Getting Started

Key Components

In order to take part in the interactive exercises that are part of the Unix 101 presentation, you will need to ensure your computer is able to connect to our Unix servers. If you have never done this before, or aren't sure how, please refer to the instructions below for the operating system that corresponds to your computer.

Windows: PuTTY

Go to https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html which is a safe website, despite looking a little ancient.

We want to select the first 64-bit .msi file, as shown below:

MacOS: Terminal

MacOS devices come with a Terminal application that is built into your operating system. Terminal makes it very simple to connect to remote Data Science servers. If you do not have a Data Science Unix account, you may use Terminal with some locally saved files and folders, but I urge you to exercise caution if you are messing around with anything you care for.

To open a Terminal window, assuming it is not on your Mac's dock, refer to the steps below:

Non-DS Windows: WSL2

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) is an official Microsoft package that allows you to have an Ubuntu (GNU/Linux) shell right inside your Windows OS. If you have any difficulties installing this, please ask in the chat or raise a hand, or if you are encountering issues prior to the actual training then reach out to brian@ds.dfci.harvard.edu and I will do my best to assist.

Click here for the official Microsoft article with instructions on downloading and installing WSL2.

Note that this training was developed primarily for our Data Science computing account holders, so I apologize if the material is not a perfect analog to your own local machine's setup.

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