Intro! and question :)

[space_princess]

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Thanks guys. I found a great solution last night for my very simple need of just practicing basic Perl. I downloaded Strawberry and am first learning basic Perl at the DOS command line, and once I've got a good grasp on Perl, I'll get more advanced, already got Cygwin and will practice from that simulated Linux command line (although one does need to build Perl libraries into Cygwin - Perl doesn't come with it.) When it comes to VMs, (I know this from extensive vm testing in my last job,) a lot of folks think they're running hardware VT-x just because their processor is marketed as having VT-x (or VT-d, which is I/O virtualization.) But unless VT-x is toggled on in your BIOS, the OS is running software emulated virtualization. Most laptops and even a lot of servers are shipping with VT-x toggled off in BIOS by default, for security purposes. Just a note - if VT-x isn't turned on in BIOS, then the VM software is not actually virtualizing the hardware.

But so anyway, I'm psyched! So many employers want Perl now, so my strategy is 1) learn the basics in an easy DOS environment thanks to Strawberry, 2) next move on to Cygwin for a linux environment (or close enough to Linux for my simple purpose,) and then 3) once I feel somewhat proficient in that, I will defintiely download a VM, and thanks for all the tips!! I'll definitely look at Virtualbox, thanks for the tips!!

Elija, see you're a Futurama fan, me too, don't know if you have an android phone but if so, there's a free widget you can download with hourly Futurama quotes, it's super fun!

Cheers everybody, thanks again and I'll probably bug you again with future questions.

[alf55]

How about running a LiveCD/DVD/FlashDrive?

There is a program "unetbootin" (see: UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads) which will put LiveCD//DVD onto a FlashDrive (it will even doload the ISO image if you have not downloaded an ISO image).

[space_princess]

I've used UNetbootin, it's great!! But as I mentioned, don't want a VM for now. Just needed a simple Perl download for windows to practice and learn basic Perl syntax, then later will move on to a vm. Found what I needed. But UNetbootin is really amazing

[MASONTX]

Welcome to the forum princess, or would you prefer space? Glad to have you join our merry band.