Linux Dual Boot with SSD and learning PERL/UNIX scipting

madindehead

madindehead

madindehead

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Hey guys,

I have two things I would like a hand with:

1) Learning PERL/UNIX scripting using either cygwin on Windows or within Linux (which leads to question 2)

2) What's the best way to dual boot a PC with Windows 7 and Linux with Windows on the SSD

For the dual boot, would it harm my SSD? If I was to place my Linux install (either going to use Ubuntu or CentOS) on a different drive, how would I go about dual booting it.

I don't really know a huge amount about either of these 2 things. I have cygwin installed on my PC now, and also installed PERL via the cygwin installer.

Any advice/links to good guides would really help. Thanks guys :)

(If you want to know why I need PERL scripting, it's for my future job applications, I need to know UNIX/PERL scripting)
 
Wubi might be the easiest way to start as you can just uninstall it later. You can install it on to the SSD if you boot the installation CD, it will offer you the chance to resize the drive to fit it on. Installing on a separate drive isn't an issue, though, as the installer should install GRUB to the MBR of the first drive and point to the relevant disks for both operating systems.
 
Cool thanks. I have installed it using Wubi for now. Thought it would be safest until I decide I want it permanently. Even then, the performance is still pretty good.

I absolutely hate the new Unity launcher. Gone back to GNOME already!

Now, about my other question: UNIX/PERL scripting. Does anyone have any good tips/guides to getting used to PERL/UNIX scripting on a Linux system?
 
Last edited:
madindehead said:
No advice on starting to learn PERL?
Click to expand...

Ready your brain for some serious trauma. :)

The O'Reilly book "Learning Perl" is a good starting point, it's how I got the basics down. From there, finding out what I wanted to do and asking the odd question about it, usually resulting in reading CPAN documentation, was how it went. I find it a bit odd, but it's a handy language to know, at least a little.
 
Thanks mate.

Basically, I am an electronic engineering student, looking to enter into a career as a VLSI design engineer. All the job descriptions I have read ask for at least some knowledge of UNIX and/or PERL scripting. My understanding, is that the scripts are used to automate some mindless tasks. They are more used as small throw away scripts. So they will be small scripts used a few times then binned. I just want a basic knowledge of PERL to help me when it comes to looking for jobs :)

As for the Linux distro question:

We use CentOS at uni (I have read it is very similar to RHEL, so good for knowing your way around what is used in industry). Is there any downside to running this against maybe running Ubuntu or Fedora (probably my other choice OS).
 
Well, CentOS follows the RHEL releases (and, in fact, is just RHEL stripped of all the branding); that means (at least, last I checked) that you won't get huge updates that often. Whereas Fedora is a testing ground for software that goes in to RHEL so it's a bit more bleeding edge. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is a Debian derivative and uses DEB rather than RPM for packaging. It's a fairly different system, in a number of ways.

However, they are still Linux, so learning the basics will see you able to use both. You may just have to adapt to the different packaging of one if you move from the other.
 
So, realistically, other than the update frequency and the package format between the two, I won't notice a huge amount of difference.

I will probably go with either Fedora or CentOS then. Thanks for the advice. In terms of installation, I guess they are pretty similar, and can be installed from the Live CD?

If I create a separate partition on my SSD, say 20GB, I can just install to that from the Live CD and it should be ok?
 
CentOS or Debian will tend to run reliably and without falling over on you for a very long time. Fedora and Ubuntu will break in exciting and unpredictable ways, but have newer versions of software. Fedora (or Debian's unstable branch) will teach you more about linux, as they'll break on you. CentOS or Debian stable will teach you less, as they wont break.

if you want to learn perl, and various stuff about linux as a side effect, go for the unstable distributions. If you want to learn perl in an environment which wont lock up, and which wont occasionally stop perfectly good perl code running, go with the stable distributions. Not the testing ones.

That standard piece of opinion out of the way, the previously mentioned text book is a sensible starting point. I've been trying to write programs in sed and awk, on the basis that it'll help with perl later on. I don't know if that's sensible or not, as so far I seem to be able to write everything I want to in a combination of bash and awk. That's proven demotivating, and consequently I haven't tried scripting in perl.

Still, best of luck.

p.s. you don't need anything like 20gb. A headless server I'm using has 500mb of space used for the OS. My badly maintained and full of accumulated crap laptop is using 4.6gb. 4gb partition would be fine, go for 8 or even 10 if you want loads of empty space. 20 is just excessive.
 
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