Learning Linux is an important step towards building a career in HPC, AI, or, well, competing in the Winter Classic Invitational Student Cluster Competition. And if you need to learn Linux, who better than the folks from the Linux Foundation to teach you? I mean, come on, "Linux" is their first name!

The LFS 101 Introduction to Linux is comprehensive and will give you a huge step up in both our competition and in your future careers. While everything in the course is very solid and useful, you don't need to know absolutely everything in it (about 50-60 hours worth of material) in order to compete in the Winter Classic. For example, since you will be using remote accounts on mentor systems, you don't need to know how to select a Linux distribution, install it, set up users, networks, and security.

We've curated the course to pinpoint the topics that we believe will best prepare you for the Winter Classic competition. Even if you already know Linux, it's not a bad idea to scan through the material to sharpen your skills or to do the hands-on exercises as a refresher.

The course is self-paced, free of charge, and you can refer back to it anytime you run into a Linux question or problem.

What follows is our step-by-step guide to LFS101...

Getting Started

Step #1:  Hit this page and mash the "Enroll Today" button.

Step #2:  You'll need to create an account with the Linux Foundation and set up your ID (assuming you don't already have one.) This is a quick and easy process.

Step #3:  Check your email for a verification from them, click your clicker on it, and you're in.

Possible Step #4:  For me, it automatically put me into the first page of LFS101, but you might have to go through a purchase process (it costs $0.00 for the course.)

Once you see the LFS101 course, click it and start your Linux journey.

Next stop, adventure!

We're going to list each course module below as you'll see it sequentially.

We will be highlighting the key sections and including comments along the way. Topics in RED text are important in the competition and something you need to know.

Our notes and explanations will be shown in GREEN text.

  • 01.Course Introduction
    • Course Information
      • Course Overview, Objectives and Timing (short introductory video featuring Linus Torvalds, he invented this thing, so worth a quick watch)
      • Course Support and Other Resources (There is a forum for the class, but it’s mostly people just saying hello and introducing themselves)
      • Course Formatting (this shows you how they are using text in the course, it will save time to see it now)
      • Meet Your Instructor: Jerry Cooperstein
      • A Note From the Author
  • 02.The Linux Foundation
    • Introduction (30 second video from the foundation)
    • The Linux Foundation
    • Course Linux Requirements (they talk about the major Linux distributions, Red Hat, Suse, and Ubuntu)
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 03.Linux Philosophy and Concepts
    • Introduction
    • Linux History
    • Linux Philosophy (there is discussion and instructions here on installing Linux on your own machine – this is NOT necessary to learn what you need to learn for the Winter Classic, but some of you might want to do this. You will have a cloud instance of Linux available to you 24x7 for hands-on practice and the course uses an AWS instance for their exercises.)
    • Linux Community
    • Linux Terminology (this only covers a handful of terms that you probably already know)
    • Linux Distributions (interesting, but you'll be using whatever distribution the mentor has on their systems)
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 04.Linux Basics and System Startup
    • Introduction
    • The Boot Process (detailed description of the boot process, not necessary for the Winter Classic)
    • Kernel, init and Services
    • Linux Filesystem Basics (I recommend looking at this, it’s only four brief pages, but has some important conventions)
    • Linux Distribution Installation
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 05.Graphical Interface
    • Introduction (you will be using the command line almost exclusively in the Winter Classic, so really don’t need this module)
    • Graphical Desktop
    • Session Management
    • Basic Operations
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 06.System Configuration from the Graphical Interface
    • Introduction (this module covers system settings for a personal system that’s running Linux, you do not need to know this for the Winter Classic)
    • System, Display, Date and Time Settings
    • Network Manager
    • Installing and Updating Software
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 07.Common Applications
    • Introduction (this section is about local apps, good if you install Linux on your own systems, but mostly not applicable to the competition)
    • Internet Applications
    • Productivity and Development Applications
    • Multimedia Applications
    • Graphics Editors and Utilities
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 08.Command Line Operations (This is the meaty stuff you need to know)
    • Introduction
    • Command-Line Mode Options
    • Basic Operations
    • Working with Files
    • Searching for Files
    • Installing Software
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 09.Finding Linux Documentation
    • Introduction
    • Documentation Sources
    • The man pages
    • GNU Info
    • The --help Option and help Command
    • Other Documentation Sources
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 10.Processes
    • Introduction
    • Introduction to Processes and Process Attributes
    • Process Metrics and Process Control
    • Listing Processes: ps and top
    • Starting Processes in the Future
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 11.File Operations
    • Introduction
    • Filesystems
    • Filesystem Layout
    • Comparing Files and File Types
    • Backing Up and Compressing Data
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 12.Text Editors
    • Introduction
    • Basic Editors: nano and gedit
    • More Advanced Editors: vi and emacs
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 13.User Environment (you won't have control over this on the mentor systems)
    • Introduction (you won't have control over this in the competition)
    • Accounts, Users and Groups
    • Environment Variables
    • Recalling Previous Commands
    • File Permissions
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 14. MANIPULATING TEXT (not necessary for the winter classic)
    • Introduction
    • cat and echo
    • Working with Large and Compressed Files
    • sed and awk
    • File Manipulation Utilities
    • grep and strings
    • Miscellaneous Text Utilities
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 15. NETWORK OPERATIONS
    • Introduction
    • Network Addresses and DNS (This entire section is all about setting up network access for a Linux system – something that you won’t need to do in the Winter Classic)
    • Networking Configuration and Tools
    • Browsers, wget and curl
    • Transferring Files
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 16. THE BASH SHELL AND BASIC SCRIPTING (let's get some automation into this!)
    • Introduction
    • Features and Capabilities
    • Syntax
    • Constructs
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 17. MORE ON BASH SHELL SCRIPTING (more Bash, more better, right?)
    • Introduction
    • String Manipulation
    • The case Statement
    • Looping Constructs
    • Script Debugging
    • Some Additional Useful Techniques
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 18. PRINTING (not necessary for the competition)
    • Introduction
    • Configuration
    • Printing Operations
    • Manipulating Postscript and PDF Files
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  • 19. LOCAL SECURITY PRINCIPLES (interesting stuff, but not necessary for the competition)
    • Introduction
    • Understanding Linux Security
    • When Are root Privileges Required?
    • sudo, Process Isolation, Limiting Hardware Access and Keeping Systems Current
    • Working with Passwords
    • Securing the Boot Process and Hardware Resources
    • Knowledge Check
    • Summary
  •  20. COURSE COMPLETION - You're Done!!! Congratulations, great job...