I highly recommend that you look into vagrant https://www.vagrantup.com/ Last time I helped run a class that needed standardized components, vagrant was the easiest choice. It's very uniform (everyone has the 'vagrant' user by default), automatically sets up sharing of directories, and allows for bring-up/tear-down/sshing in using very simple commands. You'll be able to post simple instructions that everyone will be able to follow.
I recommend sticking with an Ubuntu distribution. Anything else will be much harder to support. Of course, a more ideal setting is to have everyone use the University's standard unix accounts, as those will be even more standardized. But this is a close second. -Yotam On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 11:02 AM, Thranur Andul <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for the advice. > > To clarify what I'm looking for: I'm trying to make Linux usage as > transparent as possible, exactly to avoid requiring much unix literacy, > hence why I mentioned disk space usage. It's not so much an issue in > itself, but if I wanted to distribute a static VM image with everything > already installed, its size might become an issue. > > For instance, Eclipse, which used to be a quite large application, has a > download size of 270 MB. It does not include the JVM, but after > decompressing I'd estimate it (Eclipse + JVM) at about 1 GB. > > I don't know the exact size of Xcode, but some websites estimate it at 2-4 > GB. > > Visual Studio is probably the largest one, at about 6 GB. > > Certainly, installing a Linux via a VM includes much more than an IDE + > compiler + runtime, but if it requires 7GB, it's still a hard pill to > swallow. > > This brings me to another point: disk usage anxiety. Even with dynamic > disk images, I'm afraid to give them a large size, so I end up worrying > that it will run out of space. And the kinds of errors that happen in such > situations are much less obvious to understand, especially for linux > newbies. Should I just lose my fear and allow my disk images to dynamically > grow to be as large as they want to be? > > For those reasons, I asked about a minimalistic Linux with the lightest > possible UI, to save on disk space as much as possible. It's not so much > about CPU, which for the intended purposes should be mostly fine. > > Finally, on the issue of transparency, another major difficulty I have > when using a Linux VM is that the file systems are separate, so even if I > tell the students to "just download that file and open it on your > <Linux/OCaml-based application>", they'll either: > > a) Download it using Windows, then not be able to find the file using the > Linux application (or have to move it to a shared folder, which they often > forget); > b) Be forced to use a browser inside Linux, which requires more disk > space, setting up the browser, etc. > > I never found it very easy to configure Samba shares on Linux or to set up > the filesystem in a way that maximum sharing could be achieved with minimal > user intervention, especially without knowing in advance some parameters > such as host/username, etc. Which would make it even more complicated to > set up in advance in a static VM image for that purpose. > > Is there a better solution concerning transparency between Windows and > Linux for OCaml usage purposes? E.g. using a Merlin-configured Emacs from > Linux that could open a file downloaded via Windows and then compile an > OCaml application that could easily read the files in a Windows directory > to perform some action on them? It sounds almost like Cygwin, but that's > another can of worms... > > Any partial solutions or tips you can give me about each of these issues > is already greatly useful to me. I usually end up finding some solutions > myself, but it takes a lot of time searching and trying, and if someone had > already done exactly the same thing before, well, I'd be glad to learn from > them! > > Best regards, > > On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 3:27 PM, Mr. Herr <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Caveat: this is a general answer, my point of view, and not done with >> OCaml >> >> It certainly is technically feasible, depending on your desktop hardware >> even easy to do. >> >> You need a VM software. I had good experiences with Virtualbox. With MS >> solutions you must find the right product for your Win version >> (Virtual PC or Hyperv ) - I don't think it will beat Virtualbox in your >> scenario. >> > >> Disk space: starting from 3G for the OS and ~4G for the opam directory, >> this all depends directly on what you install. >> You need quite some compilers, make and tools, and devel packages. Do a >> pilot install, of course. >> > >> Linux distro: any current distribution will do. Performance will not be >> much of an issue unless you have very weak desktops. I am using virtualbox >> on my old notebook. But some ocaml package compile times are quite long >> even on beefy machines (coq comes to mind). >> >> As for the desktop environment: lighter is better, but not an issue >> either, even on KDE you can turn off effects and background tasks to speed >> it up. >> Take what you and your students know. >> >> skipping "... usual software ... coq ..." - is it an ocaml introduction ? >> :-) >> >> But: >> >> There is a big risk of wasting time with subjects not in the centre of >> your course, especially Linux setup and use. >> >> This depends directly on the "unix/linux literacy" of your students. >> >> >> /Str. >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > wg-windows mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/wg-windows > >
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