If you just want to play around with github projects, I would suggest you download/install VirtualBox[1] and download the Ubuntu Server disk image[2]. You can i

If you just want to play around with github projects, I would suggest you download/install VirtualBox[1] and download the Ubuntu Server disk image[2]. You can install Ubuntu as a virtual machine (VM) in VirtualBox. Then you can SSH from your host machine into the VM, run a web server, clone github projects, or whatever you'd like. It's free and contained. [1] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads [2] http://www.ubuntu.com/server http://www.ubuntu.com/server