakel, Reinier Post is IMS staff member and Linux expert. He is the administrator of this Linux Wiki. “These software systems are incredibly complicated. People use Linux because it’s convenient or because it’s necessary, mostly because it’s used in certain software or hardware. Some users are very knowledgeable, others are complete beginners. Some like to find things out by themselves, others do not. We want to help everyone who needs Linux get started,” he says. “The documentation on the Wiki-page is aimed primarily at people who are first-time users of Linux within the TU/e environment, but we’ve also thought about more experienced users by placing links to ‘advanced topics’ beneath each article.”
Up-to-date
The purpose of the Linux Wiki is to share information on a structural basis and to keep the documentation up-to-date. The website is online by now and IMS has already answered the most frequently asked questions about Linux, but everyone is invited to add content to the page. If proven successful, similar Wiki’s for different subjects, such as documentation for users of Mac or documentation on High Performance Computing (a supercomputer with the ability to process data and perform complex calculations at high speeds) might also be launched.
Are you curious about the documentation, or do you want to add content? Go to this link and log in with your TU/e account.
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