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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Unix Workbench by Johns Hopkins University

4.7
stars
1,320 ratings

About the Course

Unix forms a foundation that is often very helpful for accomplishing other goals you might have for you and your computer, whether that goal is running a business, writing a book, curing disease, or creating the next great app. The means to these goals are sometimes carried out by writing software. Software can’t be mined out of the ground, nor can software seeds be planted in spring to harvest by autumn. Software isn’t produced in factories on an assembly line. Software is a hand-made, often bespoke good. If a software developer is an artisan, then Unix is their workbench. Unix provides an essential and simple set of tools in a distraction-free environment. Even if you’re not a software developer learning Unix can open you up to new methods of thinking and novel ways to scale your ideas. This course is intended for folks who are new to programming and new to Unix-like operating systems like macOS and Linux distributions like Ubuntu. Most of the technologies discussed in this course will be accessed via a command line interface. Command line interfaces can seem alien at first, so this course attempts to draw parallels between using the command line and actions that you would normally take while using your mouse and keyboard. You’ll also learn how to write little pieces of software in a programming language called Bash, which allows you to connect together the tools we’ll discuss. My hope is that by the end of this course you be able to use different Unix tools as if they’re interconnecting Lego bricks....

Top reviews

SM

May 24, 2022

This course is extremly helpful and well designed for beginnner and working professionals with neat info. I strongly recomended this course. Thanks for mentors/authors with real time example commands.

RW

Apr 29, 2020

This is a very friendly step-by-step guide to Unix for beginners, it helps to build a solid foundation, and the exercises are designed to explore more about what has been introduced in the course.

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376 - 397 of 397 Reviews for The Unix Workbench

By Pradyumna K R

Jul 16, 2018

It contains only reading.

By Rohit J

Apr 2, 2019

good add more content

By GOLI H K

Apr 8, 2020

goog course

By anass b

Nov 26, 2018

Excellent.

By Swaraj S N 1

Jun 3, 2020

good one

By Pratima S

Aug 19, 2019

like

By Ugo N

Aug 13, 2017

This course is very boring. But teaches you how to use Bash Shell.

I'm very disappointed and sad at this moment actually, because I want to move on to do other courses but this course is standing in the way of my progress. I just can't seem to get over the last few lectures of week 3. The form of teaching is not enjoyable enough to come back to the material, although what you learn is actually viable.

I have to stomach it and get through this course as quickly as possible, cause the mere thought of coming to it bothers my brain.

Overall, do it if you need to.

By Amy M

Jul 4, 2022

Enjoyed up until week 3, when the difficulty increased massively and it felt like we had no longer been given all the information we needed to complete the exercises. The practical exercises are useful to reinforce the messages from the learning, however we are not provided with solutions or hints to the exercises, which makes it extremely frustrating when you are unable to find the solution on your own. As a result I gave up after having a lot of trouble completing the week 3 exercises - a shame, since the course was very enjoyable up until then.

By Bart M

Apr 13, 2020

This course is completely based on the book. There are very few instructional videos, most of the course consists of reading material. I learned a lot, but just wish there were more instructional videos and less reading material.

By Richard C

Jun 16, 2022

It's not really a course...It's basically just the textbook presented to you bit by bit with some quiz questions. There are no videos. I didn't find it nearly as useful as I thought that I would.

By Anthony A

Mar 25, 2019

You need videos, not enough and all reading here, although it was the easiest course I've even started and completed. Took less than 1 day to complete and pass.

By Jessie

Feb 21, 2020

Good if you've never worked with Linux/Unix before, very elementary. Some of the questions on one of the quizzes require wrong answers.

By Ahmed M A M M

Jan 14, 2019

The studying material demonstration is not fit for everyone and I see that it needs more explaining video from an instructor.

By Ivan T

Jun 28, 2020

Pretty average. Would advise to pursue a Linux Foundation course. Or use linuxzoo.net

By Thomas L

Jan 27, 2019

It's helpful if you want to know a thing or two about Bash.

By 李锐

Aug 13, 2017

内容还行,就跟自己看书一样。作为一个中国人,还是有很多不方便的地方。

总的来说还可以吧

By Christopher G

Nov 9, 2020

Instructions for setting up the Unix environment on my Windows laptop were limited and didn't convey the challenges in setting it up. Commands don't always work as advertised, e.g., "make". I'm guessing that's a result of running Ubuntu in Windows 10 but I can't tell. I identified a potential solution but "sudo" won't accept my password so I wasn't able to attempt it. It's just been one annoyance after another. I imagine there are solutions for problems I've encountered but when basic operations don't work right it kills my enthusiasm for continuing with the course. I'm done with it.

By Stefan M

Jun 28, 2020

Very basic. The git topic felt like not belonging to the course. The video were purely recorded.

By Milad V

Mar 2, 2019

in my opinion some concepts is not described very well...

By aakriti k

Dec 17, 2020

For the contents I will give 5.It was more of reading and less of talking. It would have been better if it was explained with example video to make the understanding more clear.Sadly, the policy in this course of reviewing by other members is somewhat stagnant and not pleasant and this is a thing which I hate about this course, you complete from your end but it will show In progress that means there is no difference between people who passed the tests and people who don't.

By Jason J

Dec 15, 2020

When you get to week 2 and there are questions about 2 text files that you are just magically supposed to have, even though no links have ever been provided, and you search the forums and see students asking where they are in 2017, and still there are no links in 2020, you realize this is an abandoned course and is not worth your time or mine.

By Essam A H

Dec 15, 2023

Being a text only course is very boring