Linux Lab at the University of South Florida Opens Eyes (Linux Journal) [LWN.net]

Linux Lab at the University of South Florida Opens Eyes (Linux Journal)

Posted Dec 12, 2004 22:03 UTC (Sun) by dps (guest, #5725)
Parent article: Linux Lab at the University of South Florida Opens Eyes (Linux Journal)

I feel it a bit sad that you need a course on *any* specific operating system, programming language or piece of software in general. The most useful knowledge is transferable to whatever operating system or programming language is the right thing for any particular job. I woud hope that any good computer science student should be able to pick up any standard imperative language very quickly. That would include java, C# and whatever else is currently fashionable.

Pretty much everything I learned in my computer science degree is not operating system specific. If windows took over the world my knowledge would still be useful. (Oxford univerisity is known as center of theoretical CS, which might have some bearing on what they teach undergraduates.)

I might choose un*x as a more programmer friendly and cheaper environment, and CLIs because they take less time than GUIs, so the less time is wasted using cookbooks.

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Linux Lab at the University of South Florida Opens Eyes (Linux Journal)

Posted Dec 13, 2004 3:24 UTC (Mon) by piman (guest, #8957) [Link] (1 responses)

The problem is that the author of the article is working essentially in a business context (MIS is "Management and Information Systems", and is looked down on by most CS majors. I think for good reason.) CS courses are still primarily theoretical at most colleges, and usually based upon Unix rather than Windows.

The author conflates three different areas of technology study. Many colleges offer courses in simply using software for specific domains (Excel for accountants, Word for technical writers, or Photoshop for graphics artist, for example). The MIS degree, which this seems to be, is designed for system administrators or managers who will have to work in technology fields; people who need to know how a web server works at a high level, but not how to write one. Then of course there is the discipline of computer science, which is a mixture of the mathematics of computation and practical implementation thereof.

The least favorite part of my CS education has been when MIS crap tries to butt in. I would venture that MIS people feel the same way about people trying to convince them to learn Linux kernel internals.

Linux Lab at the University of South Florida Opens Eyes (Linux Journal)

Posted Dec 13, 2004 17:18 UTC (Mon) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link]

You make a great deal of sense. I am primarily an administrator in a shop full of MIS-type people, got most of my training from such people, and have had to teach myself computer science, on my own time, without benefit of college courses.

There are 2 interesting aspects to my experience: First, it has been incredible to see how much one can learn by gleaning material from publicly-available Internet sources, books (such as those from O'Reilly and Associates,) newsgroups, and mailing lists. While I'm not confident I could "breeze through" a CS degree at this point, I do feel I would have aq serious leg up on it, were I to take the necessary courses. Second, because of my self-teaching in combination with my MIS career, I have experienced the conflict between my interest in Linux and my colleagues' admiration-cum-lack-of-(practical)-interest, firsthand.

Frankly, I can't blame them either, when all is said and done. These people have an awful lot on their plates, much of it having little or nothing to do with computer science as such, and much of it having to do with business rules, business politics, lack of user skills, security, firefighting, spam, popups (or lack thereof,) incompatability, software company greed, and on and on until it makes me sick.

Kind of leaves me with the conclusion that Linux and MIS won't get along until the CS part is behind a GUI that any child could manipulate with ease.

Make no mistake---many of my colleagues really do admire my skill with, and interest in, Linux (and other research and UNIX OS's, for that matter,) But they would never implement it in my shop---it would be too much stress, in addition to all of the above problems they are faced with.

I have the sneaking suspicion that, if Linux *does* become appealing to large masses of MIS folks, it will happen in an ironic manner, where stalwart Linux community members will see Linux become much more like the OS they have come to dislike. To understand how this might happen, you'd have to spend time in the mind of an MIS type. Since I've spent time in both minds, I can understand the process very well.

Meanwhile, I will continue to do Linux at home, and Windows/Mac at work.....and admire those who are completely on the CS side of the fence....