This beginner’s guide shows you how to install Linux and configure the development environment on your Windows PC.

5 min readMay 29, 2021

Requirements

A USB drive with a minimum of 4 GB Capacity
Stable internet connection ( If you are on mobile data then you need a minimum of 3 GB of data )

Caution

During installation, all the data inside your HDD/SSD will be erased so back up all the data in your drive
If you still need Windows10 e.g for Photoshop and other apps which is not available in Linux then you can go for the dual-boot option (windows10 alongside Linux) then follow the video

1. Downloading `Ubuntu` and `rufus`

There are many Linux distribution and Ubuntu is one of them It is stable and has a bigger community than other distribution. Go to Ubuntu’s official website and download ISO and then to make the Ubuntu bootable download Rufus.

click on Rufus 3.14(1.1 MB) to download.

2. Flashing `ISO` to USB Drive

Open you download folder and double click on rufus executable file.
Select ubuntu image and click on start.

3. Installing Ubuntu

Shutdown your PC.
Press the power button and keep pressing boot menu option button (ESC, F2, F12, Delete) check here to check your pc’s boot menu key.
If you can see blue menu with multiple option then select the ubuntu UFEI option to continue.
You will be boot into ubuntu choose install ubuntu.

Select your language.

Check on Normal installation also Install Third party software

Click next then click on install now a prompt will come press continue.

Click on continue on prompt.

Select time zone.

Enter your name, PC name and password.

The installation process will take around 5–10 minutes after that restart your PC, unplug USB drive and you are good to go.

After booted press Alt + Ctrl + T to open terminal.
Executing below command will fetch and update system apps and security patch. It's recommend to check for updates in every week.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

These two commands will remove unnecessary files and save your drive’s space.

sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt autoremove

4. Setup development environment

Brave

Open the terminal and execute following command.

sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main"|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install brave-browser

Chrome

If you prefer chrome then click here and click on download Chrome manually after that save on home directory.
Open the terminal and execute below command.

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

Execute below command.

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpgsudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'rm -f packages.microsoft.gpg
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
sudo apt update
sudo apt install code

Visual Studio Code

1.Execute below command.

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpg sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'  rm -f packages.microsoft.gpg sudo apt install apt-transport-https
sudo apt update sudo apt install code

Postman

Postman is a tool to test our rest API.

2. To install postman client execute command below.

sudo snap install postman

PostgreSQL

Executing below command will install PostgreSQL v12

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list''wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install postgresql-12 -y

Redis

Redis is and in memory data structure store which can be used for session, caching and background jobs.
To install redis execute command below.

sudo apt install redis-server

RBENV

RBENV is used for managing different ruby version.

2. To install RBENV and latest ruby execute command below.

sudo apt install rbenv
rbenv install 2.7.3
rbenv global 2.7.3
ruby -v

Install Node Version Manager by executing command below.

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.38.0/install.sh | bash

2. Install latest long term support nodejs and npm by executing command below.

nvm install --lts

Yarn

curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.listsudo apt update
sudo apt install yarn

1.To check your git version execute below command.

git --version

2. If your git version is above 2 ex. 2.25.1 you are good to go otherwise you can install latest version by executing below command.

sudo apt install git

5. Learning more about Linux

You can learn about Linux at Linux Journey give it a try learning basic commands will make you productive.

6. Troubleshooting

If you got stuck at something most probably there is already solution for your problem at ask ubuntu forum and feel free to ask at slack, mentors are always there to help.