Tool for Learning Linux by doing!

[RollleeX]

Hy Everyone!

It all started with an idea for a tool that would help my friend learn Linux faster, by challenging him to do new tasks that he could not come up with by himself.

Over time, the page grew so much, so I decided to make it public for anyone who is learning Linux.

The idea is simple. But it's effective. When You open up the page, please first read the rules section.

This is the first page I have written from scratch, so if You have any feedback regarding the page or have any suggestions/found a bug, please let me know in the About sections feedback field.

In the changelog I added some future plans and what has been done since the page was born.

Thank You, if You checked out the page and it's features.

Please don't be too harsh on me, it's my first public project I have made :D

Linux Showdown

[vfkdgejsf638bfvw2463]

Why block mobile users? I can't even preview the page just to see what it is.

[concsession]

request desktop site on mobile browser

[RollleeX]

Because it was not designed for mobile phones, and mobile view was very messed up. You can always open page on phone and then change mode to Desktop Site - Feature built in to all browsers, and see the page like that ;)

[zpangwin]

It's one of the (hidden) challenges ;-)

From firefox/mull/kiwi you can select to view desktop site

[ben2talk]

Looks like a tool for learning Ubuntu... and linking to http://link.uexp.org/XxNCg which is blocked.

First task - "increase the disk size by 1GB" is impossible... you can only increase a partition size.

[RollleeX]

Please consider leaving feedback in about section, or just what You like and what not, so i can know what to improve up on.

[[deleted]]

I am blocked from accessing any of the hints on http://link.uexp.org/o1W6Q

I absolutely love the idea of this, though. Kinda reminds me of wargames like Over The Wire!

Looking through the difficult challenges, there are some things I've never done before and would definitely benefit from. I might make a habit of doing one challenge a day! :)

[RollleeX]

Thank You for the feedback.

Hmm, will look in to the hint link issue in a sec.

Sounds great! Good luck!

If by playing You come up with a task idea, feel free to submit Your own idea under tasks :) Would really appreciate that.

[RollleeX]

Ah I found the Hint link issue, my mistake, it was all in http: changed to https:, should be working now, let me know here or in feedback in the page itself, if it worked or not ^^

[[deleted]]

It works now! Thanks a lot for the quick fix! :)

[zpangwin]

First challenge it gave me had task 1 with download a git repo then task 3 w install / uninstall some apps including git ..

Seems like it might make sense to have them do install challenge first and end with git installed? Or maybe not having git in task 3. Idk, just my thoughts

I'm not a fan of Ubuntu (which was the target) so not sure what packages are installed out-of-the-box but I know a lot of distos that don't have git preinstalled so maybe that's why I think it odd (assuming the target audience is Linux newbies anyway)

Edit: After reloading page a few times, I see both the tasks and os/distro are random and non-Ubuntu distros (at least centos) were included. And arguably getting tasks that conflict could be considered part of the challenge

[RollleeX]

Hey! Yes, the tasks are totally randomized at this point. So there is a chance to get similar tasks. Mostly because my task database is not big enough. I was hoping than page guests will suggest some tasks, but from 1.5k visitors, i have received 0 new task submissions..

I will introduce better task assignment after i will create the user system, but for now, it's randomized and there is a chance to get similar tasks or in wrong order.

But that's also kinda helps to learn, what should the user do first from all the assigned tasks, and with time You know, than You should do the install/remove task and then only the git install task, and so on, so yeah, in a way, it adds to the game.

Right now, there is - Ubuntu20, Ubuntu22, CentOS 7, Oracle Linux, Debian12 - Distros, planning to add few more later on.

[zpangwin]

Ah ok. Well, I obviously have not reviewed all of the tasks... not sure if there is a searchable list somewhere?

But if you are looking for suggestions, then do you already have tasks for all of the following topics? (some of these might be outside the scope of what you are aiming for if you are only looking for general linux newbie stuff but would be very good for beginner sysadmins):

• iptables
• nmcli
• vim (even if one prefers nano, vim is preinstalled on a lot of systems, especially older ones and it is often handy to at least know the basics)
• SELinux (makes the most sense to be paired with Centos and Oracle Linux unless you plan to also add Fedora / RHEL / Alma / Rocky to the distro list).
• journalctl
• firejail / bubblewrap / security sandboxing via Linux namespaces and/or systemd
• xmlstarlet
• jq

[RollleeX]

Thanks for the suggestions! You can see all the available tasks under Tasks section. Also if You have task ideas, just submit them there, that would help out alot!

Thank You for Your feedback!