Accessing the remote desktop

This past week, as a part of my IRLS 672 class, I've been doing a lot of downloading and installing of the Linux-based Ubuntu software that we will use to build a LAMP server. In addition, as a way to start learning how to interface with Linux, I was assigned a remote desktop on a Linux machine, presumably physically located somewhere on the University of Arizona campus, but it could be anywhere in cyberspace, I suppose. As I've learned, I'm not actually interfacing directly with the operating system, I'm actually working on a program that sits a layer above Linux and allows me to type in commands that get interpreted correctly so that Linux knows what I want it to do. This layer of interface is called a shell and used the command line interface modality and is pretty common in the Unix world.

There were a number of tutorials available to help me learn the commands for the command line interface. There are some online tutorials from Arthur Griffith's "Introduction to Linux," which are quite helpful, but I find that I have to keep backing them up and replaying them to catch what he is saying while I attempt to take notes. I might not need to do this so much for some subject matter, but when the topic is as complicated and detailed as this one, I think the written page may be a more efficient way for me to learn. Everybody has their own best way to learn - some are more oriented to listening, some to seeing, some to touching, etc. So, the resources at http://www.linuxcommand.org/learning_the_shell.php have been somewhat easier resources for me to process.

The other thing that is problematic for me in working with the remote desktop, is that I quickly run out of screen real estate. I'm used to working with big monitors and being able to see long pages of text in many windows at the same time. With the remote desktop, I get a fairly small window and when I'm trying to process information, I find it a bit difficult to navigate with the limited interface - it can be done, but I'm just spoiled from being able to use large monitors, I suppose. It takes me back to the days of the 9-inch screen on my Mac SE!

Pocket Guide to ubuntu

In browsing through the Absolute Beginner Talk section of the Ubuntu forums, I have been exposed to even more of our brave new world as a result of a decision to dig into the wonderful world of LAMP servers.

No wonder everyone expects everything to be free online. In addition to the Ubuntu (a flavor of UNIX) operating system being available just for basically the cost of bandwidth, an ambitious fellow named Keir Thomas has written a nifty pocket guide to the OS, available for free, of course. In glancing through the PDF version, I do see that he has placed it in the copyright realm (the book, not the OS) and has a plug in there to encourage donations or to buy the physical book. It would be interesting to see how many people actually do pay at least something to the author for what was undoubtedly a lot of hard work based on even more hard work and experience. The URL to download the pocket guide is: http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/.

First Post

As part of my IRLS 672 coursework, I am creating this blog to document some of the work that I'll be doing in this class. Essentially, I will be learning to create a web server in the particular format of LAMP, the acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Sounds like fun to me!