Getting Started with Reddit open-source, Configuration/Installation

Question

It is always better to learn from other developers experiences. I would like to clone Reddit at my workplace on an intranet basis. Though the documentation is great at http://code.reddit.com/#GettingStarted , I have not developed or used Linux before, so I am not familiar with using the terminal and Linux commands.

What OS should I install (Opensuse, Ubuntu)? Can it be done on Windows?

What is the advantage in using the "Pre-built VM"? (VMware)

What is the difference between fork and clone?

Can anyone point me towards the right direction, in terms on installing the right software and configuring Reddit. I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

Answer 1

You should use Linux, Ubuntu will work fine, and it has good documentation. It probably cannot be done on Windows.

If your new to Linux, read Linux System Administrator Basics.

You will probably have to set up a LAMP server. Here is a good tutorial.

Make sure you do everything listed here too.

Once you have that up, you will need to install git so you can clone the reddit repository. (github is a website where people post code, and git is a command line tool for copying it to your local machine)

you can install git, and other things in Ubuntu with

sudo apt-get install git

Then you would do

git clone http://code.reddit.com/repo/reddit.git

That will put all the code in a folder in whatever directory you were working in, follow whatever instructions you find in the README in that folder.

Should you succeed, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back and a vacation.