Installing Linux
If you do not already have Linux installed anywhere, there are a number of ways to run Linux without dedicating a computer to it. One way is to install Linux on a portable drive (USB or external hard drive) and boot a computer from that. Or, if you have a computer capable of running virtual machines (most modern systems since ~2008), then another great option is to install Linux in a virtual machine (VM). This way you do not have to leave your native operating system, or have a separate computer, to do the compiling.
There are a number of great tutorials on the ‘net about setting up and configuring Linux. In fact it can be overwhelming how much information is out there and how many different versions of Linux are available. It doesn’t matter which version of Linux you use, as long as it has the “gcc” development package included (most do). For simplicity, we will focus on installing Ubuntu Linux with the Gnome desktop environment (although all the compiling steps are done from a terminal/command line anyway). Here are some good resources to get you started:
- Installing Ubuntu on a USB drive using Windows (or alternative method)
- Installing Ubuntu on a USB drive using OSX
- PenboxLinux Universtal USB installer (Windows only)
- Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox for Windows (virtual machine install)
- Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox for OSX
- Pre-made Ubuntu VirtualBox images
- VirtualBox Web site