Beyond the Basics - BeagleBone - page 262

Discussion
Most of the projects in this topic run on the Bone using JavaScript and the BoneScript API,
and which OS is running on the host doesn't matter, as long as it has a browser (either
Google Chrome or Firefox work). In fact, if you attach an HDMI monitor, keyboard, and
mouse ( Recipe 5.1 ), you don't need a host computer at all.
NOTE
Other versions of Ubuntu should work. Even other Linux distributions should work; this topic
has been tested only on Ubuntu 14.04 . Because OS X is built on Unix, the projects should also
work on a Mac.
If you are running Microsoft Windows , many recipes will work via the browser (but maybe
not Internet Explorer ). But if you are doing development work, you will need to run Linux.
One option is to set up your Windows-based computer to dual boot . When you power up,
you'll need to choose either Ubuntu or Windows to boot up.
Another option is to run Ubuntu in a virtual machine (such as VirtualBox [ ht-
tps://www.virtualbox.org/ ] ) on your Windows computer. In this configuration, you are run-
ning Windows, but Ubuntu runs in an application within Windows. You have access to
Windows even while running Ubuntu.
Yet another option is to use one of the many free cloud services, such as Azure or EC2 .
These are both quick and easy ways to get access to Ubuntu 14.04 without installing it on a
local computer.
I've provided tutorials online that show how to set up Azure and EC2 .