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Set up a Linux practice lab

Every Linux lesson works best when you type the commands yourself. Here are four free or low-cost ways to get a real Linux system to practise on.

Which should I choose?

  • On Windows: start with WSL, and add VirtualBox later for the disk and boot lessons.

  • On a Mac: use UTM.

  • To practise servers and SSH: a small cloud server, or a second virtual machine.

Windows: WSL

The quickest start. Windows Subsystem for Linux runs a real Linux system alongside Windows, with no separate machine to manage.

  1. Open PowerShell as administrator and run: wsl --install
  2. Restart when asked. Ubuntu is installed by default and asks you to create a user name and password.
  3. To see other distributions, run wsl --list --online; to install one, for example wsl --install -d Debian.

Needs Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11. Ideal for the shell, scripting and text tools.

Mac: UTM

UTM is a free app that runs virtual machines on a Mac.

  1. Install UTM from its official site, mac.getutm.app.
  2. On an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later), download an ARM64 (aarch64) installer image, such as Ubuntu Server for ARM or Fedora for aarch64.
  3. Create a new virtual machine in UTM, choose Virtualize, select the image and follow the installer.

Intel Macs can use ordinary x86-64 images instead.

Any Windows or Linux PC: VirtualBox

A free virtual machine program that gives you a full Linux system in a window.

  1. Download VirtualBox from virtualbox.org and install it.
  2. Download an installer image (ISO) from the distribution's own site: ubuntu.com, fedoraproject.org or debian.org.
  3. Create a new machine with about 2 CPU cores, 4 GB of memory and 25 GB of disk, attach the ISO and install.

A full virtual machine behaves most like a real computer, so it suits the lessons on disks, booting, services and firewalls.

A small cloud server

Many hosting providers rent small Linux servers by the hour, and some offer free trial tiers.

  1. Create the smallest server the provider offers, with Ubuntu or Debian.
  2. Connect from your own terminal with ssh, using a key rather than a password.
  3. Delete the server when you finish, so you are not charged for it.

Best for practising SSH, networking and services that other machines can reach.

Stay safe while you practise

Try risky commands (rm -rf, dd, mkfs, fdisk, firewall changes) only inside a virtual machine, never on a computer you depend on. Most virtual machine programs can take a snapshot first, so you can roll back in seconds if something breaks. Keep your own files backed up before you experiment.

Ready? Open the Linux course, keep the command cheat sheet handy, and use the chmod calculator and cron explainer as you go.