Git bash additional setup option

[sstevens2]

We've found that the gitbash installer has a new option about if you'd like to use the bundled openSSH or an externally install version of openSSH. Think we probably would recommend bundled as I'm not sure what version of openSSH windows users might otherwise have installed.

[kerchner]

Since this workshop only really needs ssh and scp and does not involve the use of Git, we're skipping Git Bash with its many installation questions, and recommending these options for Windows users:

• cmd prompt - the Windows command prompt should offer ssh and scp in most cases
• Set up the Ubuntu Subsystem for Windows. This option is only available for Windows 10 - detailed instructions are available here - but more and more Windows users are on Windows 10
• MobaXterm is preferred by many over Putty.

[sstevens2]

I recommend doing some testing when making this change. Before gitbash was the top option listed and putty was recommended, we dealt with a lot more differences in the lesson between windows and mac/linux. This might not be an issue with mobaxterm though, I've not tested it myself.

While I agree that more and more people have Windows 10. Some testing around Ubuntu for windows might also be good. In my experience turning on WSL2 and the Ubuntu subsystem for windows can be difficult for beginners since it requires changing bios settings to turn on virtualization. This is especially hard to help people through virtually since it requires a restart on the machine they may be calling and screensharing from.

[naupaka]

I think the WSL approach is great because it really standardizes everything and would give learners with Windows laptops a full Linux shell to use going forward for their informatics. For the most part students in the classes I've taught using this approach (undergrad and MS-level) haven't run into too many challenges as long as they are given a link to a good online tutorial. So maybe WSL as a solution with the standard Windows cmd ssh as the fallback in the case where it doesn't work?