Hi! I'm a senior in high school, I've always wanted to learn more about computers, and thought learning linux might be a good idea for a senior project. I don't really know too much, and don't know if this idea is a bit too much for me to handle. I've been fasinated with Linux ever since I read the first pages of "Linux for Dummies"

For the senior project, I would have to write a research paper, and produce a product. I was thinking the product could be some kind of Linux program.

I have no idea if I'm way out of my league here. Suggestions/comments would be very much appreciated.


- Lisa

Hello and welcome to LQ.


I have no idea if I'm way out of my league here.
As long as you really want to, and don't expect major magic to happen overnight, you're certainly free to try. Start by running one or a few distro's and use it for everyday tasks. If that works for you you'll soon find something to improve or add.

If you want to develop simple applications, Linux is the place for you. There's TONS of documentation, and you can look at the code of virtually any program to find out how it works!

What're your interests? Any ideas on what you want to do?

I'd have to say this sounds like a very interesting project. If you know any programming languages like C or Java, you could give your program idea a try.

Another idea, which I think would probably be a little easier, might be to set up a web server system with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), or a variant.

Or use SAMBA to configure a functioning file server, with home directories, shared files and shared printing.

Or configure a IPTables firewall that demonstrates your knowledge of system security.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck! And remember, LQ is an excellent resource!

I think that setting up a LAMP server is a good idea. You then could develop a website for your LAMP server, which you then could show.

This has the substantial advantages of practicality, a very visible result (the website) and not obscenely difficult - even for a noob.

Now, just because you get this up and running doesn't mean you should expose it to the internet; securing such a server properly is a lot more difficult than just getting it running. Getting it up and running would accomplish all your goals, I think, in a fashion that would benefit you greatly going forward. You would wind up learning a fair amount of Linux, as well as learning about the web and a bit about security and programming.

Thank you so much for all your help. How hard is it to learn a programming language?

Have you ever done any programming? The initial learning curve can take a bit, but it's not a problem for some of the simpler languages like python. What kind of project do you want to work on?

To learn to do basic things--maybe 2 hours
To learn the language thoroughly--anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 years. Faster for those under 40.....

If you do something with Linux, I would think that the "product" should be something unique to Linux. Why could the project not simply be setting up a system with multiple users and a security scheme with many different levels of access + some cron scripts to automate daily tasks for the users. Demonstrate the power of Linux in some very practical ways.

Part of the project could be to interview some users as to how they wanted their account set up, and then document their reactions as they try out the new system.

I assume from the thread and your other response that you
have never done *ANY* programming. In that case it may
make sense to change your objective to e.g. produce a
Linux based desktop that's tuned to suite the needs of
students in your class and offers itself for "cloning"
and/or centralised administration. You may find that
it's easier for you to use the unix philosophy and "just"
glue pre-existing pieces of software together to a bigger
whole than trying to learn to program and produce
something original from scratch.



Cheers,
Tink