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Lori "Lei" Boyd
Lori "Lei" Boyd

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My Minimal Linux Setup 2020

My preferred Os of choice is Linux, and with that, I often spend quite a lot of time setting up my environment. After 'distro' hopping, PopOS is my distro of choice. My bare minimum includes:
. Git
. Node & npm
. Ruby & rails via RVM(version manager for all things ruby)
. SQLite
. Atom text editor

Installations

This installation guide assumes you are using a Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux distro.

before you start it's helpful to update your package information and do any necessary upgrades.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Git

Installing Git is as simple as running the install command and setting up your global user.

apt-get install git

To configure your profile run the following:

$ git config --global user.name "John Doe"
$ git config --global user.email "johndoe@example.com"

Next, you can generate a new SSH key for authentication with this guide.
You can follow this guide to add the new SSH key to your account.

Node & NPM

To keep this setup minimal, I'll be installing the distro-stable versions for Ubuntu. Run

$ sudo apt install nodejs

and

$ sudo apt install npm

.

RVM (Ruby & Rails)

RVM's official installation guide is the best source to use when installing RVM. It even offers a few diffent install options.
After installing GPG keys with this:

gpg --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3 7D2BAF1CF37B13E2069D6956105BD0E739499BDB

You can choose any of the basic installs. I go for the "Poor man's Rails installer"

\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --rails

\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby

This installs the latest stable version of Ruby and Rails.
After everything is finished installing, restart your terminal.

Sqlite

Check to see if you currently have Sqlite installed with $ sqlite3 ---version
If you don't get a version number, install it with $ sudo apt install sqlite3

Text Editor

The default text editors don't usually do it for me so I'll end up installing Atom instead.

Top comments (7)

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jacobgc profile image
Jacob

Not sure how up to date pop's repos are for NodeJS, however I would really recommend using NVM (Node Version Manager) (Looks similar to RVM)

I also used to use atom, however I've been using VSCode now, you got any thoughts on using it?

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insanenaman profile image
Naman Gupta • Edited

I also agree with you. NVM is better than native installation. Doesn't need sudo for global installation. 😪

VS Codium also can be introduced to the list.

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leesmith profile image
Lee Smith 🍻

ASDF has been my savior lately.

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emtes profile image
Enmanuel de la Nuez

Pop!_OS is my distro of choice as well! I use NodeJS and Python a lot and I recommend pyenv for version management and NVM like someone else mentioned.

I also really appreciate Starship, a shell prompt built in Rust. Minimal, stylish, and fast.

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daveparr profile image
Dave Parr • Edited

Just installed starship, looks really neat :)

Also +1 for pyenv.

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daveparr profile image
Dave Parr • Edited

Oh man, I am so into pop os right now. I have it as the only install in my new desktop. I love the UI, I love the auto-tiling, I love the cuda install process, I love the little robots turning up everywhere, I love the keyboard shortcuts.

magnitude from community at a podium shouting pop pop

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endymion1818 profile image
Ben Read • Edited

Pop!_Os is my system of choice too, it’s so smooth especially around workspaces and developer tooling.