Here is the outline. You may make amendments if you want.

Linux for Newbies

  • History of Linux
  • Concept of free software, open source and GPL
  • Installing RedHat Linux 5.x / CentOS 5.x / Fedora 8+
  • Configuring the system for dual booting with other operating systems (eg. wintendo)
  • Understanding kernel and kernel versions
  • Understanding different Linux distributions and distribution specific version numbers
  • How and where to look for help (Websites, Howtos, Mailing lists, Discussion Forums)
  • Starting up and shutting down the system
  • Working in command line interface and basic commands
  • Using KDE and GNOME file managers for file management operations.
  • The X window system (KDE and GNOME window managers)
  • Using KDE desktop (including KDE control panel)
  • Understanding devices : Floppies, cdrom and hard disks (formatting, mounting, etc)
  • Configuring (mounting) Harddisks on other IDE / SATA channels for data copying
  • Partitioning and formatting Harddisks
  • Creating and managing users (a general overview)
  • Working with files (creating and changing files,etc)
  • Files and directory permissions (viewing and setting)
  • Working with system information (GUI bases, and commands like lspci, etc)
  • Configuring printer and printing files (CUPS)
  • Configuring and using scanners (Xsane)
  • Working with various text editors in command mode (vi, pico and emacs)
  • File compression utilities (tar, gzip, bzip2, compress)
  • Installing , removing and updating packages with RPM
  • Installing software from source code tarballs (tar.gz)
  • Using OpenOffice
  • Games on Linux, configuring Sound and Video cards on Linux
  • Using Internet (modem configuration & Internet account setup)
  • Configuration of ethernet cards
  • Configuration of Wireless Cards
  • Email clients (KMAIL / Thunderbird/ Evolution)
  • Configuration of POP+IMAP+SMTP accounts in e-Mail client software
  • Configuring Hotmail email accounts on Linux
  • Chat on IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Skype
  • Listening to music CDs (MP3 etc, XMMS)
  • Viewing video CDs (MPG, AVI, MOV, etc) (Mplayer, Xine, VLC Player)
  • Writing / burning CDs with CD-writer K3b and Xcdroast (configuration, etc)
  • Creating and using boot-disks (obsolete ?)
  • Brief introduction to web publishing tools (Quanta, Velocity, etc)
  • Implementing firewalls at user level
  • Using secure copy for transferring files between Linux computers
  • Connecting from a Linux pc to a windows PC to access shared files
  • Recovering system and boot-problems using rescue CD and single user-mode
  • Configuring Samba service.
  • Connecting from a windows PC to a Linux PC to access files shared through Samba

Linux for System Administrators

  • Linux advance commands (including regular expressions, and related tools (sed, awk, perl)
  • Using telnet, secure shell and scp
  • RSH, Rlogin, RExec
  • SSH keys, Key based authentication, Password less logons, etc
  • Understanding File System Layout (ext3)
  • Locating and editing configuration files and scripts (/etc/init.d/*, /etc/rc.local)
  • Networking basics (TCP/IP). Configuring network interfaces.
  • Administrating user accounts and groups.
  • System initialization scripts and run-levels
  • Configuring selected services to run on system boot (chkconfig)
  • Setting up servers / services: BIND (DNS), NFS, NIS, SAMBA, Sendmail, Postfix, Apache, Squid
  • Monitoring and administrating log files (logrotate, cron)
  • Monitoring system resources, using SNMP and MRTG
  • System security, restricting access to network services
  • Configuring / implementing firewalls
  • Configuring IP Masquerading
  • Making and using boot disks
  • Enabling support for NTFS partitions
  • Working in rescue and single user mode / securing single user mode
  • Configuring, building and installing a custom kernel (kernel recompilation)

I hope it to be helpful for all.

Regards, Kamran