What OS for VM practice machine?

[opethdisciple]

I'm planning on setting up a pc at home for study purposes.

I'm going to be working towards studying for the LPIC (Linux) and Cisco CCNA certifications.

I know the hardware I want (AMD 8320, 16Gb Ram etc) it's going to be a cheap and cheerful build for running VM's.

However what O.S to use? I was thinking Ubuntu for Linux familiarity as well as cheap.

However for things like running Transcender training programs and practice exams, I don't think Transcender is Linux compatible, so it looks like Win 10...

Any thoughts?

 

[opethdisciple]

Thanks that makes sense. I was Googling around to see how you install GNS3 for the Cisco on Ubuntu but it seemed fairly involved. Will it be easier in Centos as you suggested above?

Still small problem of a few things like Transcender only working in windows.


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Edit.

If I was to install Centos now and study my Linux, if later on down the line I wanted to dual boot, can I install win 10 and dual boot both centos and win 10?

Edit 2

Is it necessary to install MATE? Whats the advantage of installing this over the standard Centos desktop environment?

 

[opethdisciple]

I read online that the right way round is to install windows first then linux, however is it possible to install linux first then windows and still be able to boot in to the linux partition?