Rev. 12 June 2012
0. If you use Windoze 8, take note of this You might want to look at this. Back up your data before attempting it. I will have the TAs experiment with the process.
1. If you use Windoze 7, do a Wubi Install Go to this link and follow the page's instructions on installation. It's literally just a few clicks and about 30 min until you have ubuntu dual booted on your computer. If you have a fast internet connection at home, do this before coming to school.
This will give you a linux desktop without having to fool around with repartitioning your lappy.
You also have the option of dual-booting. This is somwehat more complex, but there are loads of NCSSMers who have done this before.
Once you do this, visit the linux support page. Go there and get the text editor vi installed and configure your sources.list file. This page has complete instructions. The CS TAs can help you through the process.
3. If you have a Mac or already run Linux You are good to go. If you are running a Mac, put Terminal tool (Applications/Terminal) in your application dock. You will use this a lot and it will give you greater control over your Mac.
We highly recommend installing MacPorts on your Mac. It gives you a repoistory and package manager much like those available for Linux distros.
4. Get Python and Install and Confgure Firefox
Note! We now are using Python 3; this began in Trimester 1 of 2012-13. You can, if you wish, run both Python 2 and Python 3.
You should also edit your environment variables and add the python exectuable to your search path. You can then use Python in its command line guise in a cmd window. Sadly, cmd lacks the muscle of the bash shell, but it's pretty useful.
Complete instructions are here. By the way, you might want to join Stack Overflow. It is extremely useful. You can search it, ask questions, and contribute by answering questions.