Help working through Biostar's Handbook with Windows 7?

Question

[juliuspasion1994]

I bought the Biostar's Handbook and have been reading it, but I cannot work on many problems because the book is written for Windows 10 and I have Windows 7. I have tried to upgrade it but I keep running into errors that prevent the installation. While I resolve those problems, what software can I use that will replicate the work environment the book requires, so that I can work through the Handbook problems? Thanks!

[Titus]

Hi , I recommand you to practise bio-informatics on Linux for different reason , first one because there is some software that are only available on Linux (because most of us work on Linux). To my opinion you will got a better handle on you work on Linux, better understand of what you are doing, handle parameter requirement etc.. At the end i can understand you are familiar to windows and you don't to change your habits but it will make you bio-informatics staff easier :) You can simply test linux without installing it in temporary environment using virtual machine (VM) or on booting on it and make a test.

Best

[juliuspasion1994]

Thank you Titus, I installed VirtualBox and am using Linux Mint now!

[Titus]

You welcome :) At the end I don't know whats your future plan but if you want to do some big job in bio-informatics you should install linux directly. But for the moment enjoy your bio-informatics exploration :)

[GenoMax]

You can get Virtualbox for windows.

Answer 1

[Bioaln]

Hello.

While not exactly acquainted with the manual, I assume you will need some virtual linux -based environment?

If that is the case, Cygwin is one option, yet you can always install e.g. Oracle Virtualbox with an operating system of your choice. You might not even need to upgrade in that case.

Answer 2

[gandrescabrera]

Im using Fedora, its pretty simple and Windows-user-friendly.

I recommend you some of its distribution, the GUI is easy, the commands arent so hard, and installations are pretty simple aswell.

The reasons were given by Titus.

Cheers.