This lesson will focus on setting up a lab environment that will allow you to complete the lessons in this course. I will be downloading and installing the Ubuntu 16.04 server operating system. I recommend that you follow along with this series by either having a physical computer or by using a virtual platform to install it on your PC. I will be using a software application called Virtualbox so that I can run it straight from my PC. Both Virtualbox and Ubuntu are free, trusted, and open source software.

The Ubuntu Operating System

Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distribution. There is a desktop (with GUI) version as well as a server (command line) version of the operating system. I will be using the server version for this course, as this is most common in the enterprise.

You will need to download the operating system from the Ubuntu web site, https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server. If you plan to install the operating system to a physical computer then you will need to burn the ISO to a disk. If you are using it in a virtual machine then all you will need is the downloaded file.

Virtualbox Virtual Machine

For this course I will be using the virtual machine software Virtualbox to set up and run the operating system on-top of my current computer, rather than installing it on an dedicated server, this makes a great option for students at home or in a lab. The software can be downloaded from the web site https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.