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In a pinch, Windows will do, but your best option is probably to find a nice Linux distro and get comfortable with that. It will allow you to follow along with
by div 13y ago
In a pinch, Windows will do, but your best option is probably to find a nice Linux distro and get comfortable with that. It will allow you to follow along with the command line, and when the time comes, it's an easy switch to a Mac.
- prakster 13y agoI see. Just Wikipedia'ed it. Any particular one you can suggest which has easy setup instructions?
- clubhi 13y agoDownload VirtualPC. Download Ubuntu Desktop. These are not actually my personal preferences but a very common setup. I'd imagine most of the screenshots in the Rails tutorial will be command line stuff.
- prakster 13y agoBy VirtualPC, do you mean this site: www.virtualpc.com? (I think not, but I'm a novice).
- BruceIV 13y agoI think they mean Microsoft Virtual PC, but I believe that only supports Windows guest OSes - Oracle VirtualBox is similar software. I have a Xubuntu VM running in VirtualBox on my Windows 8 laptop that I keep around for coding; it's actually a pretty nice setup. I run the VM on my external monitor, and can use the Windows host to do web browsing, play music, etc. while I'm working - I've even made my Dropbox a shared folder with the VM, so the guest OS can use the files but the host OS handles syncing them so there's no edit conflicts.
- prakster 13y agoThanks for the clarification.
- clubhi 13y agocrap I meant virtualbox. I hope you haven't become an expert on virtualpc already.
- BruceIV 13y agoI've actually been playing around a bit with Hyper-V in Windows 8, and you can run Linux guests, but nearly as nicely as VirtualBox does (it's harder to set up, and you don't get shared folders, shared clipboard, or proper full-screen resolution). Also, installing Hyper-V breaks VirtualBox, as it seems to monopolize the hardware features needed for good CPU virtualization.
- prakster 13y agoHi Bruce, thx for suggesting Hyper-V, but I think I will try VirtualBox first. Appreciate your responses.
- prakster 13y agoHaha no; am setting up VirtualBox.
- BruceIV 13y agoLinux Mint, probably - it's got Ubuntu's hardware support and the out-of-the box install has Flash, mp3 codecs, proprietary video drivers, and all the other "non-free" software you generally expect on a consumer desktop. If you're running in a VM, one of the lighter Ubuntu variants might be a good choice as well - check out Lubuntu or Xubuntu. That said, the Linux distro you choose doesn't matter a whole lot, they all tend to be pretty equivalent (well, I'd avoid Gentoo and Arch unless you want to learn a lot more than you'd planned on about building packages from source).
- prakster 13y agoI see. Thanks.