Up and Running! - Session 2

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Date: April 15, 2022 Time spent on session: 2 hr 8 min Total time spent learning to code: 3 hr 5 min

Summary

After wanting to pull my hair out a few times I finally have my local environment up and running!

My frustration was more related to picking the hardware I wanted to use rather than setting up my actual environment. As a PC user, with Windows installed, there were three directions I could go….and I tried all three.

The first option was to set up a computer with the ability to dual boot. This would allow me to boot into Linux (the operating system I wanted to use), or boot into Mac or Windows - depending on the computer I would use. Not wanting to carve up my PC’s hard drive into partitions, that meant trying to track down an old computer that wasn’t being used. Remembering that my mom recently got a new computer, I called her up to see if she had kept her old one. She had!

After much frustration with trying to get the computer to dual boot, I decided to say “screw it”, try the second option, and just install Linux on the system…only to find out I was hitting some hard drive issues. This was a ten plus year old machine after all. So back to the drawing board.

While trying to hunt down a computer, another person I had talked to was my neighbor, Patrick, to see if he had an old system I could buy. He didn’t have a laptop or tower, but he did have a Raspberry Pi that he let me take. The Pi would allow me to install Linux and set up my local environment on there. The only problem? I needed an extra monitor.

After chatting with Patrick some more, he reminded me about the college surplus we have in town. The surplus - only being open once per week to the public - meant I would have to wait a couple days to grab an inexpensive monitor.

During those few days of waiting I decided to try the third option: a virtual machine (VM). After installing the VM on my PC, and getting Linux installed on the VM, it was time to play around. Although I had fun testing out Linux, and learning some basic command line functions, I could tell that learning on a VM was going to drive me nuts. There was just enough “jank” I wanted to set up Linux on the Pi.

The day arrived where i could finally get into the surplus store to buy a monitor. While looking for a monitor I noticed they had some decent all-in-one Dell monitors…with the latest version of Linux already installed!

And that’s where I’m at today. A dedicated Linux machine, set up with the latest version of Git and Visual Studio (VS), ready to write some code!

Even through all my frustrations and struggles, I still felt like stumbling around was great practice, and I’m excited to see what other challenges refine my skills while on this journey!

Session Notes:

1. Installation Overview

  • The Installation Plan

    • Installing a supported operating system (OS).

    • Installing Google Chrome web browser.

    • Installing a code editor.

    • Creating an SSH key (a personal “password” that will identify you to GitHub, Heroku, and many other sites you’ll be using).

  • OS Options

    • macOS

    • Linux

    • Windows w/ VM

    • Dual Booting

  • 2. Prerequisites

    • OS Installation - Linux & Linux on VM

      • Step by step guide on setting the OS up. Too long to post here.

  • 3. Text Editors

    • VSCode Installation

  • 4. Command Line Basics

  • 5. Setting Up Git

    • Walked through more guides to sync Git with GitHub