The Robot Operating System (ROS) runs best in Ubuntu Linux. Since most students aren't running Linux on their personal computers, we provide instructions below for setting up a virtual machine that will let you run emulate running Linux on your computer.
Virtualization can get complicated. There are many options for VM technology and graphical front ends. Some work better than others in certain scenarios, and your host operating system places some constraints on which ones you can use. For each type of machine listed below, we've provided multiple VM options. You should pick one to use for software training.
We've marked the solution we recommend for each scenario. These are the options that we feel are most reliable and easiest for us to help you with should you have any problems.