Remote unix Learning Environment (RULE)

Teaching Unix - The Conventional Way?

In the past teaching Unix subjects required significant investments in dedicated hardware and software.
As Unix lab machines usually need to be available to a number of students, administrator level privileges cannot be granted to students. Without administrator level privileges, students ability to dig deeply into the inner workings of Unix, and the services it often supports are severely limited.

`Hands on' experience is a vital part of gaining an in depth understanding of not only basic Unix commands and shell scripts, but the configuration of a number of servers that commonly run under Unix.

Even if students are allowed free reign of their Unix workstations, then arises the difficult task of ensuring that irresponsible behavior of students would not adversely affect the performance of the rest of the campus LAN.

Configuring firewall and traffic flow rules for a number of machines is something that needs to be done by a network administrator. Consistent changes to these rules is a time-consuming task, especially if the Unix lab is shared between those who have administrator privileges and those that do not.

Why Teach Unix?

Teaching Unix with RULE