Linux Basics. It could boring learning the basics of linux as we pore through the command sets, but is important to play around the commands to get use to it. Once we have some hands on and familiar how linux works (for e.g linux is all about plain text files that work together with scripts, daemons, etc), it becomes a useful skill when advancing to more advanced linux configuration. For a start, i would think basic linux training should at least include the following topics:
1. An appreciation topic to tell us why, how and where linux comes from and the need for Open Source OS, services, etc.
2. Some basic commands (or else u be staring at a prompt, not knowing what to do next!): - How to Log into the system, changing users and editing text files. - How to use built-in and online documentation to enhance your experience (those man pages and help files things) - how to browse the filesystem (especially important if u are too use to the GUI in windows)
3. Users, Groups and Permissions: This is important because it is different from dos/windows files. But linux file structure is flexible (e.g setting different kinds of permissions on a file) and stream-lined. Also to note are Advanced Topics in Users, Groups and Permissions (setUID, SetGID, etc). On top of this, learn a bit about partitions, inodes, linking and archiving tools.
4. Scripting. And this include knowing the bash shell, standard input/output aka I/O and pipes (which looks like this ), Text Processing Tools such as grep, cut, sed, sort, diff, patch, find, etc.
5. Know a bit about Vi editor (cos even if u like to use nano, u need to know how to navigate your way when using things like visudo which uses only the vi editor).
6. Linux processes, the cron schedular, etc. I like cron because it automate things nicely. on top of this, it is good to know how to setup networking, web browsing, email client, printing and date & time (use ntp). 7
. Basic System Administration Tools such as how to install linux, its packages, set up simple firewall using netfilter iptables and also how to secure your core using SELinux.
