Eric Furst 0c6e919bdd Initial commit: computing-setup

A two-module standalone guide for setting up a new machine for
scientific computing work:

- 01-know-your-machine: hardware and OS inspection. Reads the
  physical machine first via macOS/Linux terminals or Windows
  PowerShell; a separate section walks through the WSL VM and
  how its allocations differ from the host hardware.
- 02-git-basics: pull-focused git workflow. Install, configure
  identity, clone a public repo, pull updates. Authentication
  and pushing are deferred to a future collaboration module.

Includes top-level WSL.md (copied from cli-walkthrough) for
Windows users who need the Linux environment.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-05-28 10:09:13 -04:00

1.7 KiB

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Computing Setup

A short, hands-on guide to getting your machine ready for scientific computing work. There are two modules:

Know your machine — identify your OS, CPU, RAM, storage, and GPU, and learn what each does.
Git basics — install git, configure it, and use it to download and update course (or any public) materials.

This repo is designed for students starting a computing course, but should be useful for anyone setting up a new machine or getting acquainted with one they already own.

A follow-on module on git collaboration (authentication, branching, merging, pushing) is planned. For now, this guide is pull-only.

Prerequisites

A terminal — Terminal or iTerm on macOS, any terminal emulator on Linux, or PowerShell on Windows
No prior command line or git experience required

Windows users — no extra setup to start. You can work through most of module 01 using PowerShell alone. You will, however, want the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) before tackling module 02 (git) and the optional WSL section at the end of module 01. See WSL.md when you get there.

How to use this guide

You can read each module right here on the web — no setup needed to start. Each module is self-contained and tells you exactly which commands to run on your own machine.

Once you have completed module 02 (git), you can optionally clone this repository for offline access:

git clone https://lem.che.udel.edu/git/furst/computing-setup.git
cd computing-setup

Each module has its own README.md with a walkthrough and exercises.

License

MIT

Author

Eric M. Furst, University of Delaware