Or it may not be
too much. My whole university year was required to use some
unix variant starting with the first semester, where we learned C (so add
memory management and pointers arithmetic to things to learn, and I didn't
even start with mathematics we were taught at the same time; computer usage
was not the only totally new subject for us).
Of course I agree that it's not an insignificant load. Learning how to write
programs at all is difficult enough, and what I propose is just adding
learning new environment on top of it. On the other hand, a shell server with
compilers and editors already installed may be a good start. This way students
get stable environment which already works, so they can focus on learning how
to use it instead of struggling with administering it.
